There are many different ways in which people can try to help themselves either start painting at all or paint more than previously. Last time I wrote about the 1 mini/day system that I devised for myself and that helps me immensely in hobbying (my hobby streak is on day 149) - today I decided to write a bit about a method that gave me mixed results and I had to rethink my approach to suit me better.
What is a painting goal? In short it's a set of miniatures that we "pledge" to paint before buying a certain another set. The idea behind this is that from what I'va seen many miniature hobbyists tend to amass hoards of plastic/resin/metal. Especially if there are absolutely no restrictions imposed on spending. Thus, setting a goal of painting specific miniatures before buying specific miniatures can curb those spending habits. It is also important to make the "I'll paint this" part of the "deal" larger than the "I can buy this" part. This way, even though we ultimately paint to get more stuff in our collection, we are "net ahead", as after painting our pledge and buying the new stuff our pile of unpainted miniatures is still smaller than it was before setting the goal.
It seems really easy, doesn't it? The core of it is as simple as it gets, but it's the minute details that gave me mixed results. First of all, it doesn't take fomo boxes into account. Unfortunately Games Workshop caught me in some of their games - I own all the seasonal boxes for Kill Team and I have also bought many of starter boxes and two of those Army Sets (Krieg and the goblins on wolves one). This is a thing that I decided to not put into painting goals as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to accomplish any of those. Also, if I "need" something for a game (as was the case with the Sha'Dar Hunters for my Nomads) I will just get it. If you look through my monthly summary for the year you'll see that I obtained only fomo boxes, gifts (it basically took three months for all the stuff I ordered for Christmas to arrive) and that solitary Sha'Dar box. So I think it is important to not get into a mindset that every new purchase must be backed by a painting goal. I think that it should compliment what we actually want to paint and if the pull of the new purchase is too strong, just get that new shiny box.
I tried to set goals for everything and it ended up as a disaster. The only goal I actually acomplished was the one set in 2023 - I promised myself that I will get the night goblin Underworlds box after painting 40 goblins. It shows what I mean by the fact that we should be "net ahead" - I painted 40 models to buy I think 6.
This is why I basically erased most of my list of goals, leaving only a few. I will make a page that lists the goals and their progress starting from now (so the goblin one won't be listed). The page will be divided into two parts: the current goals along with how far along I currently am and the list of accomplished goals (I will probably just leave the goal and reward, without the list of models).
It is also important to note, that accomplishing a goal is an enabler, not an imperative to buy. If your hobby funds are low, just wait till you can afford your unlock!
BTW, One of the goals was reset this year and another one is old and encompasses all the MESGB minis painted since 2023!
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