Set your course each day for positivity and success! It really is up to you!
You know that I like to share how easy it is to live creatively. I try to add some creativity to every facet of my life. One way that I do this is by designing and creating as much as I can of what I want and need.
I shared this post: You Are Creative! In it, I encouraged you to believe in yourself and be careful to whom you share your work with. Trying to convince others to accept and value your work is the same as casting your pearls before swine. There are those who cannot appreciate your work and they will trample it in spirit and in words.
Start creating now! No more procrastinating! Don't fail yourself anymore. Take authority over fear!
Sarah at Red Rocking Bird shares a couple of quick and easy techniques in her video, BOOST CREATIVITY - A Creative Life is a Happy Life , to get your general, creative juices flowing. She shows you how to create simple marks with any materials on any type of paper. These easy marks can then be used to design patterns that can be used in a variety of creative projects.
Embrace your creativity! Enjoy creative living! It's a breath of fresh air everyday! You can create. You have the ability within. It's not like what anyone else does. It's your special vision, you way of seeing things. It is a gift that you have to enhance and brighten your life.
See this inspiring post: You Are Creative!
~ One of my projects, Nature-Inspired Scrabble Tile Necklaces,
is featured at Lettuce Craft, a wonderful, busy craft forum. I'm going
to write a post about the site soon. I'm still new and learning my way
around. ~
It is shocking how many crafters, makers, artists and other creatives have stopped blogging. I reviewed my blog reading list to see who was still posting. I ended up purging from 125 blogs to 6, and 2 of those 6 are mine. Most crafters hadn't posted since 2015. A handful had posted in 2017 and after that, none of the 125 bloggers that I was following had posted. Something happened around 2015 in the crafting/makers/creative community where people stopped blogging. I asked myself is blogging dead?
Here are some possible reasons blogging has all but stopped in our creative community. Do any of these reasons fit you?
Paying for online advertising is not affordable for most independent creatives. We are left with sharing through the few social media sites that are active. Social media, however, does not provide the value that it used to. People rarely interact anymore and there may be likes given but they lead to few sales. Any economically productive ways to market online have dwindled as well. So, why is blogging important for business? It gives us an easy way to draw potential customers and increase sales.
If you are blogging, you should continue and tweak your style and process. If you are a creator and you are not blogging but asking yourself should I blog, you should start. Selling competition has exploded over the past few years, since 2010-2015. Savvy blogging is a great way to successfully compete. The challenge is to:
Here are some articles on the value of blogging that I found to be helpful:
6 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Marketing And SEO by Kristi Hines
17 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Blog In 2022 by Brian Dean
How Long Should A Blog Post Be In 2022 by Lena Sernoff
Do People Still Read Blogs? The Truth About Blogging In 2022 by Rowena Zaballa
Do People Still Read Blogs In 2022? by Ryan Robinson
Truelist Blogging Statistics by Maja Josifovska
Learn Keyword Search To Use In Blog Posts, Product Descriptions And In Other Marketing Content
Don't forget to always reward yourself in some way, big or little, when you reach a goal or milestone, no matter how small it is, but certainly if it was a particularly difficult journey.
The best way to succeed is to do what you love. In that way, you'll never quit. Long-lasting success takes consistency.
You can write poetry and become good at it. Whether you write for yourself, to give to others or to sell, you should start writing and keep writing. If you don’t know how to start, begin by deciding how many lines you want to have in your poem.
In my poem, The Sky Through Bare Branches, I decided to write two stanzas (paragraphs) with five lines each. The lines in this poem do not rhyme, but are free-flowing thoughts. This is called free verse. I also decided that the first line of each stanza (paragraph) would be one long thought and the same thought. This gives my poem continuity. I wrote the other lines as broken up but related thoughts.
I love seeing the sky through bare branches.
I don’t know what it is, but
The white limbs of
The paper birch look silvery
Against the azure blue.
I love seeing the sky through bare branches.
As the scattered leaves
Shiver stiffly in
The cold gust,
I bid fall ado.
I wrote what I was thinking and except for the first lines in each stanza (paragraph), I broke my thoughts into short sentences. I substituted similar words along the way that I thought sounded better for the flow. If you keep writing poems, over time you will feel and develop your own flow.
In the beginning you will sometimes edit your poems heavily. Eventually, you’ll need to do very little editing. You will train yourself to write your thoughts into lines of poetry in the way that you want them to be read.
In Blue Winter Sky, I chose to write three stanzas (paragraphs) of four lines each, and this is a rhyming poem. If you want your poem to rhyme, decide on which lines you will rhyme, or the format. You can choose any rhyming format, but some formats are harder to rhyme. You will be rhyming the last words in lines.
Sometimes your thoughts will lean towards a certain rhyming format. I chose the third and fourth lines (the last two lines) in each stanza of Blue Winter Sky. This is a less common rhyming format.
The winter sky is very blue,
As I look out in disbelief
That winter sky could be so rich
In color blue, while trees are sticks.
I stand and gaze on wintry scene,
With brilliant blue across the sky,
With air so very crisp and cold,
With skeletal trees so black and bold.
The sky is such a lovely blue.
On Heaven's canvas Nature's brush
Has deftly added glorious hue,
Has placed her artist skill on view.
~ Your work is not meant for everyone. Value your thoughts and your poetry and don’t change your style to please others. Insist to yourself that you have something to write and that it is valuable and keep writing!
A friend of mine recently penned this inspiring statement about the creativity that lives in all of us.
Life is one great creative manifestation. You may think you don't have a creative side; yet you don't need to be an artist to live in a creative life. You are innovative and can think of so many new ways to do all sorts of things. Your inventive, creative side can be as simple as creating a special recipe or at work in doing a spreadsheet a new easier way. The importance of CREATIVITY in this life is that it allows you to express yourself. Your self-expression is "ONE OF THE GREATEST DIVINE GIFTS YOU OFFER OUR WORLD." -Evann Woodard
The greatest hindrance for most people in releasing their creativity is the fear that it will not resemble the work of others enough. There is also the lingering hurt from being ridiculed or laughed at when creativity was shared. Very few of us can maintain our confidence after experiences like that. Many people also feel that they have to produce fine artist-level work in order to be authentic.
Next, your creativity is for whomever can and will appreciate it. Rather than attempting to coerce some to accept our work, we should surround ourselves with those who appreciate our efforts without having to beseech them.
The old saying is valid, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. If a person does not appreciate our work, their hearts will not change through our begging. This is important in both our private and social lives. We should improve where we want to and can and go where our work is admired and appreciated.
It's so hard for some to keep on keeping on with their plans, projects and dreams. When we love something and truly believe in what we are doing, we can't stop, anyway. Success also comes through the ability to adjust and adapt. While we're pressing on and never giving up, we need to be flexible in order to succeed.
Behind every successful man there's a lot of unsuccessful years. Bob Brown
You have to accept yourself in order to be successful. S. Holland
You CAN create reality with your thoughts.
You CAN bring your desires to pass through your words.
You CAN control your thoughts and direct them to the good that you want to do for yourself.
You CAN receive outstanding, tangible results for your redirected efforts.
You CAN cause your imagination to tell you the truth so that you can break free and excel!
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To enter in to the arts as a future the first thing you must do is teach yourself the discipline of dedication. You must focus on your writing and any art that goes with it no matter what form you wish to call it. You must understand that creation is only the first step. The business of the arts, in order to make an income is as demanding as the art itself.
You can not set schedules, I'll work from ? time to ? time. Nor can you work entirely on inspiration. You must always understand your story at least in the department of the imagination.
To be an artist/writer you will discover it is a lonely life. You can't play with your friends like you would with any other job.
Personally, I work 18 hours a day, not consecutively but several at a sitting, coming up for air, food, coffee and visits and adventures with my partner. She is and artist as well and we do make some sort of effort to go off together to refuel our relationship.
Outside friends have to wait until we are between projects and not burdened down with the business of artistship.
So, if you can't dedicate 80% of your life to the disciplines of art...go find a job that allows you more free time.
Finally, while you are starting out you need money, which means you need a job to make money to pay the bills. Make it a no-brainer job with as few hours involved as possible....just enough to survive. If you work hard, someday it is possible to make a living...and independent publishing is the best. I suggest you find someone who will promote your work for a small percentage. Promotion is a time glutton.
Barrie Island Graphic Storyteller
Donald is a self-employed mystery and sci-fi writer who lives in Ontario.
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Consistently, we see innovation, adaptability and persistence as the kingpins of enduring business success. Those traits have made David's Bridal the lone, national, wedding dress chain today.
While David Reisberg decided to begin selling his privately-designed wedding gowns in 1945, innovation began 20 years later after he sold his south-Florida salon. In 1972, Phillip Youtie bought the boutique and around 1988, brought in the retail expertise of childhood friend Steven Erlbaum.
Stores at this time stocked only sample gowns in a standard size. Youtie and Erlbaum changed the store model in the late 1980s with this warehouse off Interstate 95 where they stocked designer gowns, discontinued dress and manufacturer overruns at below retail prices. This chain of bridal stores was like none of its kind. David’s Bridal was all about making a no-frills shopping environment for those who need an expensive wedding dress for a fraction of the price. Stores were not comfortable, but more plain and warehouse-like. Although there was little to no comfort in the stores, brides-to-be could expect a bargain.
Adaptability resulted in finding ways to acquire new stores:
Years later, as the business grew even larger and larger, small stores were starting to go out of business while more David’s Bridal stores were being put into the business. Between 1994 and 1995, 12 stores were added to the bridal corporation...In 2000, the May Department Stores Company bought David’s Bridal from Youtie and Erlbaum for $436 million. By this time, David’s Bridal was the largest retailer of bridal gowns and wedding-related merchandise.
Persistence
David’s Bridal is the largest American bridal-store chain...and the only nationwide competitor of bridal stores...One in four American brides are dressed by David’s Bridal.
Successive acquisitions and emergence out of a two-month bankruptcy did not kill the dream. While Mr. Reisberg worked faithfully for over two decades and did not financially enjoy the astronomical success of his brand, the point is this; David's Bridal endured through the innovation, adaptability and persistence of all who believed.
On October 11, 2012, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice announced the completion of its acquisition of David’s Bridal, Inc. in a deal that valued the company at $1.05 billion.
David's Bridal is currently in 49 states, 5 Canadian territories and the United Kingdom. As of 2018, it was worth $2.5 billion.
Opportunities to innovate surround us everyday and many of the commerce giants that we recognize are still owned by the innovators. Those who do not own their flagship brands have taken the fortunes made through them and built new ventures. You may not be seeking colossal growth for your brand but the methods that lead to this kind of proliferating success can help you to reach your goals.
How can you innovate your brand so that it will stand out and attract a robust market?
Is your growth lagging for lack of adaptability to an ever-changing society?
Do you cling to pet projects and ideas that do not inspire persistence?
Sources:
The List - The Truth Behind David Of David's Bridal
