The Importance Of Mindset For Artists And Creatives

Your mindset can make or break the success in your business and in your creative life, both in the moment and over time. Here’s how to address a mindset that’s holding you back and make the necessary changes that will set you up for success.

This post is part of the 60 Day Project – one post a day to help you prepare your business for success in 2021. Subscribe using the button below to get new posts sent straight to your email.

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Defining “Mindset”

Another way to think about mindset is to use a different term – set of beliefs, worldview, or perspective, maybe.

Your mindset encompasses everything you think, believe, perceive,etc to be true about something.

You have a mindset about food, sports, religion, politics, business, and yourself.

As I’m sending this the day before an election in the United States, you can see how someone’s mindset can affect their opinions and decisions.

If your mindset is that there are “sides”, and that the “other side” is bad, then you’re going to vote the opposite of that side, right?

You can start to see how a mindset can be a good thing or a bad thing. That it can enable you or limit you in what you’re able to choose, do, and achieve in your life.

Why Your Mindset Matters

Let’s refocus on our business. What are some common beliefs that people have that hold them back?

• I can’t because…
• I don’t have money/equipment/connections/time
• I’m not ready
• It’s never been done before
• They can because they have all these advantages…

Now, how enabling is that mindset? Does this set of beliefs help you feel inspired or motivated? Heck no!

We haven’t even started to try yet, and we’ve shot ourselves in the foot mentally.

Without a proper mindset – proper being defined as something that helps you, not hurts you or holds you back – you will never become what you seek to become.

Ever.

There are two types of mindsets we want to look at this month – momentary and global.

The global mindset is the long-held beliefs and views that you’ve held for a long time, the things that guide your life.

• Money is good/bad
• Being an artist is/isn’t worth the risk
• The purpose of my life is…

These are worth looking at to make sure that the things you believe still align with who you are now. It’s common to find that we still have beliefs instilled by our parents or teachers from when we were younger that have never been reconsidered or checked.

As you age – go through college, relationships, job and career changes – your beliefs can change, but you need to give yourself permission to look at those long-held beliefs and question if they’re serving you or holding you back.

The momentary mindset is where you are in the moment.

• How you feel when you wake up
• How you feel when you get to the office
• Whether you’re stuck on a project or not
• How you interact with others
• How you feel when you get home
• How you treat your partner and kids

This is where I want to start today to get some quick wins for you and your mindset.

How To Start Changing Today For The Better

Take a minute and review the last week. How many times did your momentary mindset cause you to feel frustrated, lazy, crappy, unworthy, looked down on, or insignificant?

How many times did you feel great when you got up, ready to face the day? How many great interactions did you have that left you and the others you were with feeling lifted and happy when you left? How many moments of joy did you experience throughout the week?

What do you see when you think about these two sets of questions? Is your mindset helping you or hurting you?

Here’s the awesome news: You are 100% in control of your mindset.

No one else has any power over whether you feel good or bad, inspired and motivated or down and out.

Mindset is a choice.

As we’ve seen in the examples in this post, the way you choose to show up has a dramatic affect on your ability to do the creative work you seek to do.

It affects your interactions, your work, your clients, your fans, your relationships, and the success or failure of your business.

So, today, make a new choice.

Do you want to improve your mindset? Then choose to do it.

Do you want to show up in a different way at work and at home? Then choose to do so.

Remember, it’s 100% in your control.

Daren

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If you’re looking for more on mindset, check out the Make Something course on Craftsman Creative – the first few modules are a deep dive into mindset and aligning your beliefs with your actions to get the most out of your creative work.