"Have the courage to turn away from everything that doesn’t feed your soul."
- Alisa Barry, from the enCOURAGEment deck
As an artist and entrepreneur, I’ve been thinking about many things lately.
The state of the world. The state of my being. The impact of the business I’ve spent more than thirty years building. The art that I try to create on a daily basis. The pace and flow of my days. What I want more of. What I want less of. And, perhaps most importantly, what I want this next chapter of life to look, feel and be like.
As part of a creative project called the enCOURAGEment series, which I originally made for my friends, I made a newsprint journal. Twenty lessons I had learned in the last twenty years. Revisiting the list feels as true today as the day I wrote them. Building a business, making art, taking risks, navigating adversity and trusting my intuition. Now, more than thirty years into this journey, and ten plus more years of experience and perspective, more questions come to mind.
How do I continue to build a life that can hold the work I love? Do I still love my work? What still feeds my soul and what do I need to let go? How do I expand and evolve a business that supports my life, rather than a life that is continually organized around the business? How do I make more time to study and practice, to define and create my art? What does success look like when time, freedom, health, creativity, relationships, travel, nature and simply being alive is the true bottom line?
Whether or not you are an artist or have a business, we are all artists and entrepreneurs of our own lives. Like business, there may or may not be a definitive plan for building a life. There's rarely the straight strategy that accounts for adversity and all the unexpected turns. We improvise. We adapt. We persevere. Like an artist, we work with what's in front of us and make it beautiful. The greatest artistic and entrepreneurial act is to continuously create and evolve ourselves as human beings.
It's hard to believe it's been thirty years (plus two). Here are the original twenty from my Artists & EntrepreneursenCOURAGEment newsprint journal:
20 LESSONS
I’ve learned from being an artist & entrepreneur for twenty years.
- Trust that no one knows your business better than you do.
- Don’t shy away from hard work if it is good work.
- Nothing happens until you put your intention into action.
- The best bottom line is the one that buys you the freedom you desire.
- Take time out for restoration & rejuvenation.
- Entrepreneurs are artists. Business is an art.
- Adversity is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
- It’s not just about WHAT you do, it’s about HOW you do it.
- Beauty is underrated.
- There are no “experts.” Everyone is trying to figure it out.
- Nothing is wasted, everything matters.
- Learn to love what you do or do something else.
- Work with people you like to eat with.
- Everything is simple, but not necessarily easy.
- Focus on the practice, not the perfect
- Work is a holy act of art.
- Your intuition is your greatest asset.
- Be generous. There’s enough to go around.
- Give yourself permission to do what you love.
- What you do in your spare time is probably what you should be doing more of the time.
Here's the plus ten I jotted them down last night. They may change or get edited over time. And, as I have learned over the years, sometimes “first thought" is the “best thought. ”
21. Let life be your biggest priority.
22. Sustainability is the capacity to endure.
23. Always keep evolving.
24. Set aside one work day a week to “do nothing,”
25. Don't betray yourself.
26. Nature heals most everything
27. Have personal practices that have nothing to do with your work.
28. Bigger isn't always better. Focus on being the best.
29. Everything begins with an intention.
30. Think of your business and art not just as business or art, but as a vehicle for artistic expression, creative collaboration and personal transformation.
I'll be printing a new and updated journal soon. Until then, you can catch the last few of the original journal HERE.
You may also enjoy the BE BRAVE enCOURAGEment cards, a deck of 52 , each different, to be used daily, weekly or when you inspiration, or give them to someone who could use a little encouragement to brighten their day.
And one lesson that's not on the list, but one of the best lessons I've learned. Take time for Sunday Slowdown.
With gratitude,
X Alisa