Art Goals 2021

Goal Setting & Mini Habits

Most people fail to maintain their good resolutions after a few months or even weeks because :

1.  They lack a deeper why and
2. Their goals are too broad and generalized, so they don’t have a defined how

Let’s say your goal is to get better at drawing. Tat’s great, but why do you even want that?

You, WHY, your deepest motivation, is what will allow you to move forward and push through resistance and hard times.

I really can’t stress enough how important it is to have a vision for the future.

• Do you want to get better because you want to share some beautiful artwork that makes people dream?
• Do you do this for yourself, so that you can be proud of yourself to go all in for what you stand for? To make someone you love proud?

Next, your how:

• How can you make that happen? What does “get better at drawing” even mean to you?
• How do you measure it?

In order to achieve your goals and keep on track, make them measurable. Actually, define them into small steps and bigger milestones. This will allow you to see your progress, be clear towards where you’re heading, and easily adjust if you go off track. Also, securing small wins every day rather than one big win after several months is just more motivating and builds confidence.

Concerning our mission to get better at drawing, you could define that your start out focusing on characters and anatomy only. That makes it already more achievable as it’s clearly defined – because otherwise, it would be so broad with, I don’t know, mastering landscapes, animals, gouache, digital painting, lighting, composition, … see how broad “getting better at drawing” can be, and why it’ll be overwhelming if you don’t clearly define what you want to focus on?

Now, once you’ve defined that you want to improve your art, look at the how, the milestones you can set. This could be for instance understanding the muscles and drawing dynamic characters. As this is still relatively broad, You can now chunk it down once again in the smallest, easiest actions you can possibly think of. Milestone “understanding the muscles” could be :

• Day 1, studying the torso’s front view
• Day 2, studying the back
• Day 3, studying the arms.

And it really depends on you – if that’s still too overwhelming, break it down even more! For instance, day 1, studying the torso’s front view and days 2 and 3, revising that same topic and drawing a dozen torsos every day.

Everyone will work at their pace and setup their mini-goals differently. What counts is that you break things down so that it almost doesn’t feel like work anymore, and guarantees your success, step by step, day after day.

Goal Setting Reversed

Sometimes your goals are quite big and ambitious, way beyond the cute “improve your art” from before, Maybe your dream is creating a super cute mascot with merch that sells in stores all over the world, something like Pusheen or Molang … because they’re cute, and we need more cuteness.

As this is a way more intimidating and abstract goal concerning the HOW, you can get some ideas by reversing the thought process. Cutie-Mascot is sold world-wide, how did it become famous in the first place? It was actually noticed on social media, and your online shop where you were producing such cute merch. And to get to this point, you had to: 

1. Look up manufacturers for the goodies
2. Setup an Etsy store
3. Create a strong brand on Instagram.

Do you have any of that yet? No, because you haven’t even defined your super cute mascot and you don’t even have a name for it yet! So the first milestone would be to just create that mascot, which can again be divided into several easy action steps like creating 10 design sketches, thinking of a name, even googling cute animals to brainstorm ideas and decide whether it’s a bunny, a cat or a… dinosaur?

Reversing your big goals, defining milestones and dividing them into easy, actionable steps will allow you to move forward much more easily.

I always loved that quote of “That dream was planted in your heart for a reason. And this reason, whatever it may be, is important for you, so give yourself your best chances to go for your dreams – starting with the smallest actions possible which will help you achieve win after win, day after day”.

My ArtBiz Academia’s Members Club! 

Last month, I introduced the website and Instagram, and if you’re not there yet, GO follow the page @myartbizacademia! It’s full of free useful content to help you grow your sweet art biz, with overall freelance tips, interviews with artists and more!

The Member’s Club is meant to dive much deeper into developing your art business and getting the resources and support you need. There will be some regular masterclasses, which are in-depth courses on specific topics that can’t be covered in a 10 minutes video, for instance commission walkthroughs, how to setup a WordPress portfolio and online store, …

The goal is to give you the most concise pieces of information with simple, immediate action steps you can take to immediately apply to your own work, so that you can save time and focus on being creative.

Additionally, I’m also thinking about hosting some live sessions where people can submit their projects, ask questions and get personalized guidance. And it won’t be only me! I’m currently working on getting other “mentors” artists on board to share their own knowledge in other industries. When starting out, I thought it was all about one against another because it’s such a difficult job, but after a few years of loneliness, I had the chance to be surrounded by other adorable and supportive creatives. And that’s what I want for you, too, because that’s usually not a job where you can ask your parents or school councillors for advice. No offense, but artist alley, influencing and stuff are still not conventional enough!

 It’s already difficult enough, so STOP trying to figure it out all on your own! We can do this TOGETHER, as a community! As I’ve been supported when starting out, I want to give back as much as I can, and support you with all I’ve got now that I’m in a position to do so.

The Academia Members Club will open its doors the first week of February. I’m planning so much content, mentorships, classes, and I can’t wait to share it all with you! If you want to get some early bird treats, you can already head over to myartbizacademia.com and sign up to the waiting list, to be notified when the doors open.

afterword

So, what are your goals for 2021? What do you want to achieve? Comment below and let’s keep each other accountable!

Good luck for your own goals!

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