12:55PM: I was nearly backed over by a car. I was walking across a parking lot with my fiancee when the (distracted) driver pulled out of her parking spot at a quick speed. Our shouting, whistling and dodging out of the way was enough for her to keep pulling back further into us.
Despite my fiancee pulling me out of her path, I was still hit in the hip and have some bruising and stiffness today.

I've been in similar situations, but this instance was particularly infuriating--had I been a child, I would have most certainly been swept under the vehicle. And she didn't stop.

12:56 PM: My fiancee approached her window and said something along the lines of "What's the matter with you? Why can't you look before backing up?!"

12:57 PM: To the driver's credit, she looked embarrassed. She apologized meekly, and proceeded to leave. As we proceeded to our truck, her passenger rolled down the window, and told us that "we shouldn't be so mad" and "we're f*cking fine" and "we're trying to start something out of nothing".

The driver looked still more embarrassed. They promptly left.

4:15 PM: two separate clients confided in us about a fellow dance parent who had been badmouthing our company and our policies to others waiting for their children's class to end, making it uncomfortable for our longstanding clients to endure the hour wait.

This was not the first complaint. We asked her to drop her child off rather than wait with the other parents, to avoid recurring drama.

4:17 PM: The dance mom in question, irate, informs us she has "no filter", and has "some self-respect for herself and her daughter", and would not be returning, would be attempting to "elevate the issue legally" (on which grounds, she has none. We granted her a partial tuition refund anyway). 

8:50 PM: It was a hell of a day. I sat and reflected on the two instances--neither were singularly uncommon in a metropolitan city nor in the life of a small business director, but in such close conjunction, it led me to a place of deeper clarity on the subject of "self-respect".

A value many of us have, but perhaps do not reflect in our actions, is humility over mistakes. It takes courage, self-awareness, empathy and true mindfulness to break the cycle of defending one's pride or perceived insult after an embarrassing misstep, when in reality, our true conscience often knows we're in the wrong. 

The incidents of this day exemplified a trait I've occasionally encountered in others: The equation of pride and ego with self-respect. This couldn't be more wrong. 

While each of us may have our varied definition of self-respect, this angle is detrimental to one's personal and social development.

By dismissing an evident wrong or fault in our actions in favor of blinding, often tangential self-defense, we miss an opportunity for self-reflection, and subsequent growth.

The simple act of reflecting on one's actions, especially in moments of embarrassment or guilt, is incrediblly empowering as a tool for understanding our daily impact on the world around us, and how we wish to be perceived in it.

Having once succumbed to this incoherent behavior, I can see how the fearsome vulnerability of admitting a fault can overshadow a subconscious awareness of our mistakes.

We become who we are, day-to-day, through our habitual behavior. While this particular style of reaction may be hard to change, it is important in times of vulnerability to distinguish who we want to be. 

Self-respect is committing to personal development. Honor yourself with mindful, intentional self-reflection and openness to growth--no matter who's saying "it's your fault".

It's probably not news to you that our shared culture of consumption can lead to time wasted--and artists are no exception.

Research shows that 40-45% of our daily actions are comprised of habits we've formed, good or bad. Bad habits eat away at our time to develop as people and as artists.

 If you’re looking to increase the time you have available to invest in your art practice, you may want to look at your habits.

When you successfully track, eradicate, and replace a habit, you find that the time spent on a less-than-fulfilling pastime like social media scrolling is suddenly available.

How to make more time for your art practice by eliminating time-wasting habits:

Track the bad habit
If excess screen time is your definitive culprit, there are plenty of (ironically digital) apps dedicated to monitoring and reporting, and even controlling your device usage. Try these out for size.
To monitor time spent doing anything, take notice of when the habit begins, time the duration of a session spent doing it, and log it for later analysis. Again, there's a built-in app for that on most smartphones.

Eradicate the bad habit
After analyzing the potentially embarrassing amount of time wasted on an undesirable habit, take actions to eliminate it. Small, consistent actions, accountability and affirmations are key to this.
A few suggestions:

• Write down your specific intention to eliminate or restrict the habit, and keep it somewhere you can look at it every day.
• Proclaim that you are the type of person who does not partake in such a habit.
• Keep yourself publicly accountable by sharing your intention with another person or group.

Replace the bad habit
This is key to making a bad habit-turned good stick.

To truly make more time for the activities you want to do, you must make it easy to replace the current bad habit with the desired new one.
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For example, if you'd like to spend more time in the studio instead of binge-watching Netflix after a long day, set up your environment to make it easier and more rewarding to remember and commit to artistic development—an inspired, dedicated space to work, maybe even with some aromatherapy candles and mood music--it needs to feel like a reward each time you choose the desired habit.

What habit are you ready to eliminate and replace? Share your intentions in the comments, and you're one step closer to making more time for your art practice!

It’s a brand new decade, and artists are poised to take over. As the world becomes more visually driven, art is becoming increasingly valued (and ever-present) in the aesthetics of daily life.
Society is shifting towards a resurged support of the arts, and artists can take advantage of the momentum by implementing new strategies to grow their practice.
Here are a few suggested goals for artists in 2020:

Increase Your Output
Artist’s block is real, and post-holidays it can be difficult to come back into the studio and make fresh work. Challenge yourself to create at a more frequent, even time-constricted rate to generate more pieces and explore different methods of fabrication.

Even if you feel your work is mediocre when rushed, you’ll be developing a habit of consistent making. Besides, some of the best-loved works of art were created in a matter of minutes.

Goal: Make one new piece per week. For better or worse, you’ll have 52 new artworks to show (or hide) by the end of the year.

Learn How to Write Better Grant Applications
There is a staggering amount of art funding that goes unapplied for in the U.S. If you’re not taking advantage of opportunities to better fund your projects, someone else will. While it can seem overwhelming if you’re new to the process, you’re not alone.

There are courses, workshops, blogs and communities dedicated to educating arts on grant writing, and like any solid art practice, it gets easier and more fluid with consistency.

Goal: Attend a grant writing workshop in-person or online. Join a local meetup or even a Facebook group to have your grant applications peer-reviewed before submitting.

Be Bolder in Marketing Your Work
Whether you realize it or not, we all have a personal brand, and it’s likely out there on the world wide web already. It’s up to you to dictate the way people find, discuss and engage with you and your work.

Digital marketing can be daunting at first, but there are plenty of resources to learn more about search engine optimization for your website (Don’t have one? There’s step 1). Social media can also be a great way to share your work with a wider audience, and even generate direct sales with a new fan or patron base.

Goal: Get consistent with making professional website updates and social media posting. Upload new photos of relevant work as they are made, create a blog, and research how other artists are succeeding in selling art online.

Aim Higher
Ever fall into imposter syndrome when you’re in a creative lull? One of the best ways to snap out of it is to simply put yourself out there, whether you feel ready or not.

Start with a lofty, but attainable professional goal (a museum show? A new gallery deal? A solo exhibition? A pop-up) for the year. Be specific (try the SMART goal method) to help you see it through.

Goal: Set a SMART goal for a bigger project or exhibition this year, and use time management techniques to stick to it.

Make New Connections
Fellow artists can be your biggest resource. The insights your peers have to share are invaluable, from fabrication techniques to writing proposals to simply sharing in your journey.

Take advantage of the artist communities available both in your area and online; you may find you like the camaraderie just as much as what you’ll learn from each other.

Goal: Join a local or even online-based artist group, where you can learn new skills, share your work, help to promote each other’s practices and build a support network.

In that same spirit, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn, so we can both being to grow our networks and share in our creative human capital. Happy New Decade!