Measure your progress. And celebrate your milestones.
If we only look at how far we have to go, we forget to celebrate how far we've come.
This is one of the most important ways to encourage yourself to maintain an exercise program. And it's one of the first things we neglect to do with our art and art business.
It's such a simple concept yet so easily overlooked.
It's a good short-term strategy to get you through your workout, of course. There's a huge mental difference between the groan of "I've only done 20 pushups!" vs. "I've only got 20 more to go!"
But it's even more critical for the long haul. "I can only do 25 pushups" is self-defeating. "I could only do four when I started this program, and now I can do 25!" is self-encouraging. Same number of pushups. Totally different mindset.
And guess which one will get you to class tomorrow?
It's the same in your art, and your art biz. "I only have six wholesale accounts!" vs. "I had none a year ago, and now I have six wholesale accounts!" I remember the first few years in business, when I had to save for three months to buy a piece of equipment that cost less than $200. Now that's my monthly heating bill for my studio. I remember visiting the ACC-Baltimore show eight years ago, wondering if I would ever be able to get accepted to an amazing show like that. Now I wonder what all the fuss was about. It's "business as usual".
But is it really?
Looking at our accomplishments is important for several reasons. For one, it encourages us to stay the course. It helps us overcome feelings of discouragement, inadequacy, failure.
But most of all, it encourages us to turn around our whole way of looking at life.
You got rejected from that top-tier show? Well, you're in good company. LOTS of great artists don't get in every year.
And look at you--an artist with great slides and pretty cool work even applying to that show! Did you ever imagine you would ever CONSIDER applying to that show? And think you had a chance of getting in?
Look at you! You have the courage to follow your dream, make stuff with your own two hands, search out your venues, research your market, find a photographer, fill out those applications and get your work out there. Do you know how many people fail once--and never try again? Yes, you do. Because you yourself had to get over that mindset long ago to get where you are today.
Take a few minutes today and make a list. Start with everything you've already accomplished this year. Quite a list, isn't it?
Now go back to last year. What did you accomplish LAST year? I'll bet that's quite a list, too.
Now look back five years. Ten years. Where did you start? How far have you come? Where are you now?
And look how much closer you are to where you want to be in the next five years! Ever so much closer than you were when you first started out.
When I first started out, I didn't even know anyone who made stuff and sold it for a living. I didn't have an idea. I didn't have a photographer, a peer group, a network of friends in the biz. I didn't have any idea how to sell my work, where to sell my work, or even who would buy it. I couldn't see further than my own little town of Keene for a market--though it didn't take me long to figure out there was a big world out there!
I didn't have a catalog, publicity, postcards, a body of work or any customers, let along wholesale accounts.
I DID have a business plan. And every year or so, I pull still it out and look at where I am in it.
It's always an eye-opener. And it always needs updating.
No matter how big I dreamed, I always have to make the plan bigger. No matter how many goals I set for myself, I always have to add more.
Let's make this first beautiful day of May a "Pat Yourself on the Back" Day. (I'm being incredibly positive about the "beautiful" part, by the way. It's coolish and cloudy here today, and supposed to get pretty cold the rest of this week. The bless in THIS mess? Fewer black flies! And the daffodils will last longer...)
And celebrate!
Gosh, I've gotten myself so riled up, maybe I'll make a list today, too.
