Oops, Almost Forgot to Blog

It's 10:01pm on the final day of the one-week Your Turn Challenge and, after a weekend out celebrating a wonderful wedding, I almost forgot to blog today. I'll keep it brief with what I learned from blogging for seven days in a row. It was a valuable experiment. I learned that it takes dedication to blog every day, even for just one week. I learned that I do not want to continue, at least for now. I may revisit the idea of "shipping daily" later. For now, I'll return to keeping my daily writing private. It was a useful exercise to think daily about things you, dear blog reader, may want to read. My daily writing is self-centered. After all, it is personal; no one reads it except for me.

One thing I like the idea of doing in the future is a limited series of daily posts, perhaps on one topic or in one genre. Let me know in the comments if you have ideas for a future series.

I Got Myself Into This

Last week I wrote about how some successful writers/creatives swear by posting daily. I mentioned a few examples. One I didn't mention is Seth Godin. He calls getting his thoughts published "shipping," and does it daily. Last night found me spitballing to my family about ideas I have for Packing Lust, and about how I was playing with this idea of posting daily. My sister said that Seth Godin had a daily challenge coming up soon.

I looked it up, and of course it was starting tomorrow. With such serendipitous timing, I couldn't say no. Or rather, I couldn't just imagine I would do it at some vague point in the future. So I got myself into this 7 day challenge led by Winnie Kao, the Special Projects Lead for Seth Godin.

This is what happens when you say your intentions out loud. People give you suggestions and opportunities. It happened last night and after tweeting my intentions out publicly, I was committed.

I'm doing this as an experiment to see how the rhythm of posting daily feels. I tried it years ago and I couldn't maintain it.  Why'd I fail back then? Maybe I can explore that this week and figure out a way to avoid whatever the reason was.

It feels good to start following my own advice.

http://yourturnchallenge.strikingly.com/

The Power and Difficulty of Connecting Daily

I'm learning so much from my research into how artists make a living from their creativity. One thing that keeps coming up for folks that have quickly built a solid income up from zero is communication with their audience or fans. Not just any communication, daily communication.

 How to Get Rich Quick(er)

These creatives attribute their success almost entirely to the daily post. It's a ticket to success -- and transparency or honesty, which is a huge factor in our ability to connect with our audiences or market, no matter what line of business we are in.

I'm thinking of a copywriter/ online marketing expert who writes an email every day to his followers. He teaches all his clients to write the daily email, saying it is his key to success.

I'm thinking of the author of a diet book who posts a daily vlog to YouTube sharing what she's eating and how she's living a healthy lifestyle daily, as well as advice for those who want to be healthier. She has over 300,000 subscribers.

And I'm thinking of artist Jolie Guillebeau, who built her art business up quickly by sending a daily short email with a photo of the day's work and a story or observation about it.

She still sends those emails. I'm on her list and love the daily peek into a painter/potter's mind.

It's Too Hard

So why don't I do the daily post? Why don't most creatives?

It's like the story I heard in Hollywood. A well-known screenwriter regularly teaches a sold-out seminar where he takes hours to break down and analyse the structure of the classic film Casablanca.

At the end, he promises that if all present would just repeat the exercise regularly, they will because successful screenwriters. How can he make such a promise, he asks? He knows very few, if any of his students will follow through. No one is willing to spend the time on such a tedious exercise.

Daily posts take a lot of time. I tried it a few years ago and gave up because I felt I'd over committed and couldn't keep putting in the time to come up with thoughtful posts every day.

The other major obstacle to daily posts is feeling vulnerable.

There will come a day when you feel you have nothing to write, or that what you have to share is something that feels too honest, too vulnerable. But that just might be what connects you most to your audience - what creates a strong sense of loyalty.

I'm not saying that you have to post daily if you want to make money from your art. I am saying that if you want to build an audience relatively quickly, posting daily is a tried-and-true method. Of course, one you have an audience, you have do have to actually sell something to them. But that's another topic for another day.

 Don't Do What I Do

So, do as I say, and not as I do. Post daily if you want to quickly cultivate a passionate audience for your work.

And maybe one day soon I'll find a way to post daily too.

8 Tips for Creativity + Stress Management During Pregnancy

Prince Charming and I, adventurers that we are, created a perfect storm of stress by following this recipe:

Take 5 of the unofficial list of the top 10 most stressful life events you can undergo:

1. Having a baby.
2. Leaving a job.
3. Moving to a new continent.
4. Writing a book while launching a separate product.
5. Moving back in with the parents as an adult.

Stir. Then bake under an oven set at 350 degrees of jet lag and reverse culture shock.

My pulse is racing just listing out this recipe for stress.

So what's the recipe for serenity?

I've had an extra push of creativity these past few months, probably because I'm anticipating being completely and happily lost in baby-la-la land for a while once the little elf gets here sometime in early December.   Stress stifles creativity, so it's important for me to keep those stress levels as low as possible. (Oh, and that's right, it's good for the baby too.)

These tips might help you even if you aren't pregnant, but just going through a stressful time, as all of us normal human beings tend to do from time to time.

Here are some things that have worked for me to keep stress levels at bay so I can stay creative and keep working on the latest book and finish the 30-Day Map to Get Rid of Your Crap. I'd be lying if I said the following keep me in a state of queenly serenity 100% of the time, but they do keep me royally calm at least 3% of the time. Or maybe I just do them 3% of the time and it would help if I...

Do These Things More

1. Marrying well.

Well, this is actually not a habit I do regularly, but something I did once, and did well, even if I do say so myself. He recently asked me "what do you want for lunch, baby?" And I said, "Hmmm... I think Shrimp. Lime Cilantro Shrimp." This exchange happened in front of my mom, and she immediately laughed and said something like "If you can give that answer, you know you married well."

Besides keeping me well-fed, Prince Charming is incredibly supportive about all my creative endeavors. And even my eccentric pregnancy plans, like studying hypnosis for a more comfortable birth.

2. Yoga

Somehow it feels like cheating to call it yoga, because it's mostly stretching and deep breathing for me since I don't know the names of any of the poses. (Except for shivasana, my favorite.)  I've taken a lot of yoga classes, so I just do a lot of yogic stretching of any part that is soar or tight. It feels great and seems to help everything in life.

3. Sleeping a lot and taking naps.

I have always slept a lot, and of course now I'm sleeping for two, so I take as much horizontal time as my body wants. For a while in Palestine my  sleep pattern was bimodal. According to Wikipedia, "Along with a nap (siesta) in the day, it has been argued that this is the natural pattern of human sleep. A case has been made that maintaining such a sleep pattern may be important in regulating stress."

My body naturally started bifurcating my sleep when I was worried about our friends in Gaza during the ethnic cleansing massacres there this summer, worried about Prince Charming working in Gaza, and anxious about where and how I would bring our baby into the world. Now that I'm back in the US and feeling that my family is safer, I've been sleeping through the night and not needing naps so much.

4. Ability to work on the floor of a closet.

I'm writing this while squatting in front of my computer on the floor of a large walk-in closet. I love it. All I need to write is a private space, even if it's small.

5. Writing every single appointment down in Google Calendar.

I love Google Calendar. It did take me a while to get used to checking it and adding everything to it. But now that it's habit, it helps so much because otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep track of appointments, travel plans, and birthdays. Even if I'm not in a particularly busy phase of life, I rely on Google Calendar and tend to forget things when I don't use it.

6.  Eating tons of fruit and vegetables.

I have our nugget to thank for this, because the little monkey loves bananas and other fruit. I wake up craving a big fruit smoothie that I often add greens to like spinach and kale. I still eat plenty of pizza, I just try to load up on fresh produce as well. I polished off a watermelon this morning.

7. Meditation.

This one is so hard for me to do regularly. I skip days all the time. But if I can sit down in a quiet place for even 10 minutes, it seems to help. I don't really follow a particular technique. Sometimes I sit and breath and clear my mind. Sometimes I pray. Sometimes I meditate on things I'm grateful for, or do a forgiveness meditation. I just got an email from Charming's mom about this free meditation series. Maybe I'll do it.

8. Just doing it. (The creative work.)

Have you heard that the concept of will power is a myth? People who are able to stop procrastinating have learned skills to get the work done. I sometimes think of those skills as tricking myself, or turning things into a game. I don't sit down to write books because I have more will power than all the other people who want to write books, but don't. I sit down to write, probably because I told myself there might be chocolate involved, or that maybe after writing I'd get to belt out "Let it Go" with Elsa from Frozen one more time.  (I don't even have a kid I can blame that on yet.) Or, like right now, that I'll just START this blog post and it will be just a few words then I'll get up. And here I am at the bottom of the post.  Ha ha, Genevieve. Tricked ya again!

 What do you do in stressful times to stay serene? Please share in the comments so everyone on the internet can learn from your experience.

How to Write and Publish a Non-Fiction Book in 17 Weeks

I'm currently in the middle of a very exciting time: drafting my third book, tentatively titled 12 RITUALS FOR ART + INCOME: Learn and Apply the Habits of Successful Artists, Writers, and Other Creatives. 
 I thought I'd share with you my plan to complete and publish the book by the end of November, 2014.

The Plan

1. Week of August 4: Draft The Beginning (first chapter)
2. Week of August 11: Draft Chapter 2 and organize interviews
3. Week of August 18: Draft Chapter 3 and title research/testing.
4. Week of August 25: Draft Chapter 4 
5. Week of September 1: Draft Chapter 5
6. Week of Sept 8: Draft Chapter 6
7. Week of Sept 15: Draft Chapter 7 and begin cover design
8. Week of Sept 22: Draft Chapter 8 and ask for Beta Readers
9. Week of Sept 29: Draft Chapter 9
10. Week of Oct 6: Draft Chapter 10 and continue cover design
11. Week of Oct. 13: Draft Chapter 11 and ask for Beta Readers
12. Week of Oct 20: Draft Chapter 12
13. Week of Oct 27: Draft Chapter 13
14. Week of November 3: Draft Chapter 14
15. Week of November 10: Re-write and send to Beta Readers. 
16. Week of November 17: Complete cover design, write book description and any other sales copy or launch copy needed. Set up/spread the word about hard launch via Author Marketing Club.
17. Week of November 24: Incorporate the thoughts and edits of my beta readers and soft launch the book! (Hard launch will be December 30, 2014.)

Eating the Elephant

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time goes the cliche. The first version of the plan had me working on the book until the last day of December. And when I talked to Prince Charming about my plan to work right through our baby's birth and even work the week of Christmas (ha... ha ha, ha), there was enough eyebrow raising that I thought maybe there was a slight chance I was biting off like, huge elephant bites at a time when my life will already be a feast, metaphorically and literally.  So I tightened up the schedule so I can enjoy my baby and holiday time. I did this by making my elephant bites a wee bit larger earlier in the plan, but still chew able.  I allowed for those bigger bites by saying "no" to some other things in my life. This is the key you have to understand if you are going to fit more in.

Drafting to Soft Launch

The plan is a very tight schedule and includes up until the soft launch (the publishing of the book on Amazon.com). The hard launch is when the publicity takes place and the book reaches a wider audience.

If you have the time, I recommend adding a few additional weeks to give yourself some breathing room on your own book. I think 20 weeks is a good goal for this process.

Research Time

Please note that this plan does not include the majority of the research time for the book. I'll still be researching throughout my drafting time, but I've also already done a lot of the research.  This is a topic I've been intensely interested in for years. I tend to naturally collect information on topics I'm interested in, and I did,  both before I knew I'd be writing about this, and more systematically after I started blogging about it, sometime over a year ago.

Word Count Goal

The book will likely hit somewhere between 42,000 and 60,000 words. This is enough to get the point across without being too much of a time investment for busy readers. Each chapter will be around 3,000 to 4,300 words, so that's less than 1000 words a day. Hey, that's a pretty easy bite of the elephant!

P.S.  FYI I would probably never eat a real-life elephant.

Publishing

I use Amazon's KDP program which makes the publishing process both easy and very quick. See this post for more about why I love this program for self-publishing authors.

Your Project

I hope today's post helps you on your own book writing project! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or thoughts. Please share this post with that person you know who has a non-fiction book inside them just waiting to get out.

photo credit: Just Us 3 via photopin cc

My Top 3 Takeaways For a Wealthy Creative Life - WDS 2014

Part of my USA travels this July included a trip to Portland, Oregon for the World Domination Summit, "a  gathering of creative, interesting people from all over the world." More from the Eventbrite description: "Every summer, thousands of people travel to Portland, Oregon for an immersive experience in life, work, and travel."  

My top 3 takeaways for the creative life from WDS 2014:

Use your imagination to increase your bravery.

We are scared. Our imaginations, when used correctly, are powerful things. Put those two together and you have a recipe for bravery. Over and over, the speakers talked about how scary it was to take risks in life, business, and creativity. But if you use your imagination in a positive way, you can do anything. It's like the tired advice given to professional speakers to imagine audience members all naked. Stuff like that works. But here are some more original examples.

• Gary Hirsch got interested in how art impacts peoples lives for good, and hand painted a bunch of tiny robots, giving them away to people as "bravebots." He and a team hand painted one of these for every summit attendee. He's got photos of people holding these before they go in for chemo, surgery, and before doing other, less physically scary things, like, oh, write a book. His challenge to us was to "activate" our little bot by posting our brave thing on social media. So I did. My one brave thing: write and publish a book by the end of 2014.

• Tiny home builder Dee Williams came onstage wearing a "superhero cape" that was actually a Delta airlines blanket. Just that alone took guts. In a moving and hilarious speech, she talked about how walking around in her every day life wearing her "invisible superhero cape" gave her not only buns of steel and better posture, but an attentiveness to how she might help people around her in grocery stores, parking lots, and other daily-life places.

Declare yourself.

Saying your dreams out loud can be magical. A simple declaration of identity or action, spoken to an audience, has more power in your life than unspoken thoughts.

Speaker Elisa Blaha Cripe had trouble definining what she did. After lots of soul-searching, this is her answer: "I make stuff." And she really does. It's powerful because there's so much integrity in her statement. She is an artist and crafter and she is constantly creating.

She had us write down our declarations.

Mine: I'm a writer.

Scarier: I write inspiring books that help people live better, happier lives.

Scariest: I am love.

Take imperfect action.

This gem came from most of the speakers, but was most clearly stated by one of my favorites, Jadah Sellner, who told  authentic stories about the imperfections and failures that went along with her entrepreneurial journey. These stories were encouraging in light of the very successful business she eventually built (after lots of failure.)

I was struck by how the action people took was most assuredly and often NOT the action I would have taken. Ever. After witnessing the effects of an oil spill, "The Planet Walker" John Francis decided to stop riding in cars and took a 17-year vow of silence. Would I have ever dreamed up that response? No. Was it effective in changing things? For him it was, probably because it came from a true place inside him.

A fellow attendee, "The Poem Catcher" decided to travel the world with a large butterfly net. He asks people to write and donate poems and throw them in his net. Then he makes books and sells them and gives the proceeds to charity. Here he is:

These actions are creative, possibly insane, and probably imperfect, but they are working.

However, it's called imperfect action because it doesn't always work. Don't be afraid to try something else. There's no shame in trying and failing if you learn and try something else.

I'm writing a book on creativity, and will be focusing on that throughout this fall. I'll use this space to write about what I'm sure will be a very imperfect journey towards a completed book. I look forward to sharing it with you.

What do you think of these takeaways? Which one is speaking to you the most?

More About My Experience

This was my first time going to the summit, although I've thought it would be fun to go since I first heard about it a couple of years ago. It is the first event I've attended as an investment in myself as a writerpreneur, which felt good in that little-bit-scary, challenging way. I showed up alone, nervous about an entire weekend of meeting strangers. With over 3,000 other people in attendance, would I meet the right ones? Would I learn a lot, make exciting connections, and have fun?

I needn't have worried.

Before the first day was even halfway over, I felt that I never wanted to speak or blog again, because I had met so many good-hearted people doing wonderful, interesting, creative, world-changing things. People with so much to share, so much wisdom. All I wanted to do was listen and learn from these people. Of course the funny thing about creative and world-changing people is that they are curious and they wanted to hear about what I was doing too. Each person I met was encouraging and genuinely interested in what I was doing, some energetically offering helpful advice, encouragement, or connections.  I don't remember the conversational content of several of the most impactful interactions I had, just how they gazed into my eyes with so much gentleness, acceptance, love and undistracted presence that my life is changed for the better. Not a single person I talked to was cynical, jealous, or discouraging.

One B-schooler I met up with during the welcome party, Jackie Knechtel at Pure Vibrant Living, rushed me around, introducing me to about half the attendees, it seemed like. When I asked how she knew so many people there, she said that she'd traveled to over 50 countries, and just loved people. People loved her too, basking in her warmth and openness and hugs.

Throughout the weekend I continued to meet kindred spirits, like this wonderful woman who runs Alight Biz Solutions. She and I plotted together about creativity, project management, book writing, and empowering women in business. And we shared the summit's gift to us: a free hot air balloon ride.

3 Ways to Give Back and Improve your Creativity

I was recently talking to a young photographer-filmmaker, and he was telling me that he planned to teach media classes to high schoolers at the same time as he was building his own career in media. I thought what a wonderful way to give back.

People tend to think of giving back as something unselfish they can do with their free time - something that will serve others. It's true that giving back requires thinking of others, and it's best done without expecting anything in return.

However, the secret about giving back is that it can also be a powerful booster for your creativity-based career. While I think it's important not to be entirely motivated by what you can personally gain from giving back, I do think there's nothing wrong with being partially motivated by what you will gain from giving back.

Here are three ways to give back, along with how they can help your creativity-based career:

1. Teach.

Whether you're volunteering or teaching for pay, something about the act of sharing your craft and art with others can help cement your own understanding of it, and even help you make breakthroughs in your art. Hint: Teach before you feel ready.

2. Write thank you notes.

Expressing gratitude to those you've helped you learn to be a better artist, or to those who've helped your career doesn't just make people feel good. It also serves to keep you and your art in the mind of people who may be able to help you by giving referrals or connections.

3.  Give your art away.

This has to be done strategically, so that the perceived value of your art doesn't decrease, but occasionally doing things for free can really serve a person or organization who needs what you have to give. And the bonus is that when you give something away for free, people feel indebted to you in a positive way; they want to help you and your career in any way they can. I always sell more books than usual after I give a bunch of books away, presumably because people who got it for free recommend my book to their friends, who then pay for it.

Bonus: Another way you can give back is by commenting on blogs like this one.  Can you think of a way to give back that I didn't list? Comment below for the benefit of all the readers.  Thank you!

Looking at Hot Models: Creative Success through Mentorship

Think for a moment about the big creative dreams that make you feel amazing. Are you writing? Painting? Making abundant money from selling your creative work to an enthusiastic audience? Perhaps you sigh and think about why you aren't there yet. Maybe you have some fears or concerns that are getting in your way. Maybe you saw someone else succeed at cost to their family or health.

This is where mentorship comes in.  It's very hard to do something that we've never seen anyone else do.  Creative success on your terms becomes easier to achieve in direct proportion to the number of people in your life who are modeling the kind of success you desire.

Yet it's quite rare to have these models around you naturally. If you, say, you grew up in a family of rock stars, and you want to be a rock star, you are very lucky. Rock stardom will come much easier to you than to someone who has only seen rock stars from the mosh pit.

Most of us need to do a little bit of (fun) work to create mentorship in our lives. It's pretty easy.

I've boiled it down to three steps.

1. Find some hot models to look at.

No, not the Victoria's Secret kind, unless you aspire to design lingerie or walk the runway. Find people in your creative sphere who are on fire - whose success you want to emulate.  You probably already have someone in mind, perhaps the person who inspired your to get into your field in the first place.

2.  Do more research.

Often the first people who come to mind, upon closer inspection, don't have exactly the kind of success you'd like. Say there's an artist who's work you L-O-V-E, but you discover that he's deeply depressed and drinks heavily. That's probably not a lifestyle you see as optimal for yourself. So look for artists who are successful, happy, and healthy. They aren't hard to find once you scratch through the surface of the cultural stereotype of the drunk, depressed writer or artist.

Follow these folks you find on Twitter, bookmark their websites, and support their work in any way you can. Read up on anything you can find about the way they get the work done while maintaining a happy, balanced life. Soak in their example until what they've achieved starts to seem normal and do-able to you. Even if you never meet them, their example can do wonders for your own career.

3. Connect to a mentor.

Ideally, you connect to a mentor and build a supportive friendship so that you can learn directly from someone whose example you'd like to follow. However, in the real world, it's not always possible to build a friendship with someone who may be  in another country or simply too busy to take on a new protege. In these cases, your mentor can be a coach or simply a supportive person in your life who is willing to listen, encourage you, and be consistently positive about your ideas and goals. A good coach or mentor is someone who asks about how your creative work is going and helps you stay excited, motivated, and laser focused on the next step to take in the direction of your dreams.

Here are some good guidelines to keep in mind as you communicate with a mentor.

• There's no need to use the word "mentor" until your relationship is well established and has lasted years. It's a serious word and using it too early is kind of like proposing marriage on the first date.
• You may want to consider paying to be part of a mentorship program or hiring a coach who has helped other people achieve results similar to what you desire in your life. This is true especially if you work from home or work alone a lot, as those conditions make it harder to mix with people in your industry.
• If possible, make contact with more than one mentor and make sure you mention it to your other mentors. Some of my best mentee experiences have resulted by my letting a mentor know that I'm also working with another brilliant mind in the industry/area. It helps the mentor know that you are making connections and are ambitiously pursuing excellence.
• You job is to ask questions and listen. Don't use a mentor's time to complain; instead, ask for his or her advice about challenges you are facing and then give them an update about that challenge next time you meet.

Email Template

Finally, here's an example email template you can use to reach out to someone you admire. Make sure you customize it to your voice and personality.

Dear ______,

I'm a big admirer of your _________ and you inspire me especially in the way you ____________, _____________ all while _____________. (Specific qualities you've noticed.)

I'm a writer/artist/creator myself, and I'd love to know more about how you _______________________. Specifically, ______(One specific question they can answer in 5 minute or less.)

Thanks for being such an inspiration.

Regards,

If you get a response, feel free to send more brief questions. Be yourself and be ready to think creatively about how you can make their advice work for you.

If You're Thinking of Starting a Creativity-Based Business...

I wrote this self-coaching guide for Fairy Tale Life (before I moved my creativity coaching to Packing Lust) to help you decide whether you should start a business as a writer, artist, photographer, performer, designer, or any business where you will be offering a product or a service that you create or co-create.

 The outcome we are aiming for here is for you to make a decision to:

a) Start a creativity-based business as soon as possible.

b) Start a creativity-based business on a specific date in the future.

c) Not start a creativity based business at this time.

If you are considering starting a business with a partner, make sure both of you answer the questions individually, and then discuss your answers together.

THE QUESTIONS

1. Do I believe in myself?

I don't just mean this in a Disney musical sort of way. It's not just about believing you are a good person with talent. It's about trusting your ideas, skills, gifts, and ability to grow.  It's about believing in yourself when no one else does.There will always be times when other people validate your work, but when those people aren't around, or when other people criticize, you are your most important validator and encourager.  Can you find things to love about your work? Also, can you believe in your ability to persevere while you close the gap between the quality you aspire to and the quality you actually produce? This is the gap Ira Glass refers to when he says "It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions."

2. Am I growth and learning-oriented?

The first place this applies will be in your market research, that is, in talking to and learning from potential customers, clients, or fans.  Are you open to your business not looking exactly like you first envisioned? Can you learn about what people really want and need and apply those lessons to your business?

Can you build new habits that will at first feel uncomfortable or scary? Do you have the can-do attitude that is summed up in Marie Forleo's mantra "everything is figureoutable?"  Do you love to learn about how to improve your work and your business?

3. am I sincerely focused on and committed to this idea?

In the first question, you asked about your belief in yourself. The opposite of belief is doubt, and self-doubt is a powerful killer of dreams. The best way to combat self-doubt isn't through willpower to stop negative thoughts, but rather, the willpower to focus on your art and your vision of your business as you build it. Once you've researched your business idea, and made sure there is a possible audience for what you do, you've got to fully commit and focus. Doubt will certainly come up if you are human, but your focus and commitment need to be stronger than that doubt.

4. Can I help people connect?

Seth Godin writes, "In the connection economy, there's a dividing line between two kinds of projects: those that exist to create connections, and those that don't."

As an artist, your job is to create the work. As an artist who is also building a business, your job is to help people connect over the work. Do you feel comfortable in this role? Can you answer questions, foster conversations, and reveal your process enough to make people feel connected to you? Will your projects create connections?

5. Can I make the space?

To run a business, you will need to make physical space and time space. You'll need to actively manage your time, which often means using a calendar.  It means prioritizing chunks of time in which you will work with focused effort on your business. It means finding & paying for childcare if necessary. It means clearing out a room, closet, or other space where you will work.

6. Do I honor commitments to myself and others?

Danielle LaPorte says that the secret to success is to do what you say you are going to do. Of course, this is a high standard, and life is full of opportunities for white lies. (Did you really keep in touch with everyone whose high school yearbook you wrote in?) But language is powerful, and if people don't trust your words, or if you don't even trust your own words, then your business may falter.  Can you keep appointments and be on time, or communicate clearly if you have to cancel? Can you deliver products or services when you state that you will? Can you stick to your policies even when they are inconvenient?

7. Am I open to suggestions and ideas without being overwhelmed by them?

There's a delicate line between being open to growth and opportunity and staying focused on creating your vision. You have to learn to walk that line. If you are too open to every new thing that comes into your landscape, you could get overwhelmed and creatively stuck. Yet if you shut your eyes to all new ideas, you may miss out an important life or business opportunity. Have you developed your own personal sifting process so that when new ideas come in, you can implement, discard, or save for later?

8. Do I have the support of a few people close to me?

It's true that not everyone in your life - or even in your family - may understand what you are up to when you choose to start a new business. That's okay. But I believe that you need to have at least one or two close friends or family members in your corner who believe in you and are cheering you on. Bonus points if your romantic partner is on board. You supporters will be there to give you pep talks when you lag, sympathy when the going gets tough, and ideas when you feel uninspired.

9. Do I have savings, a good bridge job, or some other way of staying out of debt while I build my business?

While businesses can grow quickly, it's common that in the beginning they cost more money than they bring in. And if you don't have a built-in audience that you've already cultivated, then give yourself plenty of time to gain fans or clients.  In the mean time, you'll need a way to keep paying the bills. You could save up (the amount will vary depending on your budget and your business), you could keep working in your current job, or you could get a bridge job. A bridge job is one that covers the bills but doesn't drain your creative energy.  It helps if your bridge job meets a need for you that your business doesn't. For example, if you are an artist who spends long hours alone in the studio, an ideal bridge job might be bar tending to meet your need to socialize.  Your spouse or partner also might agree to take care of the bills for a time while you build your business. Finally there are artist communes and artist housing projects worth looking into where your cost of living could be very low.

10. Do I have a clear purpose in life that I know on a deep level and is this business connected to it?

I know, this last question is a doozy. But I believe that without a sense of purpose, life is less fun and less meaningful.  I love how Mark Twain puts it: "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."  Your purpose can be in a 10-page mission statement, or in one word, such as "love," but you need one and it needs to resonate deeply with you.  Your purpose may change or evolve with time. Do you know your purpose? If so, how is your business idea connected to your purpose? Running a business takes as much time as you are willing to give it, and that time will be more fun and fulfilling if you can identify every day why what you're doing matters.

 Let's Talk about Yesses!

How many yesses did you have? Did you say "yes" to all ten questions? If so, congratulations! You may be ready to start a creativity-based business! If not, can you work on turning any no's into yesses? If so, your decision can be to delay starting a business until a certain date in the future. I believe self-doubt can torture entrepreneurs, and is the greatest killer of new businesses and new ideas. I wrote this post to help you make a strong decision and vanquish self-doubt. Now that you've answered these questions, I hope that any doubts you have about your decision to start a new business are gone, and that you can move forward with confidence in your decision.

I wish you luck, fun, and magic in your new venture. Know that I am here cheering you on.

"Yessing" you all the way,