The Artist's Mindset and Other Exciting Developments

Hey, welcome back, art appreciators. Short one this week. I’m headed back to downtown Durham to visit the Weird Windows installation, and I’m bringing my camera so I can share a a few updates.

You guys wouldn’t believe the luck, but the Friday just before the city of Durham's tree lighting, one of my window lights bit the dust. I guess I’m not all that surprised, I mean, these things were ten bucks on Shplamazon, so not sure what exactly I expected. Sadly, however, there was no time to fix it, so the window limped into the event on only one light. Fortunately, I ordered a few replacements, and headed back down to reinstall. I double-checked the rest of the installation while I was there, just to make sure there aren’t any other surprises and it looks like everything is holding steady. Nothing has fallen yet or overheated or faded in the bight sunlight I'm happy to report.

Slowing Down

In other news, I’ve been trying to focus on slowing down a bit to enjoy the holidays but you know how that goes. I'm doing my best, which means also trying to find a little time for my end-of-year review and beginning-of-year projections. In other words it’s time to appreciate last year's accomplishments and look at what I'd like to have happen next year.

Planning for the Future

I wish I could say that putting together a projection for the upcoming year is all it takes to dictate any level of success, but life is funny. All the time spent planning will probably come undone somewhere around February or March. Inevitably, something will show up that causes me to make adjustments, change my plans, and wind up making a new

list, and that’s ok. That's how things go, life is fluid. You might think a drastic change in plans or shift in direction would render this whole exercise pointless, but it doesn't and here’s why.

The Artist's Mindset

The main point of planning is not necessarily being successful in completing the entire list. Yes, planning can be important, but the bigger picture is something far more valuable, I like to think of it as the Artist's Mindset, but you're free to put your own lable on it. Planning is a way of adopting a growth mindset and opening the mind to bigger possibilities, making the seemingly impossible feel possible. My goal is to train my mind to see a bigger picture, actualize it. This helps me step out of my comfort zone and avoid a fear based reactivity state and focus on a purposefully proactivite one.