Athena Dreams Design

A Start to Re-Defining Success

I've been thinking a lot these past months about success. I've spent time with friends in conversation about success and what it means to us. How we define it as a culture. How I define it for myself. How the idea of success can creep in and change a moment, and how we all have our own measuring stick for what success is for us.

This past weekend I went to a Battle of the Bands at a local high school with my husband. One of his private music students was in one of the bands playing. There were some great bands, and there were also some nervous kids and some false starts and some out notes, but overall it was a truly great night. I sat there in the audience listening to each band play there 3 or 4 songs: some covers, mixed in with some originals and I felt gratitude.

I felt gratitude to each and every one of the kids that got up there to share their gifts, their passion, their excitement and their hopes of winning because it reminded me that I am on this path to do the same; to share with others what drives me to create, and keep creating. It's the winning that I sometimes trip over, the idea that in the process of working towards a creative goal there may be a winner and there may be a loser.

And I might be the loser.

I might not get into a show in a gallery I've always wanted to show at, one of my illustrations might not get picked for the poster that I was competing for, my design work might not get accepted by a publisher that I so hoped to work with, and etc.

Watching those kids jump around on stage, playing music together, having fun and sharing their hearts, I thought: wow, this is success. It's the trying for something and following through. Win or lose. Good or bad.

For me personally, I am looking at re-defining what success is, and that doesn't necessarrily include huge licensing deals or a solo show in a big gallery. It does, however, mean trying for something and following through. Would I turn down a big show or a great deal? Of course not, I'm not crazy. If I don't get either does that make me a failure? Not even close.

Every day I get up and try for something, even if it's just settling down the ugly voices in my head, or cleaning my studio because I can't find my favourite drawing pencil. Each day I get up and think about the projects I have on the table or on the computer monitor or on the easel and I'm excited to dive in and solve a problem or finish up a project that's just about there and make notes on the new ideas I gather during the creative process.

Every day I show up in my own life, on my own creative path and I create, and I've made my living this way for a lot of years now. So the beginnings of my own personal redefinition of success equals going for something and following through.

My husband's student's band rocked that high school auditorium and had people up on their feet yelling and clapping and waving lit up cell phones in time with the beat. The crowd was yelling encore encore as they finished their last song.

They didn't win.

Were they successful? Damn straight they were.

And What About Pinterest . . .

I accepted an invite from Pinterest sometime in its beta stage and didn’t really do anything with it until well into 2011, and at that point I fell. And fell hard. A dream, a hope that I never knew I had, was being answered: a place that I could keep track of favourite artists, favourite words, colours, design ideas, really anything and everything on the internet that inspired, provoked, healed, blossomed, and cultivated any kind of feeling inside of me . . . and yet, there are also some feeling of unease.

Join me over at Scoutie Girl today, where we're talking about Pinterest.

Is There Enough Life in Your Life's Work?

We all go through periods of getting intensely wrapped up in our work, in our goals, in our dreams. It's part of being human. It's part of being self-employed. It's also part of that little habit of putting work before anything else for any number of reasons. {I will not use the more formal word, but you can maybe guess what it might be.}

So my thoughts for you this week on Scoutie Girl: Are You Leaving Enough Space for Your Life in Your Work?

Are You Sweating Something?

It's that time of year to gather the receipts and get going on the taxes. It's also that time of year when I get deeply into berating myself for not having kept up with the receipts and the spreadsheets every month. But this year I decided to stop that, and found that working with my natural inclinations and leaving aside the berating worked oh so much more smoothly. Visit Scoutie Girl to read the whole piece.

December 2011 .:. Biz Goals

Ok, so November has passed us by, and here we are at the last month of 2011.

So, for November here's what I had:

1. Finish 2 more journal designs, and then get to the binding and producing - finished designing, but am not loving the way the covers are printing, tried 3-4 different papers, still experimenting
2. Jewels - made and more being made
3. Flower series - not started yet, BUT I painted 4 pieces for a Holiday Art show at artstream gallery
4. Contact 2 licensors this month TWO! - nada
5. Finish the website (it's seriously almost done!) - mostly done, ALMOST done, except for the blog (but it's linked to this one for now), oh and my artist statement and like that, have a visit: http://www.lizkallochdesigns.com

So for December:

1. Contact 2-3 potential licensors
2. Get packages off to 2 companies that are interested in my design work
3. Re-work and FINISH artist statement for website and for portfolio
4. Teahouse Studio Art Fair
5. Pattern design
6. My word for 2012
7. Play and experiment in whatever down time I have from deadlines
8. Breathe. Deeply. Slowly. Breathe.

So December is staring us down, and I'm planning on giving it a little wink back. Here comes the last month of 2011, and so let's make it fabulous, and creative, and dynamic, and restful, and rejuvenating and all around wonderful.

Hope you all have a great month, can't wait to see what you all have planned!

IF you are new to the Meet Up, here's the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month's goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.

Push Through or Pause? A Thanksgiving Tale

Officially, Thanksgiving is over. The dishes have been done. The house cleaned up. And if you are someone who runs your own business making and selling a service or products, you have been gearing up for one of the busiest times of your year.

Just when the light is less bright, and the evenings are chilly and cold, just when squirrels and birds are going to bed at 5pm and some of the much bigger animals further north are settling in for their long winter’s nap, you are perhaps putting in longer than even usual hours, maintaining your online shop, working on your marketing plan, rewriting copy, creating work and photographing that work. You might also be working art fairs and craft shows, and getting the word out about your work in person.

Any way you look at it, you are busy.

Read more over at Scoutie Girl today . . .