How an Artist Can Get More Focus, More Confidence, and Sell More Art

I have a new routine inspired by my friend and Master Mind partner Ron Douglas.

Ron is a very successful, no bullshit, serial entrepreneur who has helped himself, and many other entrepreneurs, go from $0 to $1,000,000 in sales, in six months or less.

When I met Ron last October, he had just made a bet with another entrepreneur to make over $5M in 2015. Ron won the bet by blowing past $5 million in June this year.

How does he do this?

I’m going to spell it out for you.

First things first. Here’s what this is not. It’s not the “Artist’s Way, morning pages.”

As I’ve taught you, you must have a SMARTER goal, a major definite purpose, a la Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich.”

You’ve got to know what you want because the energy of wanting it is what moves you into action.

Just working towards it makes you feel increasingly successful.

When I started my business as a full-time artist over a decade ago my SMARTER goal was to sell over $100,000 of my art by the end of 2005.

I accomplished my goal, see above.

If I had employed the tool that Ron taught me I probably could have made more money sooner but I’m not complaining.

Ron’s daily method supercharges and concentrates your focus and your energy on your goal so that you can begin to see what’s important, what can wait, or what you can let go of.

You increasingly recognize what’s important. You feel into new opportunities. Your intuition begins to guide you.

This method works and it only takes five minutes each morning. When Ron was coaching entrepreneurs, if they couldn’t get off their ass to do this each day, he would just stop working with them.

I don’t blame him. If you don’t care enough about yourself and your well being to give it five minutes of your attention each day, you have bigger issues that you are not honestly addressing.

Here’s how it’s done. Step by step.

1. State your goal as if you have it.
2. Write about why you’re grateful for it.
3. Write about what you’ve done so far to reach your goal.
4. Write about you what you will do to reach that goal. Let the ideas flow.
5. Outline what you will do that day to reach your goal.
6. Not sure if you can pull this off? Ask someone to check in with you and hold you accountable.

Simple.

This process prioritizes your focus for the day making your goal feel increasingly more attainable each day.

Write for a minimum of five minutes the first thing each morning. Before you turn on your computer, glance at your phone, or anything else that you’re in the habit of doing.

My day now starts with a hot cup of coffee, sitting on a stool on my balcony overlooking a stunning view of the Pacific, as I write for a minimum of five minutes each morning.

I appreciate this beautiful way to start my day.

Do this and you will begin to see opportunities that were always there but hidden from your view.

Your day starts out on the right foot without distraction.

Your focus and confidence increases.

Ron has been doing this for years. In fact he has filled stacks of cheap drugstore bought spiral-bound notebooks with free pens from his bank.

Ron’s journals have not only made him many millions but they have kept his priorities straight resulting in happy family life, his first priority.

The power of your mind is incredible if you take the time to tap into it.

When Ron was 18 he was in a motorcycle racing accident. His doctor told him that he would never walk again.

Ron told him to fuck off and he began to ask the nurses to bring him evidence of people who had suffered an injury like his but who had learned to walk again.

He focused every ounce of his emotional, mental, and physical energy visualizing his recovery and doing his therapy exercises.

When is partying friends came for a visit Ron was only interested in talking about his recovery. Some of Ron’s friends, who where only interested in talking about partying, stopped coming.

Ron’s response, “So what.”

He had bigger concerns and a more important goal.

Do you have some friends like this? Are they really your friends?

Although a recent x-ray of Ron’s vertebrae shows some messed up disks, he walks just fine.

Anyone can do this.

The question is, will you do this?

I hear from artists far and wide who say that they really want to succeed.

But only handful will succeed.

And it’s not because they can’t.

It’s because they just don’t want to do the work and some have just not been taught how to define a SMARTER goal and  how to work towards it.

But if you’re willing to apply a bit of discipline to build this five-minute morning habit and then follow through with focused action each day, your world will transform.

God only knows how long we have to live. So why not paint a picture each day of the way that you want to live.

What is your goal? Write it below.