​2017 – There you are!

Happy New Year creatives - well this is it, a new year is upon us and we are looking forward to the next 12 months. Everywhere you look there are resolutions being made, gym memberships being renewed and healthy eating being embraced. We enter this new year with change and rebirth on our mind.
 
From a personal perspective, we look at how we can improve our selves this year, what changes we want to make to our lifestyles, our relationships, our careers. What new hobbies do we want to start? What dreams do we have, that we’ve been putting off for too long? How can we achieve them? We are looking to nurture and grow, and it can be an exciting time.
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It is the same for our businesses too. We have had some time off, and it may be that we have reflected on what we do. Our previous post mentioned exercises and workbooks that we all have access to, which will help us summarise our last year and help us work out where we want to move forward. This is the time to make plans and goals for our year. Like in our personal growth, we want to look at what we’ve been putting off, what dreams do we have, what changes can we make within our business, and how can we achieve them.
 
With our members we are focusing this month on our yearly goals. But it is important not to overwhelm ourselves with too much to do. We do need targets to work towards, otherwise we will wander round with no focus or drive, but on the other hand, we need to make those targets achievable.
 
Like joining the gym – don’t aim to go every day for an hour a day to start with. You’ll burn out and more than likely do yourself an injury. Build up slowly with reasonable aims and by the end of the year you may very well be going for an hour a day every day! By aiming too high, too soon, it is more likely you will fail and you’ll be back to square one again.
 
It is the same for your business. By giving yourself too much to do, or your targets too big, you are more likely not to succeed. By all means, write down your dreams – it is good to have a dream, but be aware that it might be a 5 year aim rather than a 12 month one. And then, what can you do to help that dream evolve?
 
Lists are good – so feel free to make a list of everything you want to achieve, and then bear in mind that it needs to be broken down into monthly and weekly goals and you then need further lists of those goals and targets!
 
For example, it may be that you have an exhibition in July, that you want a certain number of pieces completed for. How many do you need to produce each month, each week, to have enough? Make a list of what you need to get done, and when. Once you have worked that out you can decide which days/weeks you will work on those. This then gives you the rest of your time to work on other goals; commissions, your tax return, new ranges. Don’t do what so many of us do and leave it until the last minute – because you will give yourself undue stress, and it will affect you in the time when you should be doing all the finishing touches, framing, pricing, display etc.
 
But what happens if you just aren’t feeling it – if you’ve lost your mojo or you are still feeling exhausted after Christmas?
 
Well, that’s okay too. Don’t push it. We will blog more about motivation and inspiration in further posts, but it is important right now to be kind to yourself. Take a walk, have a coffee. Sleep, read or listen to music. Don’t force the creativity or the planning as it will make you feel worse.  This is a great article full of invaluable advice about how to make 2017 work for you and your career.
 
Most of all, try not to feel guilty. You will get there.
 
How do you make January work for you? Do you use it to make plans and get going, or do you take the opportunity to invest more time in yourself? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

 
The CBN Team x