— As an artist, it’s easy to just wing it all and sail along from week to week, month to month, just sort of doing your own thing …
And maybe that’s OK if you haven’t any real ambitions to become much of an artist or see your talents flourish.
But what if you aspire to something more?
What if you want to do something extraordinary?
No one would think to approach any other great ambition in such a cavalier fashion. It should be no different for an artistic pursuit.
If an artist is happy just dabbling away, that’s one thing. (And that’s perfectly fine. Most people dabble at everything they do.) But if an artist wants to get really, really good … if an artist aspires to some degree of mastery … It takes more than dabbling away at random and flying by the seat of your pants.
Were I to identify three components of any serious plan of artistic advancement, I’d name these:
1.) Perpetual learning and study. The best and most talented artists, photographers, musicians, filmmakers, writers — they’re continually looking to improve, to learn more, to pick up new ideas. They’re looking for new sources of inspiration. They’re continually looking to expand the capacities; they’re continually looking to get better.
2.) Lots of WORK. Meaning lots of PLAY, of course. You should love what you do, but you DO need to put in the hours. To become a great photographer, you need to get out there and create a lot of photographs. You need to experiment, try new things, get outside of your comfort zone. (Never doubt this. All growth takes places just outside your comfort zone.) To become a great photo artist, you need to push your work further and further. And that takes time, effort, dedication to mastering your craft.
3.) Regular reflection and self-evaluation. This is the part I think too many artists leave out, the part they miss that would otherwise radically accelerate their progress. And all it takes is simply putting an hour in your calendar each week to sit down and reflect a bit on what you’ve been working on and where it is you want to go next. Could be an hour in your journal, could be an hour spent walking in serious thought, could be an hour’s conversation with another artist (someone who gets you and understands what it is you’re working toward).
This third element is the one we all tend to neglect. But if you want to live a more engaged, more deliberate artistic life and see your talents and opportunities grow, you can’t afford to let things play out by chance.
All it takes is an hour a week.
And truly, by gifting yourself an hour each week to assess your work from a higher elevation and think through where it is you wish to go and how you plan to get there, you will come to accomplish far more — and progress much faster — than you can ever hope to accomplish by traipsing along from one month to the next without thought or care.
Think of this hour you schedule with yourself each week as a coaching session. Just you and your muse. And simply ask yourself a few questions.
Here are some you might start with:
— What were your 3 big wins for the week? (What exciting things did you study? What progress did you make on your artistic work? What awesome things did you create or make happen?)
— How well did you spend your time this week? And how can you improve on that in the week ahead? (Did you toss away time on crap that you could have instead spent pursuing your art? Did you manage to dedicate at least an hour a day to creating something? And are you making room for a few larger blocks of time, at least a few days each week, so you can truly immerse yourself in your work? What changes could you make in your daily routine or put in your calendar to ensure you get in the study and the creative work you wish to do in the coming week?)
— What was the biggest lesson you learned this week? (And how are you going to use what you’ve learned from this to improve how you live the week ahead?)
— What’s your biggest challenge right now as an artist? (And what else is challenging you?) And what are you going to DO to meet these challenges head on? (And consider as you reflect on this: Are you perhaps seeing “challenges” as insurmountable obstacles, when you should be seeing them as opportunities to learn something, acquire more skill, and grow as an artist? Or are you perhaps seeing something as a big daunting challenge, when in fact it’s nothing really big at all if you were to simply break it down and see the whole thing as a series of smaller steps you just need to take, one by one, along your journey? Maybe it only seems daunting because you’re letting yourself think it all has to happen overnight?)
— What exciting things are you going to study, practice, work on, create over the week ahead? (Really think about this and come up with a list of stuff you’re going to put your attention on over the next seven days. If the list doesn’t excite you, you don’t have the right things on it. Come up with something that you can’t wait to jump into and get busy on. Not everything is going to be a thrill of course — there’s a bit of drudgery in any creative pursuit — but most of what you plan out should be. So come up with some ideas each week that will be FUN to do.)
You don’t need to answer all five of these questions each week, and you don’t even need to incorporate these particular questions. But come up with something.
Give yourself one hour a week and think of it as your coaching session to keep yourself on track and help ensure that you’re creating your artistic life deliberately and with full intention.
Set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself to sit down and reflect on questions like these at least once a week. Use those questions to re-orient yourself from one week to the next so you can stay on track and ensure that you are making real progress — continually learning and expanding your capabilities, steadily working to create better and ever more fulfilling art.
Do this … and I promise, you will find your artistic journey more rewarding than ever, and you will see your successes mount all the faster.
This is how you create a rich artistic life — by design.
– Sebastian
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