3 Things to Give Up for a More Fulfilling Artistic Life

Original blog date: 2/28/2019

By Kathy Beekman, Art Career Coach and Professional Artist

​Are you getting more stress than joy our of your artistic life?  Do you feel like you can't get enough done in your day?  Do you feel like you need to clear space around you so that you can breathe again?  Would you like to feel more in control?  Then consider giving up the following:

1.  Smartphone Time.  Do this and you'll have more time to create art, talk to people (face-to-face), interact with your thoughts, clean your office or studio space, take a walk to clear your head, and daydream.  Most people feel more in control of their lives when they implement screen time limits.   ​ Learning to put down the smartphone is going to take some time.  Many of us are truly addicted to it.  Rather than thinking of this as a habit to break, reshape your thinking.  Tell yourself that you will form a new habit.  Begin by regularly setting time during the day when you will not look at your Smartphone.  Perhaps, for example, you'll first look at your Smartphone after breakfast and not before.  You'll start feeling like you have more time.

2.  Complaining.  It's not realistic to say that we need to stop complaining.  Some complaining and the way we complain can be beneficial.  It can help brainstorm solutions and we can receive helpful opinions when facing difficult choices or situations.  However, when we allow complaining to become a habit, it has reached a point of being extreme.  Colleagues, friends and family will find your complaining a turn-off and it will bring down their moods as well as yours.  Instead, focus on what you can do to change your circumstance and then-do it. 

3.  Excessive Art Supplies.  As artists, many of us collect more supplies than is necessary.  We gather too much of everything:  bubble wrap, boxes, tools and paint.  Many of these supplies become outdated, will never be used, and take up valuable space.  In a nutshell these "extra" supplies can clutter not just our space but our minds as well.

Give them to someone that can use them.  You will feel lighter and less distracted in your creative life when you declutter your supplies.

So how can you begin making your artistic life more fulfilling?    Start by taking a look at the three things mentioned above and choose just one.  Once you do this one thing real well, you can look forward to tackling the next.  And like anything, give yourself time to settle in.  It takes a while to create a great new habit.

What have you given up that makes your artistic life more fulfilling?  Would love to hear about it