In this video I’m talking about the thing that quietly wrecks a lot of paint sessions: doomscrolling. You open Instagram or YouTube, you see a thousand perfect paint jobs, and suddenly your own work feels “not good enough.” That constant comparison rewires your expectations of what a hobby is supposed to look like, and it turns simple improvement into pressure. For me, that pressure shows up as perfectionism—envy turning into fear: fear of not measuring up, fear of failing, fear of looking foolish. And that fear is exactly what keeps you from getting better. While I paint an Ultramarine Terminator Captain, I deliberately go against what perfectionism demands. I start out doing super careful layering and realize I’m moving at a glacial pace and not having fun. Then I shift to bolder, more intentional sketching of volumes—confident contrast, readable shapes, purposeful brushstrokes. I also dig into Nietzsche’s idea of envy as a signal (a mirror for your own potential), and Kenny Werner’s “Effortless Mastery” concept of getting out of your own way and into presence. My takeaway: your hobby is for you. It doesn’t have to be productive or perfect, and it definitely doesn’t need to be worthy of an audience. Pick up a brush, use a limited palette, stop doomscrolling, and let yourself play—presence beats polish every time.