Having a hard time developing a quest story? How about just a theme for the year? Make this your year to do something special. Theme examples: “I will focus on my writing above all else this year” I will show more courage in everything I do this year I will get rid of all the…

Okay, I’m assuming you’ve come up with a quest story, or at least a theme or a credo. That is your goal. Now write it down. Say it out loud. Tell it to somebody else. Think about it. How badly do you really want this? Be careful what you wish for. Why do you want…

The ability to visualize your goals puts you a long way toward reaching them. (You can’t hit a target you can’t see).  What do they look like? Project yourself forward. See yourself living as if they were already a reality. This intensifies your desire. When you can see it, you believe it. Let’s try it….

The first two letters of the word goal are go. So release the emergency brake and put your goal in gear by taking that all – important first step. To some extent, just having a clearly stated goal helps you reach it. If you put in a little effort, however, you’ll reach much farther. Here…

Self-limiting excuses hold back many writers from reaching their goals. Many people, a great many, in fact, have a goal to write a book.  I hear it all the time. Yet only a fraction of them ever do it. It remains ‘the elusive goal’.  I think it is more a case of wanting to ‘have…

When I am working on a book i give myself a page count and set a deadline. I find that very helpful. I know how much i have to do and when it as to be completed. If the book is to be three hundred pages and I have one hundred days until it is…

Many creative, inventive, imaginative people have struggled with an inability to focus at one time or another. The most successful have used this ‘fault’ to their benefit.  Focusing is not an easy thing to do. At any given moment, you have an infinite number of choices. The trick is basing your choices on your particular…

If you haven’t already taken the steps outlined in the previous story, you may recognize yourself in one of the following excuses. As creative people, we can come up with some pretty clever rationalizations for not having written goals – and they’re all bogus. “I already have goals’.  Fair enough. Are they written down? Can…

Someone once made the observation that you spend more time planning a vacation than you do planning your career. Why is that? Think about how you plan a vacation. You start out thinking ‘oh, i think i’d would like to go to someplace tropical (or historical, or educational, or exciting). Then you start to narrow…

It helps to expose and explore some of the myth surrounding creative careers (and careers in general) before you go any further. Things can look pretty glamorous from a distance, but once you are within spitting distance, you realize that this is not anything like it was advertised to be. It also does not help…

Realistically at most you should pursue only three paths at once. If they all come under the umbrella of one career, all the better. This means everything you do feeds one or more aspects of your career. An umbrella title like storyteller, designer, inventor or performer can get you started on a career path, while…

Early in the planning process, you need to find out evertyhing you can about the field you think you want to go into. What exactly do you do day to day in this career? What are the trends? Hoe did others get their start? How do you get ahead? What are the negatives, the benefits?…

Who are the most successful people in your field. Would it be possible to write, call, email them, or meet with them, ask for their advice? Could you learn more about their path by reading articles about them? How did they get where they are? Any patterns you could follow? What are they doing that…

Right brainers are big picture people, but when it comes to detail (the devil is in the details) they get distracted. The possibilities are limitless, which makes the concept of planning a career overwhelming. The answer is to break it down, then simplify it and streamline it further. Who is doing what I want to…

Visualize exactly what it will look like, feel like, be like when you reach your goal. For instance, you want to have a novel published by a large publisher and sold and promoted nationwide. Picture yourself signing your finished book for anxious readers. Whom must you persuade to publish your book? An editor. How can…

It is not where you start that matters, it is where you finish.  It may be that in the early years of a career (or career change) you have to get the coffee, make the copies, and do the grunt work. Do it with a smile and some savoir – faire. Give people more than…

Money both helps and hurts when planning a career. Too much, and you get soft and are unwilling to take any risks. Too little, and you can’t function. Even so, that is the biggest obstacle people throw out when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of planning a career: How do I survive while I…

Do you think you are above having to work a ‘real’ job to tide you over while you work your plan? Try to find a job within your industry (for an actor, it could be a behind the scenes job, for a dancer it might be assisting the choreographer or teaching kids to dance, for…

Choose either a or b for the following questions:  Success in a creative career is the result of:                                                                          …

Selling your talent is tough. It may even be distasteful, especially if you don’t believe in yourself. Many creatives defend their inability to sell as an unwillingness to sell out.  Get off your high horse. I am not the devil because I believe you have to get the word out. As a creative, you are…

There are two rules to keep in mind in your business career. First, when you give your word, always keep it. Second, don’t give your word. Okay, don’t give your word lightly. Don’t say, i will take care of it when it is one of the million things you already have to do and they…

We place too much emphasis on formal education, and not enough credit is given to the people who get out there and do something. Many creatives are impatient with traditional forms of schooling and are consumed by a need to be working in their art. So they make something happen. Your education and technical know…

‘Stop fooling around. You’re wasting your life. When are you going to grow up?’  Ever hear those phrases?  I did.  I decided that I didn’t want to have a life that I had to take a vacation from. So far, so good. Go find yourself. Take off.  Travel. Experience life. There is plenty of time…

The creative person is a jazz musician (improvising and experimenting) living in a pop music world (formula thinking, tried and true). When the two worlds collide, there can be a fusion and some pretty impressive music, or an explosion. Why are some people so difficult to deal with? There are several reasons, among them the…

They steal your ideas, destroy your deadlines, talk about you behind your back, take advantage of your generosity, criticize you and your ideas, and sabotage your success. They manifest as, and morph into, several different forms, but they’re all difficult people. Understanding them may help you to learn to deal with them. I like to…

My favorite way to deal with difficult people is not to get involved with them in the first place. If you know from their past behavior they aren’t easy to go along with, put some distance between you. If you don’t have any background on them, trust what your intuition says about them. Unfortunately, you…

Delegate means to trust others.  Let’s explore and explode some of the biggest myths about delegatee. Myth:  It would have been easier to do it myself.  Reality: Not if you gave it to the right person and explained it properly. Besides, if you try to do everything yourself, you stunt your creative growth and the…