A good bit of my coaching artists involves me telling artists, “Do not give up.” Persist ahead, if you do give up you’re guaranteed failure.
Santa Barrios, my fabulous hair stylist, is the proprietress of Sophistafunk, a hair styling salon in the Mission District of San Francisco and a line of handmade fashion accessories.
Sophistafunk accessories are born from Santa’s unique personal style and creative point of view. This line is urban, hip, funky, and yet sophisticated.
But that’s not really what I’m here to talk about. I want to talk about Santa. Santa runs her own hair styling salon and she designs, manufactures, and sells her own line of fashion accessories.
And she travels back and forth to Los Angeles every month to take care of her mother with advanced Alzheimers. This is a tough gig.
Santa dreams of launching her line of handmade fashion accessories on a big platform so that celebrities are dawning Sophistafunk.
And because Santa keeps creating and inching her business ahead, despite the demands of her personal life and business, it will happen.
How do I know? Because she’s committed. She’s not giving up.
First rule of success, don’t give up. Disabled parent? Don’t give up. Have to live in two cities? Don’t give up. Already running a business? Don’t give up. Limited resources? Don’t give up.
But don’t just keep going if it’s not working. Get help. Find resources.
Define a SMART goal and then lay out an action plan to get from where you are now to where you want to be.
Fortitude alone won’t get you there. Be very specific about what you want and then work SMART, not hard, to get there.
I leave you with a French proverb. “One may go a long way after one is tired.”
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Thank you for sharing Judy. Defining SMART goals is something that I did not learn in art school. Here’s a definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria
S Specific-Significant, Stretching, Simple
M Measurable-Meaningful, Motivational, Manageable
A Attainable-Appropriate, Achievable, Agreed, Assignable, Actionable, Aspirational
R Relevant-Realistic, Resourced, Resonant
T Time-bound Time-oriented, Timed, Time-based, Timely, Time-Specific, Time limited,
E Evaluate-Ethical, Excitable, Enjoyable, Engaging, Ecological
R Reevaluate-Rewarded, Reassess, Revisit, Recordable, Rewarding, Reaching
Ann, this piece also hit me. After going through a divorce and trying to “find myself” I have been spending time in two cities like your article said…these are baby steps but I am not giving up either. I will persist. I think I might have missed SMART goals but I will need to re-study that. Thanks
Thank you for sharing Kathy.
Keep fording ahead! And work SMART
I’ve been that girl with a disabled parent, so this one especially hit home for me. I wanted to give up, many, many times but didn’t. I kept going despite the obstacles. My business still isn’t anywhere near where I want it to be, but I am making SMART goals and getting my action plan on…and I know that it will happen for me, too, because I AIN’T GIVING UP. NO WAY, NO HOW, NOT EVER. I love that French proverb. It is filled with truth. I can’t believe there aren’t oodles of comments on this post. I shared it with the Etsy forums just now because I wanted to pass the encouragement I got from it on from others.