Smart strategies for artists who procrastinate

'Being who you are that's happiness' 

 I made this canvas when we moved home is appropriate for today and it's a wonderful day, got up early, did some miracle morning, meditation and personal development, taken the dogs to the park and all the leaves are glorious autumn colours, crunched through leaves, found a pine cone and discovered this gorgeous scented flower in our garden. Had coffee and a danish and now I'm going to do some creative work.

I have really been  trying to get my bum into gear and be proactive in my business which I do find difficult because I love the creating bit and still imagine successful business women in suits (can you imagine me in a suit hahaha) so it's undoing all those limiting beliefs, I posted in Leonies forum and got great support and some cracking answers. 

This is what I asked:

What do you think this is about? I am really creative and have billions of ideas, I start loads of projects but rarely finish them, I know I'm talented and have a 'gift' and if I got my ass into gear could do pretty well I think but everyday I wake up with great plans but then faff around, read a book, walk the dogs, snooze, eat food, watch a film etc anything really to avoid doing what I should be doing. The thing is we are now really struggling financially and it's either carry on with my art or get a job (which I really don't want to do) so have any of you been thorough this? Any tips to make me be proactive? 

Loads of various answers came back but the ones I found most useful were:

Read anything by Barbara Sher. (I have started looking at this author and feel she will be a good fit with my scatter brained approach, let me know if you have read any of her books)

First, don't think about how long something is going to take just tell yourself you're going to do fifteen or twenty minutes. (I like this because it doesn't seem too long if I get bored)

Sit down and write all about your fears and blocks around success. write down every "disadvantage" of being a successful artist/woman; your beliefs around financial success; everything you have heard about those topics that is negative or any comments from people throughout your life that say YOU can't become successful. Once you know that you can work on them and see how false they are. 

(I like this because I know I have some weird ideas as above the suit thing)

Make a "someday maybe" box or folder for your other ideas. (This is brilliant for me because I like making and creating so this could work really well and the symbolic gesture of shutting the lid on my ideas will help)

So with all that in mind I went onto my Pinterest vision board this morning to visualise and ended up finding this awesome site for creatives

I have been printing some great worksheets and reminders too last week, this was Sunday night organising for the week, I need to get my ass in gear and be the best I can be, I want to be financially free and travel, eat out, have holidays and move from Blackpool so I'm going to ride my wild donkey and get stuff done this week!

Love Dotty xx

Beneath every strong, independent woman ...truth

 

This... this is so true, 

just because I now choose to be positive and happy doesn't mean I have always been this way, 

I have learned, I have grown, awful things have happened in my life, I have suffered tragedy, had severe depression, had an eating disorder, been abused through domestic violence, felt abandoned when my dad left when I was 7, am now an adult orphan with no parents, been a single mum to 3 boys for 8 years, 

things I do not wish to disclose to anyone but you know what, I don't feel bad, 

I don't want revenge, I am not a victim, I am not 'in recovery', I am recovered and everything that has happened to me, has made me the person I am today and for that I am thankful, 

 everything that has happened, happened for a reason, it made me strong, it made me realise that I can choose to dwell on the past and feel like a dark cloud is over me or I can choose to be thankful, 

I choose to see the good, I choose to feel positive and shine my light. Everyone has a past, everyone has a story, no one knows what that is unless they are told. 

Don't automatically judge a person on how they are now, it's often taken a long and winding road to get to where they are today.

 Love Dotty xx

Do you feel good about yourself naked?

I am a big follower of all things positive and try to see the best in situations, always a glass half full kinda girl, you know, I appreciate the sun, the birds singing, the crisp sheets on a freshly made bed, I am thankful for my wonderful life but the thing that doesn’t come quite so easy is when I am naked, looking at myself in the mirror.

 

Forgive yourself

There is a lot of forgiveness I need to do, a lot of inner soul work, its hard, its painful but I know it needs to be done. We have changed our foods, our toiletries, we live as eco as we can, we work on lots of other aspects of our lives and now its time to work on ourselves.

Thin, fat, tall, short, any shape or size we all have hang ups, I have been reading a Louise Hay book You can heal your life, so far its a great read and has made me question so many things, it has made me realise the hang ups I have stem back to learned ideas that control me without me even realising.
So this made me go back and think about why I feel the need to cover my tummy that is flabby and full of stretch marks, should I not embrace those marks and think how amazing it is my body has grown 3 healthy boys?

Yes really I should, I need to change my thoughts, this can’t just happen though can it? by changing the negatives to positives, is it really that easy?
We according to Louise Hay who’s strategies and ideas have worked for millions of people says that it is ” Believe it or not, we choose our thoughts".

We may habitually think the same thought over and over so it does not seem we are choosing the thought. But we did make the original choice. We can refuse to think certain thoughts. Look how often you have refused to think a positive thought about yourself. Well you can also refuse to think a negative thought about yourself.”

Baby steps.

This makes sense to me, I think baby steps are needed with truly loving yourself,
Years ago I really didn’t have much self-esteem after a violent and mentally abusive relationship, I believed I was pretty rotten and fat, that no one would ever love me. It took a lot of time and kindness to myself, plus the advances of several men to make me feel better, I did this slowly, every time I passed a mirror I would smile at myself, then eventually when I was comfortable with that and it came easy to me, I would then add a compliment in my head to go with the smile like ” you are beautiful”. I sort of tricked myself at first into believing it and then my confidence grew. I had a 2 year period of being single and in this time solely focussed on myself, I painted, I sang, I read books, played music, lit candles, I did all the things I would do if I had a date coming round but I did them for me. I dated myself.

True love

I loved myself, then I met the man of my dreams, my soul mate, my love. I think we couldn’t have met any earlier because that work on myself needed doing. It is ongoing, I still love myself in many ways but as I have put weight on these past few years, I think from feeling content and secure in my relationship and enjoying food so much I have a negativity about my body again. I am working on losing the extra weight gradually, through better choices and doing more so I can feel happy fully with myself again when looking at my naked body in the mirror.

Love Dotty xx