Each year, I do a deep dive into my art business and life, questioning what’s worked and what needs readjusting.

5 lessons from 2018 helped me move my teaching from disjointed to structured in 2019, as well as launching my first Solo Show.

2020/21 was an outlier - worldwide with the pandemic, but personally for me with my Mother’s death and moving my Husband and I up to take on full-time care of my Father, the family house and my Mum’s animals; Moby-the-dog and Lisa-the-cat.

2022 has been about rebuilding in new ways to suit home-life - there was a lot of letting go and embracing change and I can’t wait to share what this forms into in 2023.

Can you resonate with any of these 5 things I’ve learned from another year of making a full-time living creatively and can you implement them into your art?

1 – confident time taking

Our experience of time is ultimately finite and it doesn't scale...that's why it's worth so much.

We can seek shortcuts to outsource, batch, hack or muti-task the things that 'take our time.'

All in an attempt to get the thing we want the most...more time.

More time to 'take our time' with the things that matter to us. Time with loved ones, time to travel or the time to create our art.

It takes confidence to deliberately take your own time, to be present, to do the work that matters to us or to engage, fully, with whatever challenge lies ahead.

By May, we built the confidence to organise care workers to visit 4 times a day for my father and we installed a new kitchen to gain a functional oven and a dishwasher.

These changes have gifted me with time, moving more of my day from carer/cook/cleaner to artist/business owner and most importantly, daughter again.

Are you confidentially taking your time?

2 - under the radar

I’ve been deliberately quiet on social media in 2022.

Instead, I’ve focused on my favourite platform - my Studio Notes Mailing list.

It’s under the Radar, it’s intimate and it’s quiet.

It’s like sending out a whisper.

Because ‘The act of suggesting something secretly or privately’ is kept for you and I, or the preferential few huddled tightly together.

It's worth considering whether you have to shout out to a crowd to be heard, or if your message can carry with just whisper.

There is a place and time for both Volumes...but are you utilising them both? I need to summon my loud voice again in 2023 and get back onto Social Media.

3 – bandwidth and boundaries

Neuroscientist Dr Joe Dispenza wrote, ‘The only way we can change our lives is to change our energy ‘… This ability to master your energy is key to self-mastery…. if you’re always feeling exhausted, you can’t possibly show up each day as your best self and achieve your most audacious goals. Your focus must therefore shift from time management to energy management.

Ong, Simon Alexander. Energize (p. xiii). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

I added many boundaries this year - something that comes at odds to my people-pleasing personality.

I added boundaries as a carer (lesson 1), boundaries around marketing ( lesson 2), honoured my introverted nature as we moved back into post Covid ‘normal’ social activities, and protected myself from events that created hurt personally.

In effect, I learned to say No.

Something I have learned to do for things that don’t serve me in business, but this year I moved ‘no’ more purposefully into my personal life.

And what I noticed was that it helped clear my mental bandwidth, which impacted both my energy and capacity to think big in my business.

It’s worth learning to understand what depletes your energy and when it is appropriate or even plain kind to say No.

Because there is only so much energy we have at our disposal for each day, week, or even a month.

Are you saying yes when you want to say no?

4 – becoming

In every learning process, these are the three phases we go through - Know. Do. Become.

First, we need to Know what we want to achieve or where we want to go.

To Do is to take Action.

To Become is when the process becomes a part of you.

Most people get stuck (or quit) at the doing phase and never make it to the next because there are so many obstacles and resistance points on the way to becoming.

And it never ends. At every stage of your art journey, you will repeat these three phases because there are always new things you need to learn to grow.

The challenge is to trudge past each middle phase and get to where what you are learning becomes a part of your process.

I’ve known for some time that how I previously made my income had to change from mostly teaching to mostly selling and 2022 has been a pivotal year of Doing towards that transiton.

Doing the work of experimenting - making numerous mistakes, casting a wide net of potential new products, pushing through resistance, learning new techniques and deciding what to expand or cut off.

If you feel stuck in the difficult middle phase in your paintings, your sculpture or your business - as hard as it may feel in the moment, you will Become it...but only if you give it the practice and time it requires.

What stage are you in? Know, Do or Become? I’m still in the Doing phase and expect 2023 will be a year of edging closer to Becoming.

5 - calibrating our compass

When dealing with the unknown of crafting a career in the arts, we have to acknowledge that there is no set map to get from here to there.

All we have is the knowledge that you can either take small consistent steps ahead, or stay put.

It sounds a little bit too simple but in reality, very few people actively move towards their dreams because they can’t bear the discomfort it brings.

You see, each new step in the journey of a creative business brings you to a new vulnerable bridge.

Even though you’ve already crossed many vulnerable bridges to get to the safe and solid ground you currently reside on, the next seemingly unsafe bridge can sometimes make the journey feel too scary, uncomfortable or utterly exhausting.

But you have to cross it to reach the other side - to reach the next level.

Happy endings don’t come from relying on someone else’s map but instead come from calibrating our compass towards our true north, and then embracing the fact there will be some uncomfortable and scary terrain on the path ahead.

Where are you Headed? I’ve said goodbye to the safe and solid ground of my regular term teaching in 2022, and am facing the vulnerable bridge of moving my income to majority sales in 2023, because that’s the direction my compass is pointing.

So, what about you?

What lessons has 2022 given you? I’d love to hear your answers, feel free to comment below.

And if you’d like to spend 2023 making much more art and getting over any obstacles, check out the FREE 6 day Challenge: Overcome Obstacles and Make More Art, I put together to help to get out of your own way and get down to making the art you want to.

It’s perfect for you if you are sitting wondering why you love making art, yet never seem to be 'in the mood.' You know you want to improve your practice but can't find the time and don't consistently commit to it.

Maybe it's because...

You're exhausted juggling the demands of work, family and life and have no time to breathe never mind create art.

Perhaps you've decided you're not 'good enough' so there's no point in 'wasting' your time trying?

You don’t know where to start, because it seems so overwhelming.

You don't have a dedicated space so you can't get in the zone.

You might tell yourself these things, but deep down, you know you have unrealised potential to explore and you're tired of leaving it to 'later.'

The truth is, you can make your art, even if you're busy earning and caring for your family, you just need to give yourself permission to commit to yourself.

This series will bring awareness to the most common obstacles that get in your way (as you can tell from my year round up, you're not alone) and give you the tools, strategies and inspiration to overcome them such as;

6 Methods to combat Inspiration Drought
2 Deceptively Simple ways to Just Start
How to determine the Best time to Make Art
3 ways to overcome Imposter Syndrome
The Artist's Rollercoaster and How to Survive it.
The 3 Imperative things to uncover to make Art Consistently.
3 Art Myths you can demolish once and for all
And Much More...

Take a Deep dive into the common problems that hold Artist's back, start to feel inspired again, less stressed and excited to make and share more of the Art you love.

Pop your name and email into the form below to get the First Lesson of this FREE Challenge - I’m beyond excited to see what you’ll end up creating: