My One Thing for 2022

A few years ago, I went to listen to an artist talk about her process and my take away was to read the book “The 1 Thing”. I got it on audible and started asking myself what was the one thing that I could do that would make everything else easier or unnecessary. The concept is if you can drill down and find the one thing that you can do to make everything else easier or unnecessary and then do that one thing first, then everything else will be easier or unnecessary. Right? About 18 months ago, the one thing that I could do to make everything else easier or unnecessary was to go to bed on time. To be honest, it still is. When I want to stay up late, I remind myself that I am trading my productive tomorrow for a few hours of enjoyment or streaming time right now. Some days I still mess up, but for the most part I’ve conquered the vise…. unless I’m on vacation.

Last year I tried to figure out what my one thing for the whole year needed to be. I wanted to do so many things though. I tried to horn shoe all my projects and habits and business changes into one year. I felt all over the place for most of the year and while I got a great exhibit together, it feels like that is all I got done. Yet 2021 brought clarity and focus on what is my one thing for 2022: Building my audience.

Everything I do needs to support that one thing. And if it supports it, then I can do it.

About 5 years ago, the kids and I got to go to Romania with my husband for a work trip. I was so excited. I knew it was what we needed to do. After we got there, I realized that I alone was going to be responsible for 4 of our 5 kids every day in a unfamiliar large European City while my husband went to work. I wondered what I had signed myself up for. But every day was a new adventure and every night I would write a little email about what we saw that day and what discoveries we made and what we learned. I found myself writing the email during the day in my head. Every night, I pulled out my Note 4 and typed it up in an email to friends and family. I really enjoyed myself and the feedback I got said everyone really enjoyed reading it. When we returned home, we moved to a new community and I was tempted to keep writing about the new things I discovered there, but since most of my friends and family lived near this new town, I decided it wouldn’t be very interesting for them and perhaps I was grand standing just a little bit.

Recently, I decided that maybe I should write a blog every night documenting what I did for the day. That perhaps my 50 or 60 people strong audience might enjoy the insights and the choices I’m making in my artist life in real time. Then I could use my blog posts as fodder for other marketing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and possibly YouTube. After all, my script would already be written.

Tonight is Day 2 of my daily blog. And as I started writing tonight, I realized that Writing a Daily Blog Post is the one thing that I can do which will make Building my Audience easier or unnecessary. And just like that I knew what I needed to do.

What is the one thing you can do that will make everything easier or unnecessary in your life?

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Teaching Impressionist Art

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