01_Art Business Tips: SMART Goals
Resources Mentioned
- Put The SMART in Your Art Goals Article and Worksheet.
- Planning Mindfully With Action 2 Part Lunch and Learn
- Julie McCullough's JMA Planner
Transcript of Video
[00:00:00] Welcome to weekly art business coaching tips so you can gain focus and action on your art business over the next several weeks, we're going to be focusing on goals and your goals of where you want your art and your art business to go. So each week you're going to be provided with an action to take to gain a clearer vision of what you want to achieve. I have two resources available to you to aid your efforts. The free download for putting the smart and your art goals is available on Stephanieweaverartist.com link is provided in the show notes for a deeper dive into defining your goals and your vision. Take the two-part launch and learn series called Planning for Creatives Planning Mindfully with Action, where professional artist Julie McCullough and designer of the JMA Planner will walk you through how to define your vision for your life and plan your actions so that you can achieve your vision.
In this week's episode, we're going to be talking about what exactly is a goal and the negative thoughts that might pop up, and what to do about those. So stay tuned.
[00:01:33] This month in the positive painters, we are focused on art business goals, and let me tell you that goals are one of my favorite things to talk about, because they relay your hopes and your dreams. They relay what is important to you. And I love the word goal itself. So goal, if you break it down, grab the opportunity and live; grab the opportunity to live. That's the goal. Whenever you create a goal, you are grabbing opportunity and living. Now, that says a lot.
[00:02:06] I love this particular image of a soccer player scoring. So I have my kids actually play soccer and the feeling of watching them kick that ball into goal is one that causes all the parents and all the kids to jump up and throw their hands up in the air. And that's the feeling when you actually achieve it. So all that blood sweat practices, great ease getting yelled at by the coach for redirection and the disappointment when whenever they lose, all of that went into achieving the goal. And when it's completed, when they actually kick that ball into the goal, everybody stands up and cheers because they know all the work that went into that one goal.
[00:02:57] So now if we relate that back to our art, I ask you, how many hours of practice have you put into your artwork? How often have you received criticism that hurt but enabled you to push it further? How many times was your goal deflected last minute by a gallery, an art show, a buyer, an agent. How often do you seek advice to correct your course of action?
[00:03:28] Did you ever lose sight of your goal? Do you have a clear vision of your goal? If you relay your goal back to that visual of kicking that ball into your goal, can you see it with your art?
[00:03:48] That's a lot of what we're talking about this week.
[00:03:50] And so I'm going to talk to you also in this segment about your vision and what you see in your future for your go grab opportunity and live to define your goals.
[00:04:08] So just released this week an article about your put your SMART in your art goals, where I talk about exactly what is a SMART goal. For me, a smart goal is specific, measurable, actionable, relatable, timely.
[00:04:24] It is a mnemonic device to remember those five key ingredients into what makes a good goal. But here's the thing. Before you can even define your goal, you have to imagine your goal. And in order to do that, sometimes you get to rethink everything that you know and everything that you've been told about what it is to be an artist. To be an artist is more than just throwing paint or putting pencil to paper. It is something that you feel, something that you live, something that you breathe, something that you're passionate about, something that you want to share with the world.
[00:05:07] And in order to do that, you have to start thinking differently about your art. It's more than just putting paint on the paper. It is a business. You are an entrepreneur. So now you have to think about that. Think about how you can share your artwork on social media, how to measure your artwork, and your achievements through your goals.
[00:05:31] That is being an artist. So all of those are very powerful feelings that go into being an artist. Right. So how do you make that feeling into a goal? It can be little things like finishing a painting. It can be little things like getting into a gallery. It can be big things like providing for your family.
[00:05:59] So on the blog this week, I've released an article about what are SMART goals that's SMART as a mnemonic device about defining your goals.
[00:06:10] So I want you to do this week to really think about that vision of what you want that goal to be. Where are you kicking that ball to? Why are you doing all the work? It's got to go towards a goal. So your work for this week is to define that goal. Also included in that article is a downloadable worksheet so that you can actually start defining that goal and breaking it down. That sounds like a pretty simple task, right? That's your goal, right? I'm giving you the goal of creating your vision, and I want you to have it ready by next week. And very specific and timely is relevant and it's actionable.
[00:06:50] It sounds easy, but it's not, because here's the other thing. When you start really defining that vision of where you want to be, where you want to kick that ball towards, so many little things are going to pop into your head like I'm not good enough. I can't make a living doing this. I'm going to starve as an artist. Nobody cares what I have to say. There are too many people out there. There are so many people that already do this.
[00:07:12] There are all of those negative thoughts that are immediately going to come into your head because that's the way that you've been programmed all these years. We've all been told these things and they're not true. They're simply not true. It was somebody else's negative evaluation of themselves put onto you. You've got to peel off those negative layers and get to the core of where you want to be. Get to that core of what your heart desires. Because here's the thing.
[00:07:44] If you have that desire, that means you are supposed to have it. It's really that simple. Now, the question is, how do you get the ball to that goal?
[00:07:58] And that's something that we're going to work through over the next several iterations of these weekly talks.
[00:08:05] Ok, so you've got your work cut out for you this week. Go ahead and go to the blog and grab the downloadable and start your work. I also included in that downloadable a section for you to start really writing out all of those negative thoughts that instantly came to you. And there's a little workbook for you to kind of work through with that.
All right. Until next time, stay safe, happy, and healthy, and happy painting.
