Are you doing exactly what you want to do in your creative career ? Have you attained every goal you ever set as a visual artist, graphic designer, fashion stylist, photographer? Maybe you're like me, I've looked for career solutions for creative people, like myself for a very long time. What I found out is that- the best career solution for me was become a creative entrepreneur.
But becoming a creative entrepreneur isn't easy. See, I had no true direction of how and what I wanted to do. I read and asked questions of other creative people who seem to have it together and they said "Creative People have to be taught, shown, and trained how to become an entrepreneur". Today I am going to share with you what they shared with me about what makes a successful creative entrepreneur.
Image by ihtatho via Flickr
Learning to focus on our creative business goals can help us in many ways. It can help us realize what we really want in life, it can help us make good and informed decisions about the type of business we should start. It can also help us to accept our current situation, without feeling the need to condemn ourselves or put ourselves down in any way, shape or form.
Focus can help us gain confidence, power and happiness. Focus can also help us remain grounded and stay on track. Focus can change confusion into absolute knowledge and self-criticism into a successful creative business.
MAKE TIME
Set aside time to think or take action on the one thing we want or need. It’s not a matter of “taking the time” to focus, but more a matter of “making the time”. If we are willing to make the time, we will focus a lot better on whatever it is we want/need to do.
Many of my friends ask me how do I make time to focus on my artist career, work full-time, own a business and maintain a life? It isn't easy. I had to make a decision to get things done and to make that happen I had to develop a focused plan of action. I get up an extra hour before work or a client meeting to focus on one particular task with absolutely no distractions at all. If you aren't a morning person. Then stay up one hour longer.
Decide when you are going to make time, and stick to it like glue. Don’t let ANYTHING take you away from that time. Make sure you have everything you need all in one place, a room, or even a corner of a room where you can sit in peace. Unplug the phone, and turn off the television.
When you want something you have to decide EXACTLY what it is you want. If you don’t know what you want, there’s no way on earth you’re going to be able to focus on it.
SET GOALS
These are all small things and perfectly attainable with a little bit of focus, but what if you want bigger and better things for your business? Well then, you have to set goals for yourself. Keep setting goals; as soon as you reach the first one, move on to the next, staying focused all the time on what it is you want.
Reaching that first goal will give you an incredible boost of confidence, which in turn will make it so much easier to get started on the next goal. The more goals you reach, the more confidence you will have in yourself and that will fuel the success of the next goal, and the next one after that, until there are endless possibilities for you.
Start off by writing down each and every goal you WANT to reach in your lifetime. Then write a daily plan for the goal you want to reach first. Write the plan before you go to bed at night, it gives your brain time to take it all in and work with it.It’s amazing what the brain will do when we are sleeping. Also, writing the plan the night before helps free up that time during the next day so that you can purely sit and focus on the task at hand.
Make the plan a numbered list and cross each item off as you finish it. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you get through it this way. Once you’ve reached the outcome you want, move on to your next goal following the same pattern as before.
If you find your thoughts wandering in your “focus time” take a break, write down your thoughts and put them away somewhere for future reference. If you find there are multiple things you can do to attain your goals, figure out which of them is the one most likely to help you get there quickest.Put the others on hold, they may come in useful when you’re aiming for that next goal.
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Stick with setting your goals as long as you have to, you WILL succeed. If you stick to one thing, one goal and focus on that, it's virtually impossible to not reap the rewards of your actions.
Show Creative People How to Build Up Their Confidence and Self-Esteem
Confidence in oneself, or the lack thereof is what stops creative people from maintaining a successful creative business. Before I knew the power of confidence, I use to listen to that little voice telling me I couldn’t be an entrepreneur. To overcome this lack of motivation and confidence I had to start a ritual that would boost my confidence and self –esteem. Below is a list of 25 ways I was shown how to to gain confidence in myself. Use all of them or only apply those that are lacking from your life.
22 WAYS TO BOOST CONFIDENCE and SELF-ESTEEM
1. Love Yourself: Creative people we sometimes doubt our creative abilities. Learning to love ourselves and our work might take a bit of practice. When you wake up, say to yourself. I AM A GREAT ... creative entrepreneur, artist, writer, singer dancer or say all that apply. Do the same when it’s time for sleep. You’ve heard this said a million times before: “How can you expect others to, love you if you don't love yourself?” It’s true. Practice the morning and evening statement for 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks if you're the stubborn type. You’ll see how well it works.
2. Look in the mirror: Every time you pass a mirror, look into it and flash your biggest and best smile at yourself. It might feel strange at first, but eventually it’ll make you feel brilliant about yourself. Tell yourself “Looking good!” or “Wow, I looking more like a motivational speaker everyday!” or similar phrases are often enough to actually start believing it.
3. Do things that make you feel good: This can be anything from listening to music, cooking your favorite meal, doing some volunteer work or even just taking a warm bath. I‘ve become a strong believer of doing things that make me feel better. I often switch to my preferred internet radio station (Pandora.com) to listen and dance around the house, if I really need a pick me up- I order take-out, sit on the sofa and watch a few of my all time favorite movies. The most important thing is to something that gives you a positive feeling about yourself.
4. Listen to YOU: This one was sort of hard for me. Coming from a strong southern background, what people thought of you is very important. I often remember my mom saying to me – “What will the neighbors say?”, or “That won’t look nice.” Now I can say – The hell with what they say or think!
FACE IT. Nobody knows you better than you know yourself, no matter how many people try to tell you something different- go with what you know and feel. So if your body, mind or gut is telling you something, then take notice, and don't worry about what other people may have to say about it.
5. Talk to YOU: Talking to myself has been a nature occurrence for me (It's okay- as long as you don't answer yourself back). When I’m stress, I take a time- out. I wander into my mind and have a conversation with myself about anything at all. I’m not crazy, but I know myself. And sometimes I need to have a little conversation with myself to work out a few things. Once I’ve taken a few moments to get myself together- my mind is a lot clearer and I’m able to tackle whatever the day may bring. In the talk with yourself - Tell yourself how lucky you are to be you, and praise yourself for every good and positive thing you can attribute to yourself.
6. Remove Negativity: If anything feels like it’s dragging you down, get rid of it. If it’s clutter, tidy up, if it’s a friend full of negativity explain nicely that you don’t really feel up to talking right now. If it’s your kids acting up, leave the room for a while and so on. Get rid of the negative vibes. Creative people just can’t function around a lot of drama.
7. Surround Yourself with Positive Things: Surround yourself with things that bring out good feelings in you. Examples could be things such as happy, upbeat friends, a nice new picture, a new car, an old comfy blanket, candles, pictures of your family, your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse etc.
8. Rumours Die: Did you hear something about somebody who said something about somebody else? Drop it! Rumours are nasty, horrible things that will only bring you down. Best way to kill a rumour? Ignore it!
9. Total Honesty: Be totally honest with yourself at all times. If there’s something you don't like, admit it. If there’s something you don’t want to do “right now” and it isn’t necessary for health and safety reasons then just don’t do it until you feel like it.
Same goes for the positive aspects. If there’s something you want to do, and it’s not hurting anybody, then go ahead and do it. If you start feeling great about yourself for no apparent reason admit it and enjoy the feeling.
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10. Responsibility: Take full responsibility for your own actions. Don't shove the blame for anything over onto someone or something else. We all make choices in our lives, and once we take responsibility for those choices we tend to choose better for ourselves.
Once we start to choose better, we feel better and things start falling into place. On the other hand, don't take over someone else’s responsibilities just because you feel “you have to”.
11. Pretend: If you feel unsafe, unsure or nervous then go inside yourself and pretend you’re a hot-shot business owner, do whatever you need to be. Make believe you’re presenting yourself as that person would until you feel better. Trust me, you WILL feel better, and eventually have no need to be anything but yourself.
12. Keep Trying: If you’re trying to do something but don't get it right first time round, then try again, and again, and again, constantly learning from your mistakes until you get it right. When you finally DO get it right, you’ll feel wonderful about it.
13. Give Credit where credit is due: If you’ve done something really good, and people compliment you on it, accept the compliments with thanks! Understand that they’re complimenting because they really ARE impressed with what you’ve done.
Believe in you and give yourself a pat on the back. (Although physically it would probably be easier to just give yourself a round of applause).
14. Stand Tall: Standing up straight will ALWAYS make you feel better about yourself than slouching does. Stand with your feet slightly apart, suck in your tummy and behind, broaden your shoulders and straighten your neck. It’s an amazingly quick confidence boost.
15. Say Hello: Make it a rule to say hi to at least one person you don't know EVERY day. Give them the smile you flash at yourself in the mirror, the biggest and best one you can find. They’ll smile back automatically, and they’ll walk away with a little extra confidence boost thanks to you.
People look their best when they smile, and they also feel better by smiling too! This ultimately means you get a confidence boost too, for making someone else feel good about themselves.
16. Never Say Never....Ever: If you think something can’t be done, then you'll end up proving yourself right eventually. So never say never, just keep plugging along until it works for you.If other people are telling you it can’t be done, you're going to feel such immense satisfaction at actually doing it that your confidence will soar.
17. Get Active: Don't sit around the house just doing nothing. Get up, go out, cycling, walking, exercising, anything that might invigorate your brain. A lively brain full of thoughts will help you gain confidence.
18. Face Your Fear: Is there something you are afraid of? Face it full on. Doing something scary and overcoming the fear is a fantastic way to boost your confidence. So go on, jump out of that plane (with a parachute of course), drive that car, speak in front of a large crowd, ask for a promotion, or whatever it is that scares you. You'll feel absolutely brilliant once it’s done.
19. Willpower: Create a goal that you really want to reach. Possibly something like weight loss before a certain time, giving up smoking or having a certain amount of money in the bank within so many months etc. Take baby steps, and use your willpower until you succeed at reaching your goal.
It will be really hard, as will power can be very elusive at times, but keep going and don't give up. Once you have reached that first goal by using your willpower you will have the confidence to create new goals AND reach them.
20. Ask questions: Any time you find yourself worrying about something you haven’t done, or something you think you should have done, ask yourself positive questions. Instead of thinking “I’m terrible for missing my friend’s birthday” think “What can I do to make my friend feel special?”
Or, instead of “Why can’t I ever seem to do things on time?” change it to “What can I change to better manage my time” Creating positive questions will release the negative energies which have a tendency to pull down your self confidence.
21. Learn: Accept that not everything works out the way we plan it. Decide to accept any mistakes and rejections as part of a learning curve that we all need to go through. Without mistakes, you can’t learn from your own experiences. Remember, experience builds confidence, so always learn as much as you can.
22. List: Write a list of every single thing you're good at, anything from clipping the dog’s toenails to putting up a shelf. Take the time to sit and actually think about what you ARE good at and add them all to the list. You'll be surprised at how many things you end up jotting down, no matter how minor or trivial they may seem at the time.
Whenever you have a spare 5 minutes, or if you're feeling a little low, take the list out of your pocket and read it. This is a great little way to give yourself a nice confidence boost.
This was very helpful and has motivated me to take advantage of this snow day.
Posted by: professorlocs | January 10, 2011 at 06:41 AM
Professor Locs- You are so welcome. You know us creative people need all the help we can get. Learning how to focus and to have the confidence to show up is very important for our success.
Posted by: Alease | January 10, 2011 at 06:02 PM
Delighted to see that you were listening! :-) Happy Blogging
Posted by: Professional Insurance | February 03, 2011 at 06:11 AM
Thanks for the great content and information. I am always browsing the internet looking for good content to get ideas for my easy home based business blogs and articles. You have some real good content here so just keep on doing what you are doing as good stuff like this is always hard to find.
Posted by: Professional Insurance | February 03, 2011 at 06:13 AM
Beautifully written, Alease! Thank you for sharing your insight and gifts with us via this blog! I can tell you from experience that when we start giving in this way, we will get the satisfaction of knowing that our work, our experiences, our mistakes, our triumphs are being put to GREAT use to help our fellow creative business sisters and brothers to succeed! I love it!!!
Posted by: Akilah | August 11, 2011 at 01:20 PM
Akilah, Thanks for the comment! I am all about helping creative business sisters and brothers! I am one and I want to help others like me succeed!
Posted by: Alease | August 11, 2011 at 05:53 PM
Another great article with great tips---all of them! My favorite is the tip of asking positive questions instead of dwelling on negativity. Getting your mind to work out positive solutions is great advice that I will use and remember. Thanks so much.
Posted by: Doctor Cris | February 23, 2012 at 03:21 PM