“I’ve met every enemy and it is me.” ~ Ben Franklin
“Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."~ Napoleon Hill
“Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."~ Napoleon Hill
Why Am I an Artist? Good question – right? Finding time to be truly creative is something everybody struggles with. When we’re in business mode, it’s hard to remember why we chose the creative life. Along with marketing plans, portfolio edits, sales, production and the demands of running our business, it’s equally important to make time for creativity.
I’d like to challenge everyone to set a creative goal and take steps towards it.
§ Be prepared for inspiration. See something cool – carry a notebook, or use your cell phone camera to take a reference photo, or store a location in your GPS.
§ Follow your natural rhythms – pay attention to when you’re feeling your most creative, and honor your patterns.
§ Creativity takes time and is best realized in a quiet space. This needs to be a commitment you make and keep with yourself, whether you take 15 minutes everyday or spend 10 hours a week. Set aside the time and book it.
§ Creativity comes in cycles. Like gardens, creativity needs preparing, planting, nurturing, waiting and harvesting – and even a dormant period.
§ Utilize your colleagues to receive and give unconditional constructive feedback.
§ Commit to your self – set a goal and take steps toward it.
§ Set boundaries – it’s where your responsibilities start and end.
§ Work from your strengths. If you spend the majority of your time focused on overcoming a weakness you might improve a little bit – if you spent that same amount of time advancing an area of strength you’d increase that strength ten-fold.
§ Do something that scares the hell out of you – repeat. Push the limits, give yourself a challenge – redefine fear as performance energy and move forward.
§ Quiet your inner critic – stay positive.
§ Get over perfectionism – do good work, but don’t hold onto it until its perfect… by the time it’s perfect there’s a good chance it’s out of date!
§ Play, have fun and let the energy flow. You know your “in the zone” when you lose track of time doing what you love – you’ve found your highest creative expression. When blocked work backwards – start by identifying the end goal, and work from the end of the process and develop each step from there.
I’d like to challenge everyone to set a creative goal and take steps towards it.
§ Be prepared for inspiration. See something cool – carry a notebook, or use your cell phone camera to take a reference photo, or store a location in your GPS.
§ Follow your natural rhythms – pay attention to when you’re feeling your most creative, and honor your patterns.
§ Creativity takes time and is best realized in a quiet space. This needs to be a commitment you make and keep with yourself, whether you take 15 minutes everyday or spend 10 hours a week. Set aside the time and book it.
§ Creativity comes in cycles. Like gardens, creativity needs preparing, planting, nurturing, waiting and harvesting – and even a dormant period.
§ Utilize your colleagues to receive and give unconditional constructive feedback.
§ Commit to your self – set a goal and take steps toward it.
§ Set boundaries – it’s where your responsibilities start and end.
§ Work from your strengths. If you spend the majority of your time focused on overcoming a weakness you might improve a little bit – if you spent that same amount of time advancing an area of strength you’d increase that strength ten-fold.
§ Do something that scares the hell out of you – repeat. Push the limits, give yourself a challenge – redefine fear as performance energy and move forward.
§ Quiet your inner critic – stay positive.
§ Get over perfectionism – do good work, but don’t hold onto it until its perfect… by the time it’s perfect there’s a good chance it’s out of date!
§ Play, have fun and let the energy flow. You know your “in the zone” when you lose track of time doing what you love – you’ve found your highest creative expression. When blocked work backwards – start by identifying the end goal, and work from the end of the process and develop each step from there.
