Author: Dan Blank

All I do all day, every day, is work in the trenches with writers and artists. Today I want to share the 3 essential habits that successful creators use to battle distraction, create work that matters, and grow their audience.

Let’s dig in…

#1 Focus on One Thing

The first habit is to focus on one thing. I mean this in two ways. The first is that they have total clarity on what matters most. They have identified the projects they should be working on, and how these lead to their larger goals.

What this means is that they have to constantly say “no” to distractions and competing priorities, in order to say “yes” with vigor to what matters most. This sounds easier than it is. Often, we don’t say “no” because we fear letting others down, and the potential social backlash that can come with this.

The second way to consider the value of “one thing,” is how you focus your attention. Writers & artists who get things done are those who focus intently on the task at hand. They don’t have email up, aren’t checking Facebook, and don’t drop the paintbrush when they should be working so that they can check the news.

There are a lot of practical ways to focus on one thing. Successful writers and artist focus on their “one thing” in the following ways:

• They put the phone down. Or they set it to ‘airplane mode’ or ‘silent mode’ for a period of time. Or even, *gasp* turn it off.
• They make time to create. It is on their calendar, or part of their daily routine.
• They have communicated to others what their “one thing” is. They aren’t worried that by sharing this, the other people will reject them. I know, that sounds silly to many of you, but creating can feel as though you are welcoming others to judge you. When you communicate to others that you are creating, it is also a signal that this is important, perhaps more important than other tasks they would prefer you to be doing right now. The writer and arts needs to resist the sense of judgement this brings.
• They turn off email. Turn off the TV. Shut down the computer if they don’t need it for creating.
• They have standard methods of saying “no” with grace. This is indeed a habit. If you only say “no” once in a blue moon, then it will feel arduous, even painful. Make a habit out of this that feels kind and meaningful to both you and the other person.
• They assess their “one thing” and progress toward it at regular intervals. I think of these as reminders — that can be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly — that helps keep you on track to creating work that matters.

When I talk to people who create, one thing I hear often is that they are buried in email. It is a constant source of distraction and frustration. I want to help you fix this, so I invite you to Join me for a free workshop on Wednesday Dec 20th at 2pm ET: Inbox Zero Every Day. Finally Take Back Control of Your Time and Attention. You will learn so much in this hour, I’ll take you inside my personal system for having total control over email. Sign up here.

#2 Develop Systems that Free You to Create

Most writers and artists I know resist the idea of systems around their creative work. They prefer to be inspired by the muse, and to frame their creative work around this idea of feeling free. They worry that a “system” will make them feel constricted. That it will turn their joy into another boring task.

Yet, I have found that systems don’t need to be constricting. In fact, they can be freeing, allowing you to create more often, with more depth, and greater fulfillment.

Before we dig into this further, I think we have to talk about a hard truth. Creating is difficult. Really difficult. Even for writers and artists who are successful.

I saw this post recently from artist & illustrator Rebecca Green. It’s worth noting that she has 223,000 followers on Instagram — she is someone who is successful in so many ways. Yet recently she posted this:

“I have to be honest, my well is empty. Bone dry. It’s been a rough last six months and recently, strange as it sounds, when I show up to my drawing table, I have an immense urge to weep, sing, or run. Anything but make art. This is of course, extremely difficult when you make art for a living, so I suppress those feelings and keep pushing and showing up and am happy to do so. I am though, experiencing a major burn out that’s unlike anything I’ve ever gone through. Work has always ebbed and flowed with periods of intense creativity and moments of resentment, but this time feels a little too deep. I find myself unmotivated, lost, and not sure who I am, what I make or why any of it matters.”

Why do I share this? To encourage you to prepare for the fact that creative work is a journey. This is why I want you to find clarity in your work, to develop systems to support it, and collaborators (more on that below!) to help you along the way.

Don’t think that if you just reach a certain milestone, everything will become easier. Instead: prepare for success. Find your clarity, your systems, your collaborators.

What can systems look like for a working writer or artist? Some questions to ask yourself to get started:

• How do you know you will have the time and energy to create next week?
• How do you know when to begin a project, but also when to end — to publish and share — the project?
• How do you connect with others who appreciate the kind of work you create? Do you wait for haphazard connections during the 2 days a year you go to a conference? Or is it a system to reach out and connect?

Each of these answers can be comprises of simple systems you create for yourself.

#3 Find Collaborators

If you want to be certain that you will fail, then try to be a “lone wolf” with your creative work. Tell yourself that you need to do it all on your own. Successful writers and artists collaborate. They have a wide range of formal and informal partners in their work.

I don’t just mean having a literary agent, or a gallery who represents you. I mean having relationships with colleagues with create work similar to yours. Or having true connections to people who like the kind of work you create — not just having “followers” who clicked a button on social media.

One of my favorite ways to do this is via a mastermind. I just posted a new 30 minute podcast episode where I explain:

• What a mastermind is
• Why masterminds are a powerful way to ensure you make progress
• Different ways to create or join a mastermind
• My best advice on how to manage a mastermind successfully

You can listen to it on my blog or via iTunes.

I would love to know: what is one habit can you change today to make your creative life more productive?

Thanks!
-Dan

P.S. Reminder: My mastermind program is open for registration. Choose your own adventure:

• Craft Your Creative Roadmap for 2018
• Build Your Creative Power Habits
• Find Your First 10 Super Fans

Register for one of these here: https://wegrowmedia.com/mm/

Today I want to share simple steps to set goals for your creative work that you can (and will!) actually achieve in 2018. I want you to be able to battle distraction, avoid overwhelm, and truly take meaningful steps to improving your craft and sharing it with others.

(Heads up: I’m hosting a live chat about this topic today! Join me on Facebook at 2pm ET on my page: https://www.facebook.com/wegrowmedia/. I will talk through these tips, and would love to answer questions you have and brainstorm to help you set good goals for 2018.)

This time of year, I hear that common refrain from many people: “Where did the year go?!” Packed into that expression is a sense of regret that they didn’t accomplish what they hoped to this year. That they spent the year reacting to an onslaught of distractions that were created by others, instead of creating a clear path to their own focused goals.

Okay, let’s dig in…

Why Set Goals

“Goals” sounds scary though, right? Like a big ominous expectation that has no place in your days that are already packed with other responsibilities. Maybe you think, “Goals are for people who are more structured than I am.” Or “Goals are for people who have more free time than I do.”

I want to encourage you to think of goals as a way to honor what you know you are capable of with your creative work. Setting goals isn’t about becoming a rigid planner. Rather, it is about being honest with yourself about what you want, giving yourself permission to pursue it, and clearing the path to get there.

What I find in speaking with writers and artists is that they are often buried in to-do lists. These are usually tasks set by others, meaning that this person is spending their days reacting to the needs of others, instead of setting their own clear intention.

Goals are a firm way to be clear about what you hope to achieve, without excuses. It is about having to confront that within your own mind and your own heart. As actor and artist Jim Carrey puts it, “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

Setting goals are a way for you to stop waiting for others to give you permission to pursue what you love.

They are also a wonderful mechanism to maintain control over your time and energy and avoid distractions. They allow you to wake up each week knowing what you need to work on, and provide a reason to not check Facebook or the news first thing in the morning; to instead, spend those 10 minutes on your creative work before the rest of your day begins.

What’s more, goals are also a framework to communicate to others what is important to you and why. Again, this goes back to waiting for permission. Oftentimes, a writer or artist will work in secret because they are afraid of judgement. They bide their time until they are convinced their work will have obvious public validation.

But that isn’t how great work goes from idea to reality. It is nearly always a collaborative process that requires social risk. It requires you to put your work — and yourself — out there, before validation is guaranteed.

Goals help you feel better about this part of the process, because you understand that this short-term sacrifice of uncomfortableness is in service of something bigger. Something you dream about becoming reality.

Perhaps what I like best about goals is that they can help you determine how you want to spend your days. Goals need not be an arrogant and bold statement of achievement. When done well, they provide a richness to your days because you feel total clarity with how you spend your time, who you spend it with, and what you are creating.

Get Clarity On What Matters Most to You, Then Double-Down On It

Stop trying to do more, and instead, focus your energy and time on what matters most. This is a mindset shift that states “doing more” is not the badge of honor; doing only what matters most is.

To achieve this, you have to set your priorities and make difficult choices. The writers and artists I work with lead complicated lives. They juggle kids, family, health, home, jobs, volunteering and so much else, all in addition to their creative work. What I have found is that those who achieve the most make polarizing decisions about where to spend their time and energy. It is rarely at the expense of things that they truly care about. In fact, what I find is that they double-down on those things.

What I encourage is to look at all of your goals together, not just “creative goals” as if in a vacuum.

Then, say “NO” to most things. But this is the key: say “YES” with VIGOR to those few things that you truly care about.

Use this as a decision-making tool when new opportunities come up. Should you go to that PTO meeting at your kids school? Do you binge watch the new season of the show that everyone is talking about on Netflix? Do you drive out to Wal-Mart for that big sale? Do you spend 20 minutes checking Facebook? The easy answer to all of them is “yes” because they scratch an itch. But the right answer is to consider your goals, and how you can instead use this time to work towards them. In some cases, that results in a “yes” to items above. In many cases though, the answer is “no.”

People who achieve a lot say “no” a lot. In doing so, they say “yes” to that which they care most about.

This is not just a process of setting goals, but one of considering what motivates you. You don’t want to be one of those people who starts that new diet on January 1 and then ends that diet on January 23. How to stay motivated? Set good goals. Here’s how…

How to Set Good Goals

Here is a step-by-step process on how to set goals that are clear and achievable:

1. Create goals that are specific. Oftentimes, grand goals sound fun, but are so vague that they are impossible to know how to break down into a clear step you can take on a random Tuesday.
2. These goals should be controllable by you. Don’t pick a goal of “I want to get published,” because that may require so many others to make choices on your behalf.
3. Good goals are measurable, meaning you have to have a clear way to know if you have achieved them or not. Be careful of setting goals based on vague feelings such as, “I want to finally feel great about my art!”
4. Align these goals to a defined timeline. Consider what can be achieved in a year, a quarter, a month, a week, a day. Set reasonable milestones that break down the big goal to smaller steps.
5. Consider your time and energy, and how you can look at your weekly schedule to optimize for working on these goals in small ways. Too often, people thing time alone is what matters, but I have found that your energy is the more useful resource to pay attention to. If you can spend even a short amount of time each day during a period where you have the most creative energy, it is astounding what you can get done in a week.
6. Break down goals into smaller components. At every part of this process, focus on one simple step. Keep breaking down bigger achievements into their absolute smallest component.
7. Put the tiniest step on your calendar or schedule. Make this unmovable when other priorities come up.
8. Achieving goals often requires simple repeated actions. Consider what habits you need to create, and try to remove emotions from doing them. Just do the work each day without judgement on whether it was “good work.”
9. Work with collaborators in this process. The surest way to ensure you will fail is to try to do all of this alone. Success requires collaborators. Identity others who can help you work through this and act as accountability partners.

Easy peasy, right? Wrong. This is a difficult process. It’s why I encourage you to do it with collaborators who can help you work through it and hold you accountable.

What are your goals for 2018?

Thanks.
-Dan

P.S.: Tomorrow is the final day to register for my January Mastermind sessions at the discounted price.

Every day, we each have the opportunity to not just consume, but to create. We can each make the choice to double down on a creative vision, and spend a few moments writing, drawing, crafting, or performing.

I encourage you to create every day.

This year I spent a lot of time on personal reflection with the goal of creating more. What I found is that growth can be scary. It can confront our comfortable habits, the narratives that keep us feeling justified to “just get by,” instead of doing even more.

My conclusion is that I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to create every day.

When viewing this as an opportunity, I found the time to write every single day since May 1st. I doubled-down on my creative work by signing a lease on a private studio space.

Yet when I speak to writers and artists, some of them tell me that they can’t create because they are stuck. This is what I tell them to help them get unstuck:

• Assess your path and find your inspiration. What inspires you to consider creating vs consuming? For me, I am inspired by great artists, writers, and musicians, so I hung their photos on the wall of my studio. It reminded me: to create is a habit. It is a lifestyle. It is an identity. But most of all, it is a small and simple action, repeated every day.
• Create a simple system. Many people avoid structure with their creative work because they are afraid that it will kill the muse. Yet, what I find is that all great art requires boundaries. I would encourage you to embrace any boundaries that you feel are holding you back. Make them a part of the creative process. One great reminder of this was the title of the book (and contents, as well) The Obstacle is the Way, by Ryan Holiday.
• Resist comfortable habits. Don’t confuse systems you are comfortable with, with those that will actually help you push your art forward. Growth is often about challenging comfort. I’m not saying that you need to live an arduous life of discomfort, but instead, I encourage you to experiment with new practices, new habits, and new ideas.
• Invest in yourself. Not just in money, but in energy and time. Many writers and artists tell me that they don’t create because they feel guilty taking time away from their family or job. While I appreciate how much they care about those other responsibilities, I don’t think that it should require that they sacrifice their own creative vision in the process. You should be able to create without guilt.
• Identify what holds you back. Oftentimes, what holds someone back are internal narratives in their minds that they use to try to keep themselves safe. They are narratives that say, “Artists shouldn’t earn money,” or “I have found the perfect system for creating… but something seems to always get in the way.” What holds you back is very likely not something outside of yourself. It is a mindset that stops you, or a narrative that convinces you that progress isn’t possible. Regardless, identify what holds you back, because that is the first — and most powerful — step in overcoming it. Name it.
• Prepare for success. While oftentimes in life you can’t plan for success, you can prepare. Ask yourself: what would I do if I actually succeeded with my creative vision. Put your energy towards preparing for this, instead of preparing for failure, which is what many people do.

Recently a writer told me that they aren’t quite sure what they are doing with their craft, but they know it will work out as long as they keep creating.

It reminded me that the process for a professional writer or artist can be very messy, and that they accept this and move on anyway. But the amateur gets tripped up. The amateur says to themselves, “Well, let me not be a fool and move ahead until I KNOW exactly what I should be doing, and have proven that I know how to do it. Because I don’t want to waste any resources. I don’t want to look like a fool.”

But if you go to the studio of a pro, you see it is littered with wasted materials that were used up on experiments. That for every finished piece, there are 100 abandoned pieces.

This is artist Alexander Calder’s studio:

It’s a mess, right? If you feel stuck and want to focus more on creating in 2018, I encourage you to find a way to take a simple step ahead and experiment via the tips above.

I will leave you with this: Be Diane Keaton. Here is a photo I saw from a friend on social media awhile back:

This was a Vanity Fair cover where Diane Keaton stands apart by being herself. There is a great backstory on the photo that illustrates the wonderful collaborative process of the creative team working with Diane, ending up with Diane wearing an outfit of her own design.

But what is missing in that backstory is how the decision was made that the other women would have a certain serious look, at a staged angle, and that Diane would simply be smiling, her entire body squared with the camera.

Every single person involved in this photo (both in front of and behind the camera) is a unique individual. What Diane’s stance, smile, and clothes do is simply remind us of this. To be “for” Diane Keaton does not mean that you are somehow “against” anyone else. Everyone here is wonderful in their own unique way.

What “Be Diane Keaton” means is this:

Be a creator. Be yourself. Be a great collaborator.

And what that means for you can be different things in different moments.

Can you create something new every single day? What would it be? What is the smallest way you can make that happen?
-Dan

For the past few years I have dug deep into researching what it takes to find success with your craft. How writers, artists, and other creative professionals can go from just dabbling with their work, to realizing their full potential, and changing other people’s lives.

Today I want to share what I have been learning. Some of what I found was surprising — it challenged the perception I would like to have about how to succeed.

What I have been piecing together is the success path that is common for many writers and artists. It consists of steps that breaks them free of struggling alone with their craft, and connects their creative work to the world in a meaningful way.

Let’s dig in:

Give Yourself Permission to Create

When I interviewed crafter Elise Blaha Cripe, she said:

“The number one problem that I hear from people who read my blog or listen to the podcast is that they have 100 ideas. They have so many things they want to do. My recommendation is to pick one idea and move forward.”

I have spoken to countless people who felt stuck because they had too many ideas, that they didn’t know which to pursue. They didn’t want to make the wrong choice, so the result was: they made no choice. They ended up half-baking several ideas at once, the entire time hoping that someone else would make the decision for them as to which path they had to choose.

The first step on the success path is to give yourself permission to create. To double down with vigor, on a single idea. And on yourself. As I have been researching legendary creators for my next book, I have been adding photos of them to the wall of my studio:

I tried to choose photos that showed each person in the moment of creation, or before they found great success. When their genius was perhaps less certain. When they were exploring a boundary that brought harsh judgement from others, not kind validation.

Each of these people gave themselves permission to create. With this permission came clarity. As they dedicated themselves to their craft, a path became clear to them.

• Ray Eames imbued her creative process with play.
• Bob Ross made painting accessible to millions.
• Kate Bush blended her sense of performance with otherworldly songs.
• Richard Feynman realized his gift was teaching.

They turned uncertainty into a roadmap. With it came the clarity to create, to finish, to push boundaries, and to effect the lives of millions for the better.

You Need a Process

Creation doesn’t magically happen. For many, it is a struggle, including for many of the world’s most successful creative professionals.

The second step on the success path is to see your craft is a choice, and to realize it fully requires a process. This process must be intentional, part of a larger system where you can get work done even when uncertain or unmotivated. This process will include habits that help avoid distraction, improve your craft, and push it farther than others would.

It is about creating a system of prioritizing what matters most to you, and engaging with collaborators who act as your support system. What I have found is that the surest way to fail as a writer or artist is this: go it alone. Great writers and artists establish support systems around their work.

If you want to know what this looks like in real-life, listen to some of my podcast interviews. What you will find is a behind-the-scenes peek at what creative work really looks like. The facade of “A writer just writes and the world finds it!’ slips away. What is left? Practical steps that you can take to develop processes and a support system to help ensure your success.

Embrace Your Top 10 Supporters

Stop trying to go viral. Don’t worry about how many people follow you. Instead, reverse that instinct. Consider: how can you invest in the 10 people who support your work the most?

Double down on these people, instead of turning a blind eye to them with the hope of attracting others.

Ask them questions, and really listen to them. Listening is probably the most important tool in your toolbox, if you are hoping to grow and engage an audience for your creative work. What you learn in the process is why someone engages with your work. You learn about them as human beings, not a simple number in your “follower count.” This brings your work into the context of where it matters most: someone’s life.

This can look like many things. Such as how, 5 years after reading your book, someone who needs strength remembers a character you created. Or someone who stares at your painting to find hope when all else seems lost in their life.

When you understand people at this level, you become armed with all that you need to engage with others. Stop obsessing about some social media trend. Start focusing more on human beings.

Conclusion

That’s the success path:

1. Give yourself permission to create, and create a roadmap for your creative work.
2. Develop processes and habits to double-down on your craft.
3. Invest in your top supporters, and really listen to them.

I’m curious, where do you feel you are in this process?

Thanks!
-Dan