The Artist’s Life Plan

Now, what are your goals as an Artist? As we mentioned in the last chapter, it is imperative that you have a vision for where you want to be in five, ten, and fifteen years. Now that you’ve made the Commitment to succeed as an Artist, it is time we put Ambition into practice. What do you actually want to do with your art? To what heights do you see it taking you? Keep in mind that without the eagerness to see yourself successful in what you do, you can never attain it. Vision must come first. Include this vision in your life-plan.

Right now, on a blank piece of paper, write in one sentence your greatest goal for being an Artist. Imagine this as the penultimate line in your obituary. What would you most like to be remembered for? Don’t sweat this too much as it will probably change quite a few times over the course of this book and the course of your life, but it is important that you do it now because we will be referring back to it.

Now, write down what you would like to accomplish artistically in the next year. Then write what you would like to accomplish in the next five years, the next ten years, and the next fifteen years. Go ahead, we’ll wait…

(Jeopardy theme plays in the background.)

Did you write them down? Do you have a good idea of what you’re trying to accomplish? If not, take the time to do it. We’re serious here. This is your life we’re talking about.

So you should have at this point some idea of what you’re trying to accomplish as an Artist through the next fifteen years. For your first goal, your one year accomplishment, you’ve got 8,760 hours to get it done. For your next goal, you’ve got 43,800 hours. Your ten year goal gives you 87,600 hours to become reality. And your fifteen year goal affords you 131,400 hours to reach it. Have you ever stopped to realize how much you can actually accomplish in an hour? If you think about it that way, it may just seem that you’ve got all the time in the world.

How much can you accomplish in a minute? For your fifteen year goal, you’ve got 7,884,000 minutes to get it done. Still think you can accomplish it?

Bear in mind, in that collection of minutes, you’ve also got to create your life. It’s safe to say that somewhere in those 7,884,000 minutes, you’re going to have to find time to sleep, eat, poop, shower, pay bills, exercise, pray, laugh, cry, stand in lines, wash your clothes, make your bed, make love, check your email, go to the doctor, read, entertain yourself, and address all sorts of other vagaries in life that elicit our attention each and every day.

Amid all of the commotion that comprises a human life in the 21st century, you’re going to do one of the most important things that anyone can do. You’re going to have to sustain relationships.

Chances are, unless you were a completely immaculate conception or raised by wolves, you’ve got family that want to spend time with you. If you’ve ever left your house long enough to smile at someone, you’ve got friends who want to hang out and have a good time. If you currently pay your bills by selling some of your minutes to other people, you’ve got employers and co-workers who require your consideration. And if you’re actively selling your art already, you’ve got a world of people awaiting communication. Not to mention the mailman, store clerks, government representatives, your mechanic, your barber, and all of the other people who symbiotically subsist on your livelihood in order to make their own living. In order to exist in this world, you’ve got to sustain a lot of relationships.

Who are the most important people in your life? List them on another piece of paper in the order of importance. Go on. We’ll still be here when you finish.

(People… People who need people are the luckiest people in the world…)

Did you make the list? Where did you place yourself? You need to be important to yourself in order to be important to others. Artists appear selfish to most, and often we are. However, it is not always based on our own self-importance. It is often based on a need to feel relevant in our art. Human beings do not make us feel good about what we do. They help, but it is the work itself that helps us understand who we are, and then where we fit. It is not until we are feeling secure about what we do and how we do it that we feel important to ourselves. Once we feel important to ourselves, we are more able to find our importance to others.

Integrity cannot be lost when feeling an eagerness for success. Integrity in your work reveals so much about you and your process. The quality found in great art is based on the intrinsic integrity within its confinement. It is not lost on me that we often push the very people away that mean the most to us when it is time to do the work and then go back and pick them up again once we have finished. It is important that when sustaining relationships that you explain this to family, friends and partners so that they understand that is the nature of the work and not a lack of caring. Communication is key not only between the vision we hold and the hands that express it to the canvas, but also to the relationships we sustain in the process. That said, pick up your list of important people, give it a kiss and lay it aside for a moment. They’ll understand.

Now, pick up that list of goals.

You should have at least five goals listed on the paper before you. Once for your life’s work, one for one year, one for five years, one for ten years, and one for fifteen years. Read them aloud. Is there a progression? Does the five year goal build upon what you plan to accomplish in one year? Does the tenth year build on the fifth? Imagine for a moment that you were only able to meet the one year goal. Would your life’s mission still be met?

Building upon the commitments we have made in the previous chapter, let’s apply these stations of life to our Ambition. For this, we need to do a little redefinition.

Tags: art, artist, CARDS, consciousness, creativity, Family, Health, synchronicity