How I Found My Goal Focus

This post's reading time is about six and a half minutes 🌙

Hello Moonbeams,

It is one thing to want to pursue a creative career and another to figure out how to do it I have found.  I wanted to talk a bit about how I decided what to focus on goal-wise this year as well as the mistakes and successes I have had with my goals thus far.

What is my biggest goal with my career?

Over the last few years my goals have shifted around a lot.  For a time, I thought that in-person shows were going to turn out to be the way to go but as you all know by now, that drastically changed last year which lead to me focusing back on my online presence.  I do miss some things about online shows, but ultimately know they are just not something I like doing that often.

One of the biggest things that has shaped my career over the years has been focusing on building something as close too ideal as possible.  Like most jobs, working for oneself is never easy, but easy was not necessarily my goal.  Fulfilling was.  So things that leave me completely drained, or take away from my core truths are things I try to either avoid, or work on eliminating over time.  Choosing to turn down certain jobs, and pull away from more profitable, but  less fulfilling work has had its cost but although I can sometimes get scattered, I guess I have never forgotten that my biggest goals are to build a fulfilling life with a lot of freedom, specifically for myself and my muse.

All of that sounds a little bit cloudy and whimsical which means that I have sometimes found it hard to break things down in a practical way and know where to focus.

How did I decide what to specifically pursue in order to achieve my goals?

Focus.  Admittedly a weakness of mine.  When I get stressed I tend to multi task and overwhelm myself, sometimes falling back on bad habits and not progressing at all. This has been a big enemy in my career as a whole.  As such, I had to make getting clarity one of my biggest goals.

Between last year’s many hurdles, I began to get an idea of what I needed to do this year in order to strengthen the career I was building.  A career that focuses on being totally independent of needing to work for anyone (unless I choose to because the project is a good fit/brings joy) In February I began taking the Making Art Work 12 week course which you have likely heard me talk about a couple of times now.  It was so good for helping me refine my vision.  It was overwhelming in the sense that I had SO many new ideas and goals and things to work on and a bit of confusion on where to start.  But as with many things, I usually just need some time to let ideas mature organically before I can weed out the ones that do not work, and focus on those that do.

Over the last four months I have frequently had to evaluate my business as a whole and see where I am falling short.  For example, a big goal for me was to overhaul my website and brand to be more inline with my personal vision.  I also wanted to elevate  my presentation (photography, packaging, framing, etc.) Which has been one of the things I have focused the hardest on when it came to the business side of my work.  It is amazing just how much I feel I was able to improve after getting clarity on what I wanted and I could not have done it, if I did not first make getting clarity an important goal, and take the time to sit down, and deeply evaluate where I was at.

How I kept my goals in focus.

I think some of the hardships in my career were what it took for me personally to realize that if I did not learn to evaluate my career, and figure out some direction, the business side was going to completely burn me out.  The best way I have personally been able to keep my focus is with frequent re-evaluation.  And not just mental evaluation but written evaluation where I look at where I am, and prioritize areas to work on.  Especially when I feel overwhelmed and struggling. I also absolutely have to make sure I work in a lot of creative time or I start to feel bitter toward my career when I feel like it is holding me back from my first love (art making) Learning how to create working routines has been a life saver on helping me to keep up with my work on retain goal focus as well.

How I let things fall through.

I mentioned how focus can be my enemy. You might be thinking,  “But, Aria, you always talk about working so much and having trouble taking breaks! It sounds like you are always focused!” Haha…you have heard of “Work smarter not harder” right?  Someone once told me that and I got so offended but gosh I wish I had made it my anthem!  I may work a lot but it is not always focused work. 

I know I have said it before but I am naturally SO disorganized and overwhelmed. I used to be rather lazy too.  If not for making organization and tenacity a goal over the years, I would probably not have any sort of career at all.  All that said, I still have weeks where I just drop the ball with myself.  I am pretty good at prioritizing any sort of professional deadline because keeping my word to galleries, clients, etc. it sacred to me.  Keeping my deadlines with myself can be trickier though especially if I am having a bad mental health week.  Admittedly, my depression and high anxiety feels like a constant battle in my career.  I am not trying to blame those things, but I do have to be aware of them.  And I am trying to be kinder to myself when those things start taking over my mind.  When it gets bad, I just try to think about what I can accomplish,  instead of what I cannot.  I would say something that is possibly a fault I have, is that during those bad times, I do not give myself much of a break and instead fall into patterns of multi tasking without focus and very little accomplishment.

What I have accomplished so far this year.

So, to end this long post, I thought I would summarize what has been going well.  You probably know how hard it can be to mark your own progress sometimes.  It can feel like we are going nowhere.

✦ So, goals I am pleased I am making progress on would be that I rebuilt my website and am working on redoing all my photography which finally matches the vision I have always had for it.

✦ I am also sharpening my overall vision as a whole which is probably my biggest feeling of accomplishment. Constantly thinking about the small details of what I need to pursue.and untangling the hundreds of little webs which used to feel like a foreign language to me.

✦ And perhaps, best of all, I have been getting better at setting boundaries with myself, my career and other people.  Learning to say no has long been a major struggle of mine but I committed to doing it more this year and goodness has it begun to reshape my way of thinking.  If you struggle with that as well, just know that the more you say no to things that do not serve a true purpose in your life (or that you feel called to do for genuine reasons) the easier it gets.

And through all this I have been giving myself some really good painting time and making sure to always prioritize my muse and not get so caught up in business that I completely leave it by the wayside.

If you feel really lost in your own pursuits, I hope this chat can give you ideas on how to find clarity.  It does take a lot of work.  Starting with finding clarity on what you truly want, and then finding the steps you need to take to get there, be it through education, self evaluation, or a mix of both. Being forgiving when things go wrong (because they will, and that is totally okay, some will go right too), all of these things have truly been leading to a lot of personal growth for me, and for my business.

Photos by Liquid Luck Productions ♡

Be well!

~Aria