I think this one is big, really - I just realized something very important! I decided completely change the format of this blog and instead of simply uploading my daily paintings, I will share and give some insights on all the "bolts and nuts" of Art creating and creating successful Art business.
I'll share my own knowledge and what I learned from greatest Masters around about technicality of oil painting. I'll share here all creative subjects and my students questions about how to start and finish harmonies painting. How to find own "voice" and most importantly how to find your own audience, art lovers, followers who will buy your art.
I'll start by giving you a good food for the mind and soul.
Look into this 17 habits of people who changed the world. Try to adopt at least some of those habits and see what happend to your creative impulse.
1. Try new things. Constantly experiment with new people, jobs, projects and experiences. See what sticks. Without experiments we’ll never learn anything. Without learning, we’ll get nowhere. Consider your life a series of experiments - big and small. Always be testing. Live outside your comfort zone and don’t underestimate the importance of being a beginner.
2. Measure against your own standards, not others. All of us have different definitions of success and goals that likely have nothing to do with those around us. So stop comparing to others. It’s almost surely apples to oranges and you’ll either feel overly confident or overly disappointed. Either way it’s less than useful. You are your own comparison. Define your success and own it.
3. Know who you are. The better you know yourself the more likely you are to do work that matters. Simple as that. Study your strengths, know your weaknesses, identify your values, define your success, learn the things that excite and those that terrify you. Take all the tests and evaluations you can find. Begin to live a life congruent with your values, strengths and purpose and you’ll never look back. But do things for the wrong reasons and there will be nothing but disappointment. Kind of like how business school killed the entrepreneur. No sleepwalking allowed!
4. Learn from those around you. Every interaction is a chance to either learn what fires you up or what makes you want to put a wet finger in a light socket. Knowing one is just as crucial as knowing the other. Embrace your surroundings. Observe closely.
5. Realize you’re already free. Freedom doesn’t come from huge financial achievement or the ability to live in some little hut over a Tahitian lagoon. Go out and survey the average guy rolling in cash and I bet you’ll find them to feel a lot less free than you think. Freedom in it’s purest form is the ability to choose the way we interpret what happens to us. We can either see life’s occurrences, good or bad, as reasons to pursue what matters or excuses to sit on our ass. The choice is yours. All the freedom you’ll ever need is already here. Start acting like it.
6. Assume there’s another way. Don’t take things for granted just because everyone else does. That’s usually the best reason to stop listening. None of you are here for average. If you do what everyone else does, that’s all you’ll get. Constantly ask how else could things be done. Ask why.
7. Believe in what you do. If you don’t have a deep emotional reason for doing the work you do, you’ll likely never do what matters. Know your beliefs. Why do you care so much about the things you do? Nothing big happens without the right reasons. Does what you’re doing actually matter? If you can’t put your heart into it, then get yourself out of it.
8. Constantly seek adventure and explore. Nothing adds more clarity to most of life’s confusions than seeing new things. Get out and explore foreign worlds. Spending too much time in one environment makes us feel like that’s the only way. I assure you it’s not. Notice how different cultures do things differently.
Whether it’s seeing a town across the world or across your state, adventure has to be a priority. Your mind will never be the same.
9. Be authentic. The world is run off personal connections. No one wants to connect with someone who’s fake. Know who you are and aren’t and be open with those around you. People’s B.S. meters are much too high for anything else. Make genuine connections. Be vulnerable and begin creating rapport with anyone.
10. Be a constant learner. Commit to going to bed each day at least slightly wiser than when you woke up. The results will add up. Learn like crazy. Read books, take courses, work with experts, do it all. Do nothing but this and I guarantee you’ll do work that lights you on fire.
11. Pick your surroundings wisely. This is the holy grail. The people around you create who you are. If they inspire you, you’ll be inspired. If they depress you, you’ll be depressed. Those around you absolutely must dream as big or bigger and have as much passion or more than you do. There’s no time for those who don’t support doing the things that matter to you and the world. Get rid of the doubters and don’t let the empowering ones leave your sight. Rule #1: Surround yourself with passionate people. Nothing is more powerful.
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”– Jim Rohn
12. Focus on the process, not the outcome. Stop worrying about getting there. You never will anyway. All the fun is along the trail next to you. It’s impossible to enjoy it if you’re dazed by the blurry horizon that never actually gets any closer. Embrace persistence. Learn to love the process and everything becomes epic.
13. Welcome change. How else are you going to get to where you want to be? Change is going to happen no matter what, so you might as well get used to it. Adopt these beliefs and you can be sure the change to come is for the better.
14. Model excellence. For just about every goal someone has, there is likely at least a handful of people who’ve already done it. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to. Find the people who live the life you want to live. The one’s who’ve experienced the dreams you’ve always had. Find models for everything. Take note of the good and the bad. Adopt the former and drop the latter. With the right model’s you can do anything.
15. Test what’s possible. We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. Most things are not as impossible as we think. The only way to find out is to try. This is as important physically as it is with business. When we start to do things we didn’t used to think were possible, the new found confidence transfers to all kind of other parts of life. If you just pushed yourself over the finish line of your first marathon (or 5k for that matter) then why couldn’t you also find a way to double your business’s sales next year? If something seems impossible to you, find those who have done it, learn from them and try it. You’ll start to impress yourself. Then watch out. Go on and do something impossible.
16. Take notes. Life is not meant to be passive. Keep a file, notebook, journal or blog of all you learn and experience along the way. The things that fire you up, the things that scare you, the lessons, the people, the huge dreams you have, all of it. The more we can get things out of our head the more likely we can make them reality. Have a weekly or daily routine. Record all you can.
17. Act on what you learn. None of the above matters if you don’t get out and actually do something with it. It’s not just about finishing a book, reading a blog post or having a chat with a wild new person. The magic doesn’t happen in the learning. It happens in the action you take as a result. Learning is an important step, but it’s still just the first one. Everything we do at Live Your Legend comes back to this. When in doubt, do something. Anything. You have to start.
Habits define outcomes. These are the habits that separate the legends from the rest of the world. Practice these daily. Make them routine. They are the foundation of what’s to come.
Get them right and the outcomes will start to blow your mind.
