goals

Post-show deflation is real.

But you don’t need to have a show end to experience the business blues. Maybe you’re down because you don’t have a show, you aren’t selling, or people aren’t signing up for your workshop.

Time to explore the next thing.

Caught you!

You were looking at your calendar. You’re counting the days until a fresh start. Thanksgiving … Christmas … New Year’s Eve … and, at last, January 1. Or, rather, January 2 because no one works on the first day of the year.

Maybe you’re lamenting the fact that it’s the end of the year and there is much left undone. (Incidentally, the core message in this post applies regardless of the time of year.)

You had big plans last January, right? That’s when you were wearing rose-colored glasses with glitter on them and sipping the New Year’s Kool-Aid.

Now you’d rather think about next year and give up on this one. You are so ready for a fresh start. After all, the holidays are upon us and, if we’re being honest, very little gets done during the holidays what with all the baking, decorating, wrapping, card-writing, shipping, egg-nogging, and Hallmark-movie-watching (no judgment).

Stop This Nonsense

If this is you, stop it. This is unproductive, and it’s no way to run a profitable art business. You can’t make progress or maintain momentum if you’re effectively writing off more than 5 weeks at a stretch.

Five weeks is plenty of time to make an impact. It’s plenty of time to get sh*t done. It’s plenty of time to cross a few things off your list.

Every day is precious.

Every day presents an opportunity that you can either grab with gusto or thumb your nose at.

High achievers don’t write off weeks at a time because they prefer the excitement of a New Year to the hard work of the current one.

Reevaluate Your Priorities

If you find yourself looking forward to the New Year rather than putting your whole heart into finishing this one in style, you have some difficult questions to answer.

Last week I dragged my busy butt down to a mineral springs resort and spa for a getaway with my dear friend, Kelly.

Road trip!

Conveniently, the getaway coincided with a discussion I had with one of my coaches about the need to create more “space” in my life.

Since that time, which hasn’t even been two weeks, I have found space not only in soaking in the springs, but also in embracing silence; seeking questions rather than answers; and saying No.

Kelly and I also found space on the road. The trip down to the springs should be just over 5 hours. We somehow turned that into 7+ hours.

There are people who see the dot on the map and race toward it without stopping for a restroom break. And then there are those who, like me, look for any diversion to learn or to be entertained along the route.

I tend to explore on my road trips. I have been caught:

• Coming across a newspaper from a nearby town and rerouting the return trip because it might be an ideal place to retire. (It wasn’t.)
• Visiting the local cemetery.
• Driving out of the way because I heard on NPR about the “green” rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas ten years after a devastating tornado and I wanted to see it. (It’s pretty cool. I’d go back! And I’d eat again at this Mexican restaurant where they were lovely and one of the few places open on Memorial Day.)
• Veering an hour off the interstate to see a visionary artist’s creation.

Yeah, I could get there faster if I focused on the dot on the map, but where’s the adventure in that? I prefer the stories I can gather along the way – stories that will become part of the fabric of my life forever.

What stories are you gathering?

Your Career Journey

Your career path is marked by exhilarating highs and devastating lows. I wish I had learned earlier the wisdom in riding the waves rather than fighting against them.

When you seek shortcuts, you miss out on opportunities that might lead to bigger rewards.

When you have your eye only on the end goal (the dot on the map), you become blind to all that can enrich your art and life.

I contend that if you aren’t committed to the journey of your career, you surely won’t be satisfied with the destination.

Of course, the journey isn’t all roses and fairy dust. It’s

The New Year brings a time for reflection, but also renewal. There’s a blank slate – a sense that we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to.

These open-ended possibilities are often debilitating.

If it’s possible for us to do anything, why can’t we do everything?

Well, because you can’t. You just can’t.

You don’t have the time, the resources, or the energy to tackle everything you want to accomplish.

That’s why it’s important to prioritize, and this is where goal-setting comes in.

Some people may pooh-pooh goals, but I find that they’re a necessary step to not only getting things done, but also for feeling complete.

When we don’t have a goal and projects to mark off our list, we wander aimlessly and are never quite satisfied.

As you’re planning your year, what do you think is the most important goal you can accomplish in your art business in 2017?