Motivation and Inspiration - moving through your day!

Friday morning musings...

This blog idea was suggested by my daughter...thank you Erin!

We as artists have a double-edged sword if we are to be in this business - how do we motivate our business and how do we stay inspired in our artistry?

They seem to live on such opposite ends of the spectrum, and yet, we can find ways of intersection to connect them, and then, allow them to live completely and utterly in their own energy when needed and necessary!

Perhaps the greatest advice I ever received simply this: DO something concrete for your business everyday, and FEED your artistry specifically everyday.

So, using that as a template, how do you DO that?

Both are actions and yet often motivated from different energies.  I would like to encourage you to find those energies and recognize the differences and know that  isn't equal! Some days your business energy will be busier, and some days your artistic energy will be fuller - there are no rules! Follow your instincts and follow your NEEDS.

We all learn differently, so it makes sense that we process differently and organize and function differently.  Make TIME each day for your business and then ALLOW time for your artistry.  

Often, we feel we must accomplish HUGE things each day or it isn't a successful day, when simply, a small and significant task can be enough.  Certain tasks are not completed in a day.  The journey of artistry certainly is not! So why do we put such demands on ourselves?

Perhaps the most significant thing is to BE PRESENT in your day.  Some of the day will be constructed within linear time, and some of it will not.  What do you DO with it?  How do you function within it?  

Being an artist DEFIES linear time!!!! Being an artist is not defined by what you do to pay the rent but rather by WHO you are becoming and HOW you are developing as an artist.  How are you present in THAT journey?

Giving yourself a few moments as you start your day to REMIND YOURSELF WHO YOU ARE can be grounding and centering!  Allowing for a moment of stillness and realization is often all you need to ignite that sense of "being" before hitting the pavement for either your day job or your business that day.

What motivates you? What inspires you?  And I now add to that question....what motivates/inspires you TO DO SOMETHING????  Whether it's to do something for the business of you or the artistic you - what are those things?

What allows you an opportunity to stay fresh, grow, develop? Are you taking classes? Lessons? Seminars? Workshops? Your craft and your artistry need to be FED and INFUSED and DEVELOPED - how are you doing that? 

How are you developing that feeding BETWEEN the lessons and the classes and the workshops? 

What music inspires you? How? Why?  Do you attend performances? Why? Why not? What types of music, what types of performances inspire you? motivate you?

Do you journal about your discoveries? Do you journal about your business developments? Do you recognize when the artistic discoveries intersect with the business achievements or are they separate?  Are you seeing the patterns that emerge in your life as you journey through?

Do you have hobbies or interests that are creative and nurture other corners of you?

What inspires you generally? specifically?  Have you ever actually thought about that? Perhaps recognizing what truly CAN inspire you, WILL inspire you and motivate you more fully to explore YOUR potential.

I am asking questions, only because I can't give you the answers only YOU can give yourself!  ANYTHING is possible and there are no rules - only the boundaries you create for yourself.  

BEING PRESENT and recognizing what you gravitate toward can give you further realizations. Our artistic spirit is often trying to communicate with us, if only we were present!  

Staying motivated is not about huge leaps but rather one step at a time.  A step is movement!! When babies learn to step, WE CELEBRATE!!! Why can't we do that with ourselves as we step as growing artists? As artists developing the business of "ME, INC"?

We learn to invest in ourselves by DOING for ourselves.  Investing takes a MOMENT and a REALIZATION.  And it grows from there.

And sometimes, the DOING is simply being still and BEING in that stillness to recognize stillness can gestate into the next...

LIVING your artistry daily manifests itself in many forms.  EXPLORE it daily.  CLAIM it daily.

DOING for your business requires your FOCUS daily and it doesn't mean HUGE TASKS but rather, a small sense of completion.

Some days, the business will outweigh the artistic and other days, the artistic growth outweighs the business.  Each day brings its challenges and its rewards. And each day is a NEW day.  We need to be pliable enough to MEET IT as best we can, and take it as it greets us!  If we are growing and developing artists, working toward being in this business, then EXPECT a little of both each day - and DEMAND a sense of it each day from yourself.  GO OUT AND GET IT!!! 

If you are an artist, you are an artist when you wake in the morning and while you dream at night.  NOTHING can change that, and only YOU decides who and what touches that.  

My father often said when we complained "I'm bored", simply this: "Boredom comes from within".  I will take that template and expand it thus: We can find ways of external motivation and inspiration but ultimately, if we are artists, "Motivation comes from within."