Learning new things

I took Sunday off from any chores or goal-oriented tasks. Instead I played – Adobe Photoshop CS5 and metal clay. Both were surprisingly tricky! And my results show just how little I know, but it sure was fun to stretch into new areas where there are no consequences. It really doesn’t matter if I never learn to digitally paint, but it would be cool if I can!

I’ve also begun pricing the essentials for doing art shows this summer. The age old debate of spend less but replace in a few years or spend more up front and risk changing my mind in a few years. I have a bad habit of feeling it’s essential to start with top of the line materials. Sometimes, that’s a good call (there really isn’t a professional equivalent to Photoshop) and often it’s not, particularly if it keeps me out of the game entirely.

Either way, my kit will be coming together shortly…

I’m also reading I’d Rather Be in the Studio! which is giving me some pretty clear direction on what I need to do -rewrite that artist’s statement! ugh! I’ll be adding this to the booklist shortly for anyone that is or is wanting to be a working artist.

Gradually things are coming together!

Links to Amazon are affiliate links

Technorati Tags: learning new things, The Art of Happiness

The No Excuses Project: ‘I must not be good enough’

We all have moments of self-doubt but when it turns into an excuse not to move forward, face fears, persist in the face of adversity we don’t honor ourselves or our talents.  I admit to uttering the phrase “I must not be good enough” a few times, mostly after seeing an Oprah episode of pre-pubescent kids that have international businesses or when I haven’t a clue on how to proceed.  It just seems like divine guidance is supposed to show up quickly and point the way and if it doesn’t that too must be a sign.

It just isn’t that easy and when we limit ourselves with ‘how things are supposed to be’ we cut off avenues of exploration and success.  The last time I checked the Harlem Globetrotters weren’t part of the NBA and yet they don’t seem to be complaining about not making it. Sometimes going down a path previously untrodden is more difficult but it’s also more exciting, because nobody can tell you what’s around the next bend.

For those of us with multiple interests, wanting and trying to wear several hats all at once, it’s worth remembering that it takes something like 10,000 hours to become proficient at something. The more things you add the more your available time is split.  That’s not a bad thing as they can often balance each other and cross-polinate with great rewards, it just takes more patience on your part. Seriously, if you find yourself wanting to stop because you aren’t there yet, add up how many hours you’ve really spent trying to grasp it.  No stopping if it’s less than 10,000.

Next week: ‘I don’t know what to do’

Technorati Tags: common excuses, learning new things, self-doubt

The very last week of the year

My single biggest accomplishment for this week was creating a “line sheet” for the sea glass jewelry and sending it off to the first prospective buyer.  I’d never done one before and all the advice I could find had to do with pieces that can  be ordered in bulk even when they’re handmade.  I’ve no idea of what I came up with works as it should but there’s only one way to find out.  I did take great care to make sure fonts matched and spacing was perfect.  Now I need to send it out to other prospects and keep refining.  The first step is always the hardest!

My marketing education continues and the website I’ve built for class made it up to #8 on Google for it’s main keyword and then slipped to 11th – which isn’t bad for something that didn’t exist at the beginning of December.  Sometimes it scares me that this stuff works.  The bigger challenge is applying some of it to my true business endeavors which have a great deal more competition and where “BUY NOW!!!!” isn’t really the appropriate tone!  However, I know a whole lot more than I did five weeks ago and I am starting to see the benefits of what I’ve applied so far.

Now it’s time to take down the lights and the Christmas tree and start working even more efficiently – new projects loom large like learning about ebooks and subscription lists!

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, learning new things

Getting more and less connected

Christmas is under control for this year (I think) – shopping is done, all but one present wrapped, decorating is done so just cookie baking left and I try not to do that too early or I find excuses to eat the ones that aren’t absolutely perfect!

In between all of that, I’ve continued working on my online marketing skills (they need a lot of work.)  I’ve been focusing on just one hub at a time so jewelry has been getting the bulk of my focus first, hence not as many posts here as I would like but I am starting to see some positive results.  And I’ve learned new and sneaky ways to gain presence without more work and much to my chagrin convincing me to get a twitter account. The nifty new thing is posterous.com which integrates everything so that with one email a post is made to a blog, twitter, flickr, facebook, and whatever else you’d like.  And even better, it actually works.  It seems a little odd to be broadcasting on all these channels without ever going to them, but it also means that customers can tune in on their preference rather than having to go out of their way to find me. At the same time I’m building my presence on the web in a way that isn’t spam and that I can actually manage with integrity. I’m beginning to see that I’ve underestimated how outgoing you need to be these days – what seems brash to me really isn’t anymore because nobody (except maybe your mother) ever sees all of what you put out there.

To go along with that today is play time as I prep my very first Youtube video.  I’ll post it here when it’s done:-)

Technorati Tags: doing less, learning new things

Efficiency versus ethics

They say that you begin to grasp a subject when you realize there is more that you don’t know than what you do. For some that’s an ego thing but I think for most of us that means we can itemize what we don’t know; we have a more specific form of measurement than just “a lot”.  That was me this week as I worked on remedying my lack of knowledge regarding online marketing combined with my complete lack of talent in that area;-)  I’ve made progress, enough to know how much I didn’t know when I thought I knew something.  (Read that last sentence fast and you’ll have some idea of how my brain is feeling right now!)

What I’ve also run into though is having to spend more time and energy finding solutions to “recommended” tools and processes that don’t violate my ethics, things like lifting content without crediting the author, etc. I don’t think I’m alone in that but right now the Internet seems to be set up for those that don’t know or don’t mind bending a few rules to succeed so their recommendations rise to the top. When I get it sorted out for myself, maybe I’ll start a website for artist marketing, who knows.

In the meantime I’ve gotten started on Christmas and left the Gallery where I had my jewelry (lack of a lot of things is closing it down shortly). Christmas is going to feel different this year without my dad but I’m confident something good will fill the void.

Technorati Tags: Health and Happiness, learning new things, solopreneur, the way to happiness

Lots of new things to learn

I think my brain is starting to hurt from all the new things I’ve taken in this last week. On the plus side I finally got my merchant application in so that I’ll be able to process credit and debit cards at shows – it will be a miracle if it goes smoothly because neither I nor the bank representative knew how to fill out the form; it was a myriad of new vocabulary that wasn’t explained anywhere. Luckily, I’m fairly certain they want my business so it should come out all right in the end.  Also in preparation for the upcoming craft show I was dropping things off in parts of the city I’ve never been to before and which Google maps was also unfamiliar with (as in the directions were wrong!) Now that that’s done, I can concentrate on actually making the jewelry to sell which is starting to get urgent.

My education has also included reading case files and meeting people for my volunteer case which is good to get started but has left me with a few nightmares, not to mention pondering the state of our society.  I try to stay focused on there being far more people that try to stop the abuse than that actually commit the abuse.  I’m glad there are people that want to be in law enforcement, but for me personally, reading their reports is hard enough – things can get a bit graphic.

To counteract the bad taste from dealing with that stuff, I went and found a recipe for pumpkin pancakes which make for a truly amazing comfort dinner when paired with maple syrup, home-made cranberry sauce and a glass of red wine:-)

And lastly with some trepidation, I decided to take a risk and see if a website profiling the ‘soulmate’ predicted for my by a psychic would make any difference at all to my love life, the one area that I’ve been neglecting for some pretty common excuses.  I can’t decide if I’m more nervous that nothing will happen or that something will. A lot of ‘what if’s’ have floated through my mind in the last week on this one, but I’m sticking with the premise than when you don’t know where to start, doing the first thing to come to mind that sticks there is a the right place.  That doesn’t mean that I’m not still too worried about what people will think;-) Past time to start letting that kind of mentality go.  You can check it out at http://insearchofedmondsguy.com

Technorati Tags: achieving dreams, Health and Happiness, learning new things, solopreneur, taking risks, the way to happiness

5 easy steps to becoming an insider

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get information when the knowledge holders are a closed community.  It’s not the same as the cool kids’ lunch table but it can feel like it.  For example, the travelling artists that sell at festivals – they might want to be helpful but if they’ve survived this far they know better than to say ‘yes, it’s been a great weekend and I made $10,000 (all of which is within five feet of me) to a complete stranger.  And another example being treasure hunters that aren’t all that keen to share the spot where they finally found some bounty after twenty years of looking and particularly not with someone that hasn’t even put forty hours in yet.  So you could whine about the unfairness of it all, or try this approach:

1. Put the time in – acknowledge to yourself that you are an outsider and have yet to earn your stripes.  Go to art shows, show up at the golf course with your metal detector, even if you don’t know what you’re doing.

2. Ask for help but limit yourself to just one question; the most burning and critical one I hope.  Nothing looks more manipulative than “here, show me how to do it” until the whole project has been done in demonstration. It worked on my dad when I was a kid but I’d be embarrassed to try it now.

3. Follow the rules, but don’t follow blindly.  If it’s illegal to metal detect in state parks, don’t do it.  But just because everyone else you see walks in straight lines doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a zigzag.  If nothing else people will start asking you about it and you’ll get some conversation going.

4. Pay it forward – there is always someone more ignorant than you, offer help to others now, don’t wait until you’re sure you’re an expert.

5. Develop your intuition and trust your gut.  Most people are genuine but some are not.  If a hot tip doesn’t ring true, ask around and go with your instincts.

Technorati Tags: intuition, learning new things, self-esteem

The week of the porch project

It doesn’t feel like it but the porch is getting done.  I put the primer on this morning.  If I stick with my plan it will be done by Sunday. It should improve my overall mood, feng shui, and possibly be instrumental in world peace. Okay, that last might be a bit of a stretch but if I can forget about it for a few years it will feel that good.  Nothing much else has gone on all week – I didn’t get as much gardening done as I’d hoped or fixed the dishwasher yet. However, there are no rules that it can’t happen next week.

Now that the second half of the year has commenced I feel like earlier efforts should start paying off soon.  That’s ‘should’ as in it would only be fair, not as in ‘very likely’.  I think that gap between cause and effect has to be the hardest in any new venture but giving up would be like putting down a really good book three chapters before the end. When I look over the last six months it’s amazing how much I’ve learned, gotten done, and put off. It reminds me of the old Chinese fortune curse ‘may you live in interesting times!’

I’m looking forward to a quiet 4th in the backyard with a book and a drink.  There are all kinds of independence to celebrate! Next week will be back to work on the other projects and the garden while I think about what kind of year-long project I could initiate and if I really want to. I keep seeing news stories on similar projects so some part of me is keen on the idea…

Technorati Tags: getting things done, Health and Happiness, learning new things, living your dreams, solopreneur, starting a new business, the way to happiness

This and that

I don’t think I can claim any great accomplishments this week; mostly I let myself follow my intuition and not push too hard. I worked on getting the kitty’s new diet and prescriptions established, got some photographs edited, got some volunteer work done ready for court next Monday and just let myself be.  Sometimes not going full speed ahead is the best thing although I’m never 100% convinced of that.  I am trying to get more exercise in although it’s an uphill battle – just about everything else seems more important in the moment. Next week I should have enough jewelry done to set up an Etsy site and also have another art site ready.  I’ve been trying to study up on marketing and selling; two areas I struggle with so that I can begin to improve my overall results. I firmly believe that everything can be learned; some things just come more quickly!

Technorati Tags: crafting a creative life, going with the flow, Health and Happiness, intuition, learning new things, solopreneur, the way to happiness