Charm FX

Posts Tagged ‘idea’

With my last post in mind, it seemed the most useful thing might be if YOU could just see what someone else was doing online, as they were doing it. Modeling is a good way to learn new things, to see what works and what doesn’t, and it helps a lot if you have something or someone to model.

Some tell me I’m crazy, that just putting myself out there is only inviting criticism or making it too easy for others to just do the same stuff…and then it will stop working for me. Am I asking for trouble? I don’t think so. Seems to me that kind of thinking assumes there’s only some minimal threshold and if too many do the same things, it’s bad…that if you have things that work you shouldn’t tell anyone. That’s the same kind of reasoning ‘gatekeepers’ use in any field and we’re especially aware of how this works in creative fields.

The truth is the internet demonstrates how this kind of thinking is NOT TRUE….especially, in creative fields. If you have a skill or a point of view and you are about something and you know who you are and what you’re doing, it’s possible you’ll be able to succeed without the necessity for galleries or gallery owners, for studios, agents, record companies, etc. With this in mind there isn’t any reason to fear showing up and showing others how I’m doing what I’m doing…warts & all. In fact, it’s especially important to show what happens when something isn’t working. While I know you’d like to know what does work, wouldn’t like to know what doesn’t?

My personal experience includes –

• providing services to clients
• working jobs for employers
• and working my way through a variety of academic programs in the arts and communications as well as having varied background in other subjects

One overwhelming thing I’ve learned is that there will always be those who’ll tell you it won’t work and if you listen to them, it won’t! If you don’t listen to them and DO pay attention to others who are actively doing what you’re interested in, you will learn and you will be closer to doing what you want because of the efforts of others.

As this blog evolves I’m simply going to show you where I am, what I’m doing and tell you why. I’ll just aim at moving closer to the goal of facilitating my own creativity, producing creative projects and finding ways to sell, distribute or just exhibit my projects. While I’m doing that I’ll document what I’m doing and how I’m doing it and put it up here for all to see. If you’ve been here before you may note some changes to the page layout so that’s something you may see evolve as content and features grow.

I’m hopeful my successes will be useful to others and some may contribute their own experiences in hopes it might be useful to others.

Keep it real!

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
Andrew Carnegie

It doesn’t matter what you want, what you’re trying to do or where you want to go. If you’ve focused your intentions and settled on a goal you have to form actionable steps to get there and take action. The single most effective technique I know of to motivate myself to do this is to “say it out loud”!

When you speak or write your goals in some sort of public way you put yourself out there. You’ve invited consequences, both good and bad and it’s like putting your ante on the table. It’s not terrible to fail, but if you’re seen to not attempt once you say something out loud, that’s going to sting.

From the quote above, Andrew Carnegie obviously understood that information, analysis, creativity, even a good actionable plan are not enough to achieve a goal, but that it is a necessity to be able to motivate yourself. I can’t think of anything more motivating than the prospect of public and personal awareness that I didn’t at least attempt the things I set out to accomplish. It’s the kind of open ended consequence that serves to remind you that sitting still will guarantee the mediocrity Carnegie mentions.

I’m not going to tell you everyone’s response to your expression of a goal will be supportive, helpful or even that there will be any responses. Some will minimize you and/or your goal for any number of reasons usually having nothing to do with you or your goal. By speaking your intended goal out loud you become familiar with this and learn to deal with it…my suggestion is mostly to ignore any non-specific, emotionally driven negative assessment of your goals. If someone has specific, actionable advice it may be worth considering.

What I will say is that saying your goals out loud and reminding yourself of them regularly increases your expectation of yourself to rise to meet them. The steps you take to do that can encourage others to do the same and help you. It’s the first and simplest way to begin believing in the outcome you want to see.

If you have a list of goals I encourage you to make a blog post or twitter tweet or to do something that makes it clear that you’re on a road to make something happen.