I’ve just come off the back of an intense month of working in my other business – my art practice. The week following the end of the show always feels like being in a vacuum – a bit numb, not quite relaxed enough to sleep well, feeling the need to be doing something as well as knowing there are things that need to be done to tidy up…then there’s the washing that hasn’t been done for a couple of weeks and the house that hasn’t had much attention for a month.
I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, with an art practice running alongside the consulting and training for 14 years. It’s pretty much the same experience every time – a period of variable motivation and self-doubt comes on the back of living and breathing my latest creation for an intense period of time.
Taking a leaf
In trying to work through this, it brought to mind some advice I gave to my teenage daughter recently. She’d just missed out on a spot she’d been coveting in a sporting team, making the development squad instead. Not long after, some of the players in this team left, leaving the future of the development team highly uncertain.
“…just keep turning up and believe in yourself.”
I told her to just keep turning up and believe in yourself. Even if you haven’t got a team, turn up to training and work hard. Someone will eventually notice. They did. She’s now part of the team she’d wanted to be in from the start. It’s an approach that translates into business as well.
It’s a full week since my last art installation was packed away, and today I had a very ‘loose’ to do list in my diary, designed to make me think today had some purpose. I just had to take a leaf from my own book and turn up…in the hope that with some consistent work the belief and motivation will come back.
Taking stock
I followed up some leads, tidied up some folders, updated my social media accounts and websites with my latest achievements and thought more about what I want from the rest of 2016 – which has by most standards been a massive year already, even with eight weeks left to go.
I’ve helped more than 150 people this year so far, through the delivery of 12 social media workshops, approximately 40 one-on-one coaching sessions, and two e-books; I created new benchmarks for regional event marketing in my role with a new music festival; I facilitated the creation of a much loved new street art work in Dubbo, created by one of Australia’s best street artists; I got professionals talking about what they wanted to do collectively through facilitated, outcome orientated meetings; I was able to contribute my strategic communications planning skills to my work with a natural resource organisation; one of my art videos was selected and shown at a Vivid Festival event at Carriageworks in Sydney; and my new sound/video installation that recently debuted at the national regional arts festival was considered one of the highlights of the event…plus I spent three amazing weeks in France with my family and managed to make a short, experimental film for a local film festival just for the hell of it.
Taking the challenge
I’m sure everyone in business goes through a slump at some point. From my experience, taking stock of the successes is a good reason to just turn up. It’s OK to take a breather before taking up the challenge again and getting on with it.
If you’re interested in working with a creative, professional communicator who is keen to connect communities, contact me today.
Kim V. Goldsmith 