PERSISTANCE

I subscribed to Lesley Riley's newlsetter and the other day she published  an article on being Persistant.   I wanted to post a version of her newsletter because it gets right to the heart of being successful at achieving goals. 

Are You Where You Want to Be?

We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are.
~ Tobias Wolff

If you're not where you want to be, it is because you gave up too soon. It's that simple. Persistence wins out over talent every time. Do you ever look at someone else's art and say, "I could do that." I bet you've also had an idea for something and then seen it in print or online.....created by someone else. It happens to us all at one time or another.

I know that you are capable of doing whatever you set your mind to. You were born with an innate talent. Some artists appear to have been born with a silver pen, pencil, needle or paintbrush in their hand. Others, like you and me, need to work at it, to persist in finding and developing that innate talent.

At an early age, so many people assume that if something doesn't come easily for them, then they are just not cut out for it. 95% of them will give up on a dream way too soon after a few unsuccessful attempts. The other 5% will persist and go on to fulfill their dreams and ambitions.

Persistence means no excuses. You know the saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." You need to be tough to get going on your dreams, tough enough to take a no excuses approach. That means calling yourself out on all those reasons you have for not taking action on your dreams. 99% of the time your reasons are excuses. Do you know where excuses come from? Excuses arise from fear.

Persistence requires a thick skin. Rejection, set-backs and disappointment are all a part of any success story because success requires risk. Risk means going out on a limb and limbs can break. Success requires being uncomfortable. It requires stretching outside of your comfort zone, time and time again, in order to achieve the kind of artist success you desire. It means feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

Persistence requires never taking NO for an answer.
Persistence is what makes things happen. History is full of examples of men and women who persisted through and against incredible odds and circumstances to change how we live, think and act - Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey to name a few.

Surely you can muster up the persistence required to make your art dreams come true. It can be as simple as getting up each morning and saying, "Today I am going to_______," and then doing it. That's all it really takes.

Here's what another wise Riley had to say, James Whitcomb Riley -

The most essential factor is persistence - the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.

I must say I agree. How about you?

Published newsletter by Lesley Riley, The Artist Success Expert, is the founder of Artist Success, Solutions for the Struggling Artist. To receive her bi-weekly articles on creating your own success as an artist, visit www.ArtistSuccess.com.

Quilting Swap

I am behind in my posting.  My goal is to post once a week.  However,  I just read a piece in the Sunday paper that addresses resolutions.  I should celebrate the small achievements and not beat myself up over the misses,  so there I am Celebrating that this is my first miss and I have been updating my blog.

I have been following one of my fellow quilter's blog and the topic of her post last week was "Why I Don't Do Swaps".  Really a topic near and dear to me.  If you are not a quilter I will explain what a SWAP involves.  There are many versions,  but the basic is that you complete a project and send it to another member in the swap group and they complete a project and send it to you.  There is usually a theme to the SWAP.  I belong to a yahoo group of African American Quilters,  who at this time of the year have an Black History Month swap and a Mini Quilt Swap going on.  I am participating in the Mini Quilt Swap and I have just completed my project and need to get it into the mail by the deadline.

The positives of participating in a swap are that it pushes you to do your best because you are sending this project to one of your peers.  You get to see how others use thier creativity.   There is a sharing of techniques and ideas that you could incorporate into your knowledge base.  Not to mention,  IT IS FUN GETTING ART IN THE MAIL. 

I am always hesistant in participating because I am always concerned that my work will not meet up to the standards of some of my peers.  I feel that I am still practicing and some of my stitching may not be straight or my measurements might be a little off.   Then I have to think that this should be fun and not stressful.   As I make this statement I hope that my Mini Quilt partner likes my quilt and is not too critical.