One Day Or Day One. You Decide.
I came across this fabulous quote by Paulo Coelho earlier this week: “One Day or Day One. You Decide.” It’s absolutely perfect for my blog this week. Are you still struggling to get started pursuing your creative dreams? If so, let’s talk about it. Because it’s really about: “One Day or Day One. You Decide.”
Here are the three key ingredients that I believe you need to gain the confidence to pursue your creative dreams. Are you ready?
#1 is COURAGE.
Sometimes taking that first step is the hardest. It’s when you hear those voices inside your head saying: “What are you thinking? You don’t have any real talent…” Or: “Pursuing your creative dreams is selfish. You need to put that aside until later…” Or: “How would you even get started. You haven’t done any drawing or painting in years…”
Well, let me tell you that it’s never too late to create and you CAN overcome these negative thoughts. Think about all the times in your life when you have shown incredible courage. You’ve had the courage to recover from a challenging illness. You’ve had the courage to make new friends after moving to a new city or town. Now it’s time for you to put that courage to great use and start treating your creative dream like a real profession. Take it seriously. Give it weight and focus. It’s real and you have the courage to pursue it.
#2 is COMMITMENT.
Commitment goes hand in hand with courage. By making the commitment to pursue your creative goals, you’ll start to value them and balance other priorities in order to find more time for practice. Your commitment will strengthen every day as you take each step, no matter how small, towards getting better. Learn a new technique. Overcome an obstacle. Stay focused. Hone your skills and start thinking about how you want to bring your artwork into the world.
The more you value the work you are doing and stay true to this commitment to yourself, the more others will value your work. Nothing worth pursuing comes without focused dedication and resolve. Each action you take strengthens that resolve and builds momentum. Take a peek periodically at your early work. You’ll see amazing progress and that will continue to propel you forward.
#3 is COMMUNITY
Find a creative community to join. This is a game changer. I hear this over and over again. When you need support and strategies to manage your feelings of overwhelm, a community is critical. It picks you up and provides the encouragement you need to keep going. When you get discouraged, and we all get discouraged at times, the right community has your back and shows you the incredible progress you’re making. Learning in community provides more than the knowledge itself. The community offers support, encouragement and a huge boost in your confidence.
The right community also helps with isolation and loneliness. As humans, we aren’t meant to work alone. Meet like-minded people both online in private, safe Facebook communities and in person through creative meet-ups. There’s a real sense today that you can connect with anyone across the entire world through the internet and modern technology. That can, counterintuitively, create a bigger sense of isolation. Joining a creative community acts as a safety net where you can connect, communicate and get the cheerleading and active engagement you need.
These three ingredients combined together will give you a huge boost in confidence and help you pursue your creative dreams. There will be times of discomfort but they’re worth it and you can push through them. My student Kathleen Lambert sums this up beautifully: “Because of the community, I found the courage to commit to myself.”
Let me know which of these ingredients is most helpful for you. Or the one that you struggle with the most. I’d love to hear from you and I’d love to help you.
Pick TODAY as Day One and join my monthly membership, The Pattern Design Club. I’m incredibly proud of the community I’ve build there. It supports surface designers with on-going learning, weekly accountability and incredible personalized support. My students demonstrate courage, commitment and community every day inside the Club. We’re dedicated to working together to build and strengthen the confidence you’ll need to achieve your creative goals.
Enrollment is OPEN until March 21. Learn more HERE.
Remember:
It’s Never Too Late to Create
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation living in, and traveling to, beautiful environments in the United States and abroad.
