I wanted to share with you one of my top tips for building confidence, self belief and motivation when it comes to your art or creative business.
Personal development is a huge part of my life, I absolutely love to read, listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos that inspire me. Whether I am working on my art, driving to work, going for a walk, its pretty much all I watch or listen to. Or at least when i am not watching Lord of the Rings for the 8 millionth time.
All it takes is hearing or reading one small phrase or idea said in a certain way, to change your whole perspective, even if its just enough to break you out of that procrastination or negative thinking pattern and into action. I owe my mindset and my progress, to this daily practice.
An approach I discovered that has significantly helped me in my art business journey is focusing on action based goals vs outcome based goals.
Let me explain what I mean.
When you focus on an outcome, for example, hitting a certain number of Instagram followers, number of sales in a specific period of time or even the outcome of a piece of work. These are goals that you do not have full control over. They either involve other people or in relation to your art, the fact that you, are human and like all of us mess up from time to time! This can lead to so much frustration and feeling disheartened. So how do you overcome that?
Whilst you cannot always have control over outcomes, you do have control over your actions.
You have much more control over how often and how consistently you show up for yourself, your art, or your art business. Action based goals allow for a few things that outcome based goals do not.
- They help you build momentum. Have you ever had a day, period of days or even weeks when you just feel like a powerhouse! You get so much done and feel so fulfilled and energized? That is the power of momentum
- Action based goals allows you to focus on your progress and know that no matter the outcome, you are showing up each day and giving your best.
- They will likely increase the chance that you achieve the outcome you would like!
You miss all of these things if you put all your focus on outcome based goals. If you are so focused on how many Instagram followers you have, then you miss those incredible connections you build with other people, you miss the sense of accomplishment you feel for posting something out of your comfort zone or the win of being more consistent.
You need to switch your focus.
Have you heard that phrase, you couldn't see the forest for the trees? That is exactly what you are doing when you focus only on the outcome. You miss all the wonderful things along the way. You cannot expect to love the journey if you don't pay any attention to it.
I live in Vancouver and my favorite place to visit for a weekend break is Whistler. The drive there is just beyond breathtaking. But, if all I was focused on was getting there at a specific time, I would miss the beauty around me on the way.
This is what you do when you only focus on the outcome.
Now I am not saying don't have outcome based goals at all! I am all about having big goals and a vision for yourself, but think about what actions you need to take to move you closer to those outcomes and pour your attention and focus into those actions. If you do this consistently, it will create the most amazing sense of confidence and self belief as well as see the beauty in your journey along the way.
Rachel x