Lennon Bone argues artists should stop doing everything at once. Pick one goal, list what it actually takes, then commit to just three to five actions for 30 days. He shows why this cuts anxiety and moves the needle faster than chasing every opportunity.
You may want to contact your doctor or therapist if you experience any anxiety. As I read this short list of things that you need to accomplish in order to grow your creative business. Have work for sale. Be networking with other artists. Know your target audience. Be networking with other businesses or clients who might need your services. Have an Instagram account. Have a YouTube account. Be on Spotify. Be on Pinterest. Make daily content. Get better at editing. Become a better photographer. Understand marketing. Build a brand. Make a funnel. Have an email list. Write weekly emails. Learn affiliate marketing. Have a Patreon. Develop and sell a course. Build your audience. Design a website. Consider a podcast. Maintain your website. Have a business plan. Know your content buckets. Have a vision. Try out TikTok DM potential clients. Show up on stories. Book guests for your potential podcasts. Create reels. Have a list of potential affiliate marketing opportunities. If that just, like, drove you crazy, just reading those out loud was like, oh, my gosh, I'm feeling all the anxiety in the world. Let's talk about these things. There's a lot on your plate. Let's talk about them. Unfortunately, it's far too common for artists and creatives to go to bed at the end of the day and feel like they haven't done enough. And even if you've made a big push toward finishing a creative project, it still feels like you should have done more. In Elizabeth Gilbert's book Big Magic, she says that far too many creative people have been taught to discharge trust, pleasure, and to put their faith in struggle alone. Too many artists still believe that anguish is the only truly authentic emotional experience. Now, I don't want to put words into Elizabeth's mouth, but the way I interpret it is this. If it doesn't feel sh. Tty, we're not being artists. So I don't know if. If you feel that at all, but sometimes I feel that way. Now, a lot of people limit this idea to sort of the depressed artist, you know, But I think it comes with the entire territory. We see the 10,000 things that someone else is doing, and we think, well, that must be the way. That must be what I have to do. And so today I want to propose that it's really not about doing all the things. I think it's about doing the fewest things possible.
So here's an exercise that I want you to try. This is super simple, and I think you're gonna get a ton out of this. What's this goal that you have right now with a current creative project? And I want you to write down that goal, Is there a certain amount of money you want to make? Is it about getting a new audience? Is it just about, like, giving it away for free and showing appreciation to somebody? Whatever the goal is, I want you to write that goal down. Number two, once you know that goal, I want you to make extensive list of everything that you think needs to get done to achieve that goal. And I want you to go every single thing that needs to get finished after you've done that. Number three, is take a look at that list. And I want you to only pick three to five things. Bonus points if it's three. And I want those three to five things to be the only things that. That you focus on for the next 30 days. And I can hear you like, wait, Lennon. Like, there's no way that I can accomplish my goal by just picking three to five things to focus on for the next month. So if that is you, I want you to take a look at that list and write down three to five things that you could do and would get you closer to your goal. But what's so cool here is immediately, there are probably things in your head that you're like, oh, yeah, I can get rid of this now. I don't even need to do it. I want you to share something with me in the comments that. That you're gonna be able to get rid of now that you've gone through this exercise.
So why does this work? What are we doing here so often? We are spending so much of our time doing tasks that feel urgent and important, but they're not actually moving us toward our goal. Because somewhere down the line, we started doing these things with a good intent, and one of two things happened. A, you don't need to do things that are on your list to do every day anymore, period, or B, you may not need to do them right now. They may be something that you just set to the side while you work on the thing that actually matters right now. For example, if your goal is to make more money, it's probably not the best idea to go and start a Patreon account where you're only making a few dollars per month per person. It's probably a better idea to figure out who needs your creative work and how you can sell it to that specific person for more money. If your goal is building an audience, you may not be in a position that you should start a YouTube channel or a podcast. If Instagram is your primary account and you're not getting people to engage with you there, it's probably better to focus on what will get you engagement on Instagram, rather than spinning your wheels like trying to learn all these different plans, platforms at one time. When you take this approach, you're not just gonna accomplish more of your goals. You're gonna be happier, you're gonna have less stress. You're gonna be able to do the things that are more fun for you, that you're excited about, because you can pick from this list in a way, again, that aligns with your goals, not the goals of somebody else. And that's the real beauty of this idea. Also, your goals are gonna shift, and that's totally normal. So don't be afraid to do this exercise every time you have a new set of goals in front of you. If you're still looking at your list and you're saying, how do I define what's really important versus, like, just feeling urgent, I have a video here that I want you to check out. Just as an FYI, the downloadable that I mentioned in this video doesn't exist anymore. But you'll totally get the point. It's going to help you understand how you can take all your ideas and find out what you should do first. So I'll see you over there in that video. Thanks so much for watching.
