We all need some Accountability from Time to Time
Accountability is one of the top three reasons artists sign up for my 9 month Greenhouse program. Once a month we meet to talk art and critique the work everyone completed during the month.
That monthly deadline is magic for making sure everyone completes artwork each month.
In other words – it is the magic they use to they get themselves to the studio. There are consequences (no feedback) if they fail to make work.
Some artists have been doing the greenhouse for multiple years – they love the connection and community with a group of international artists and they thrive on connecting to their own creativity and they appreciate the accountability.
I’m a huge fan of doing whatever we need to do to keep us connected with our studios. I think it is silly to try to white knuckle it and do it alone.
How do I Hold myself Accountable
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how I hold myself accountable.
As a coach and instructor I spend a lot of time offering and providing accountability for others.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that one of the keys to accountability is understanding priority.
No matter how much someone holds your hand – if you don’t really value the thing you say you are going to do – you aren’t likely to do it.
Our values are strongly tied to our priorities.
The other key is not over-committing.
Doing less actually means doing more. Because you actually do it.
So when I look at the fact that I put way too much on my to-do lists and constantly am feeling like I am only getting the basics done – I know something needs to change.
It doesn’t matter how many fancy tricks I use to hold myself accountable – I have now admitted it is simply is not possible to do what I envisioned with my career.
I started this year with a commitment to hire a Virtual Assistant to make it happen. But in starting down that road I decided maybe those big plans aren’t really what I want.
And over the last few months I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to completely restructure – well – everything.
Starting with the Basics
I’ve decided to strip back my life to the bare essentials.
And then build up from that. Maybe I will – maybe I won’t – need a VA – but before I make that decision – I need to clarify what I’m doing.
Step 1 was to put art making back on the top of my priority list.
For a couple of reasons
- it is the thing I most want to do with my life
- I have some upcoming exhibitions (see image below)
That’s a cool thing about exhibitions – they are a great way to hold oneself accountable. With no art there is nothing to show or sell!
And that is another magic thing about accountability – you need consequences. They really do wonders to inspiring action.
The Bare Essentials
Here is my list of bare essentials that I want in my life:
- being an artist (making art / learning about art / seeing art)
- taking care of my health (all aspects so this includes family and friends)
- sharing my art and work (via exhibitions, my website, blogging, social media, in person, etc)
- enjoying the community / courses I lead
- coaching
- keeping things tidy (this means all the bookkeeping and behind the scenes stuff that keeps my world neat and orderly)
The next few years will be all about stripping things back to just these things. Letting go of a bunch of stuff that doesn’t fit in.
For example – the first thing I let go of were all the facebook groups I was in. I was originally going to completely leave facebook but turns out all I had to do was leave all the facebook groups.
They were simply wasting my time. It’s total freedom to be done with all of that drama.
I no longer look at facebook as a place that holds any value what so ever – I don’t have conversations I need to make sure I don’t miss. I simply login in every couple days and spend about 5 minutes. It’s kinda fun again.
Blogging
This post isn’t the most coherent but I’m okay with that – this is how I used to blog – I’d share what was going on.
I wasn’t trying to sell something. And I wasn’t looking for great SEO (search engine optimization.) I wasn’t trying to write “evergreen” posts (meaning they were still relevant 10 years later.)
In some ways – actually many ways – learning all the “right” ways to run an online business ruined my online business. And I’m done following all the rules and worrying about doing it “right.”
Who cares if my instagram profile isn’t beautifully curated. Or if my blog post is too many words and yoast thinks my seo rating is terrible.
I’m simply sharing.
So – now on to Abel Tasman. (the rules would say I should only write about 1 topic in a blog post – whatever – those rules end up tying me in knots working out which topic should go first.)
Abel Tasman
The artwork at the top of this post – the landscape – is one of the works I am making for my next art show. In Christchurch – in 10 days.
The work is a landscape inspired by my tramping one of the Abel Tasman Great Walk in February. (yeah – sorry – never blogged about that maybe some day as it was an amazing 5 day walk followed by a 2 day kayaking trip in the same area.)
Here are some of the images from the walk – and some of my sketches as I was working out ideas for what to make.
And here are a few more works in progress.
My intention is to have 10 of these small works for sale at the show.
