It’s a question of motivation.

When I decided that I was going to move from amateur artist to professional, I made the decision that to achieve this I had to ‘show up’ everyday. Just like we have to go to work each day, I had to put this same commitment into my art business. But how do we as artists keep that motivation going. We need to identity the different factors that motivate us.

Artist Josie Lewis talks about intrinsic motivators that are the ones that come from within. That means you do something for the joy of the process, for internal satisfaction of a job well done, and for your own pleasure.

Intrinsic motivators are very powerful. If you are considering making a habit change in your life, we should consider where our motivations are coming from. It is impossible to find flow without deeply felt intrinsic motivation. Finding flow while developing a new habit will exponentially increase your ability to stick to it.

Furthermore, seeking pleasure in a task is a much more sustainable goal than “achievement”. Pleasure is highly variable and only YOU know what is pleasurable to you. If you can identify what is pleasurable to you, you will naturally want to do it MORE. This is why my studio id a sacred space that I love being in and creating..

It is very easy to start a creative project with an eye to achievement rather than pleasure in the process.