Season 5 – epiBLOG 18:

Giving up the dream. At what point should you do this? After three years of trying and failing? After 10 years? After a 1,000 rejections? I know what you’re thinking – “this blog is supposed to be encouraging and motivating.” It is.

Just stay with me.

When we first have a dream, we’re excited because we think of all of the possibilities that can materialize with it. We imagine the success. The good times. The awards. The money. The fame. The difference we will make in other people’s lives. The impact that we will have on the world at large. Simply doing what we love to do. Different thoughts come to mind for different people.

Some people let those dreams remain in their minds forever as playful fictitious images to be toyed with when life isn’t interesting. Others take charge, and create specific goals and actions to manifest what they want. That’s not what this blog is about though.

Today’s topic is about how to continue to move forward in the face of adversity.

See… I told you to just stay with me.

As an entrepreneurial artist, there are going to be times when you get discouraged, annoyed, and frustrated. That meeting with the investor that you thought went well ended with a rejection phone call or email weeks later. You find out that you need more money to grow your business, but aren’t making enough to handle that task, let alone support yourself.

Maybe you’re in the phase of your entrepreneurial endeavors when it’s just the beginning. You’re focused on networking, getting clients, trying to balance creating your art with a day job, and you’ve experienced a few dozen rejections.

Along the way, you’re going to get disappointed at some point. That’s normal.

However, what is it that we have to have within us to keep moving forward despite the obstacles in front of us? A part of you will have to dig so deep within your being in order to find your strength, your courage, and your tenacity. And that’s okay. We all have to do some digging. Those qualities are not always readily available on the surface of who we are.

Here are some tangible tips to move forward with when you feel like quitting:

  1. Write down why you chose to follow this dream in the first place. Why is this important to you? You have to have a strong enough reason to do what you do in order to move forward through annoying obstacles. If your reason (or your why) isn’t strong enough, you will quit. That’s just a fact. If quitting seems more appealing than creating your art and building your business, then you’re following the wrong dream. If that’s the case, you need to create another dream that actually matters to you. One that you will never quit on.

 

  1. Revisit your goals, your daily business tasks from the past 30 days, and your business plan. If you don’t have goals, a business plan, or applicable business tasks from the past 30 days, start today and begin to create these items as part of your artistic business. Many artists don’t feel these things are important, but they are. If you’re looking for results, add these items to your list of things to do. I personally jumped ahead and got clients before my business plan was in place. I experienced success, but then found some holes that I needed to fill in in order to keep moving forward. With the help of my Business Strategist Shaun Arron Cassidy and guidance from the Small Business Development Center of San Diego (SBDC) recently, I’m on the right track.

 

  1. Reach out to your existing clients to see if there is anything that you can do for them. Giving and pouring into another person’s life will actually recharge and rejuvenate you to want to continue to move forward – despite those annoying obstacles.

 

  1. When you network, whether it is on social media platforms or in person at networking events, “be present” and “listen” to people. It’s in your genuine listening and paying attention where you will discover solutions to other people’s problems that can be solved with your talent and skills.

Today’s LESSON is to look from within when you feel like giving up in order to figure out how to keep moving forward.

FUN ASSIGNMENT: Choose one task that you’ve been putting off doing for your business, and begin working on it this week.

Please contact Nitara Osbourne if you’re a full time artist, and would like to be interviewed in The UnCloseted Professor Blog or if you would like help developing your life story into a non-fiction book or movie script. InfiniteWriterAgency@gmail.com.

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