Making Lemonade from Lemons
This year has been so different for us all. At the beginning of the year I set goals to reach during 2020. I had no idea that a pandemic was on the horizon for our world when I made these goals. At the beginning of the year I was recovering from two eye surgeries in December, so I took my yearly goals and was careful to not over schedule for the first quarter so I wouldn’t set myself up for failure. However, after that first quarter, I loaded a lot in the second quarter. They were realistic and attainable goals, only to be shattered (or so I thought) by Covid-19. I left in early March to attend two artist conferences in North Carolina. I was overflowing with passion, direction, and new vision for myself as a colored pencil artist when I came back only to find that things were changing swiftly in our world with the pandemic about to sweep through our nation. All of a sudden, the plans I had put on my list started being cancelled or changed one-by-one. Let me preface this before I go any further. I know lots of bad things have happened in this pandemic. People have lost loved ones from this virus, have suffered financially, and many other things. My heart goes out to anyone who has suffered in this pandemic in any way. The whole reason I chose to write this is to show how I had to shift my thinking during this time to see what good could be brought out of it. Following now is how I did that:
REVAMP
I had a choice, to mope about what couldn’t happen, or choose to make new plans with the new circumstances. I chose the latter. Since feeling called to take my art to the marketplace there were a lot of tasks I still hadn’t done in establishing my business. Some because of fear, and some because I just was being lazy in that area. So, I decided to use this “down” time to complete some of those things. The largest of those tasks was setting up my website. That word, “website”, put me in fear mode every time I said it. I decided to not let fear win and to press in and get this accomplished. It took several weeks to gather everything I needed and then another week for me to put all of that onto the web and then hit “publish”. It was an exhilarating feeling to have that one done! You can check it out at: https://www.kimkeysart.com.
NEW HABITS
During this time of being home, I also established some better work habits. Since my art studio is in my home, I struggled with getting enough time in my studio to create and to work on the business. So, I made a new schedule for how to take care of things in my home and also incorporate my work as an artist. I can honestly say I’ve gotten into the new rhythm now and I’m getting much more accomplished due to this. I’ve attempted this before but never would hold myself accountable and would drift from it. With Covid-19, I couldn’t really get distracted because I couldn’t go anywhere. As a result, I established a good work habit that I will be able to carry on even after this is all over. They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit, and I think I’ve done that.
LEMONADE FROM LEMONS
Lastly, during this time I had opportunity to take several free training classes on business and read some great books on a variety of subjects. I had some fun creating art with other artists in Facebook Live tutorials. I’ve grown in business knowledge, artistic skills, as well as personal and spiritual growth through all of this. Bottom line, I made lemonade from lemons by making choices to help propel me forward in the things God has for me even though it looked glum when this all began. I’m looking forward to the days ahead now. I’m researching and considering new ways of teaching and helping others learn about art and colored pencils. I’m back to creating this week and hope to be sharing new works of art soon!
