struggling with the moral implications of all my decisions

How I’ve struggled with making decisions of what’s next for my art-based business.

One thing you’ll learn really quickly about me is that I’m an overthinker. I can talk myself out of nearly every with just a little thought and justification. Hence why I haven’t made all of the progress I’ve wanted in my business ideas. I’m a pro of talking myself out of anything.

Knowing this about myself has resulted in a lot of progress in catching myself during these times of overthinking. I can override my thought processes to some extent and have gotten pretty good at just posting my designs or art without stressing over their perfection. Which feels good. I hope I can continue to make this progress.

But another thing I’ve been overthinking is all of the work and logistics that go into a product based business. I’m on the precipice of manufacturing products with my designs on them and have struggled with taking the plunge on it. Some of this is due to self worth issues. It’s really easy to ask myself why anyone would ever want to own something with my art on it. But there’s also the struggle of cost and making sure any money I invest comes out worth it in the end. Again, I can overthink my way out of anything.

However there’s also a moral implication of this type of business. One cause that I believe in wholeheartedly is our earth and taking care of it. Eco-friendly initiatives are my favorite. But with that comes a painful awareness of the manufacturing waste that is choking our planet. I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but we’ve created enough clothing to clothe the next few generations. Which is grossly irresponsible. We can’t keep over producing and over consuming like this. It’s not sustainable.

So with all of that in mind, how can I create my own line of manufacturing and contribute to that cycle of waste? It’s an exhausting set of morals to juggle with my dreams of making things. But I’m working through it and always brainstorming ways to be a better steward of our planet while still bringing beautiful things into the world. I have ideas that involve thrifting and recycled materials etc. But I’ve spent a lot of time overthinking these eco-friendly strategies and have nothing to show for it.

Not to mention the recent political upheaval and the painful spotlight on how horrible capitalism is for our society. It’s impossible not to notice all of the ways this system is hurting us. I can’t even see an ad anymore without thinking about the poisonous marketing of it all. If a business can only exist by selling us more and more and more to the point of blatant over-consumption, then I don’t think it’s a worthwhile company. But there’s no ignoring that the point of a product based business is to sell to consumers. So I struggle with the balance of it all.

Plus there’s the tariffs. Oh lord the tariffs. There’s nothing more intimidating than facing down a wave of tariffs when you’re considering all of the ways you can start a product based business. It’s one of the main reasons I’m hesitating. I love American based businesses as much as the next person and I’ll always shop local. But it’s unrealistic to expect all manufacturing to just pop up in our country. So much of it has been outsourced for perfectly valid reasons and tariffs aren’t going to fix that. You also have to support American manufacturing to help bridge that gap. But I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. It’s not hard to see that a 100% plus tariff on the one country we import a TON from is insane. Where will they get their red hats from now??

Anyways. This is something I’m going to continue to struggle with and I wanted to share some of the thought process behind the hesitation. I want so desperately to make beautiful things to put out into the world. But it’s hard to do so when I feel like that one meme with the dog in the room on fire. I’m not feeling so fine, but I’m going to keep sitting in this burning room until I figure out some better solutions.

I’m so grateful for this space to share though. If I’m going to overthink it all, might as well share some of that thought process. It’s nice to not feel so alone and I’m so very grateful you’re here to listen. Life is chaos, but we’ll get through it together and hopefully we’ll all come out the other side as better people. I’m just hoping one day soon I’ll have a shop with products I’m proud of and we’ll be able to look back on when I was indecisive and unsure with fondness of how far we’ve come.

Hope you have a beautiful weekend and it’s not as rainy where you are! But maybe we like the April rain, it’s what brings the May flowers after all 💐