Your Plan Starts With Your Vision

 

 

Where do you see yourself in three years? Eighteen months? Or even in just one year’s time? Have you thought about what you want your world to look like then? Considered what you want to be happening with your career as an artist or arts entrepreneur? Projected how much time you want each week to focus on your artwork? Imagined what you want to take place in your life overall? 

 

Or, like Alice, do you leave everything up to happenstance, circumstance or luck?

 

If the latter is the case, ask yourself: are you where you want to be now? Have you achieved what you want to achieve? 

 

Most likely—except for a very few—the answer is "no” to the above. Rarely do we accomplish (a work of art, an exhibition or installation, a review, moving into a new studio, and so on) without some type of goal setting and prioritizing. 

 

 

Ah, you think, "a plan.” Such an oft-maligned and misunderstood word and process.

 

Whether you realize it or not, planning intersects—or should intersect—with everything you do. A plan delineates where you are, where you want to go and how best to get there. Surely, you believe in and love what you do and your highest priority is producing your artworks or realizing your projects. That’s what inspires you. Planning, on the other hand—quite possibly—feels overwhelming, dull, confusing or, even worse, limiting. Perhaps most especially constricting to your creativity.

 

But, in truth, it’s the opposite. With planning comes a defined direction and perspective coupled with conviction of purpose. For example, it’s important to acknowledge that the world will not necessarily beat a path to your door, no matter how good your artwork is. You must decide your best "route to market” (galleries, curators, agents, journalists, and so on), if that’s what you want. 

 

The bottom line is that you need to determine exactly what you want. Otherwise, if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know how to get there?

 

Developing a plan is the process for envisioning your path, your priorities, what you’re striving to achieve. Such clarity produces even stronger, more compelling artwork. A plan is the road map towards realizing your professional and personal goals and objectives.

 

And, creating a plan—any type of plan—is a straightforward three-part process:

 

 

The critical first step in this process is developing your Vision. 

 

 

As it relates to planning, vision is:

 

Success doesn’t necessarily mean making money. Or just mean making money. Your personal definition of success needs to include those things that motivate and excite you. Like how much time do you want to spend in the studio or office each week? Is the satisfaction of creating artwork or realizing cultural projects enough or is critical recognition important to you? Do you want your artworks in galleries and museums? Do you want your projects to be supported by certain people? Nationally? Internationally? Articles written about you? Does success for you include travel? 

 

Determining your personal vision is fundamental in helping you understand how you can best move forward—whatever that means for you. The process and outcome must be personal and authentic.The way each artist and arts entrepreneur sees the world is individualistic and thus, your vision must reflect your unique perspectives.

 

A clearly determined Vision will:

 

 

As there is no one correct outcome for what a vision should look like, there is no one right approach to develop it. You must determine what process works best for you. Remember: authenticity is key. The resulting vision must be true to you, no matter the process undertaken. You will need to put a timeframe to your vision projections. Typically, it is recommended that you project three years into the future. 

 

One method is to consider your responses to a series of broad-ranging questions, such as those below. All responses must be genuine, not what you think someone (like a partner, spouse, parent, friend, or child) might want you to say. Honesty is the foundation of authenticity. 

 

Find a private, comfortable, quiet space. Write your responses on paper and revisit and reflect over the course of a week or so to ensure that you are fully—and candidly—responding to each. In developing your vision, remember to be realistic and reasonable. Of course your dreams can be expansive, you just want to ground them in a reality that you can build upon and continue to move forward.

 

 

Once you’re clear about your vision, and have a solid understanding of your current situation (the second part of the planning process), putting together steps and strategies to move you forward will be rather straightforward. Your focus will be directed on an established course of action, one not sidetracked by distractions and diversions. 

 

And then, perhaps, after you’ve spent the time and energy to imagine your vision for the coming years you, too, like Alice, can say, 

 

 

 

 

"I find it curious as to why human beings don’t question vision more. Vision must come from a point of authenticity. I’ve worked hard to remain true to myself— who I am as an artist and as a person. I am continuing the search for truth and beauty, but I always think about the intention of authenticity. I remain as true to who I am as possible, and believe we need to honor all individual’s perspectives.

 

As a young professional artist starting out, I wish I had meditated more on what my meaning of success is. To trust myself and follow my own individual path, not someone elses. And come from a place of authenticity as to what that would be for me, personally. I’ve learned over the years that it’s so important to have a clear definition of what it means for each of us individually. 

 

I’m a big goal setter, so I regularly vision for what I’m striving for in my life, with my career, and for each artwork I create. Vision is super important to me in the studio because in my work, I respond to complicated questions and see how far I can literally push things. And as an academic, I have to balance my individual goals as an artist with my academic goals. I have to plan. To show internationally, this is critical. My personal planning is interwoven with professional planning. But, professional planning seems to come first.

 

My primary advice would be to be true to your own authenticity. Trust yourself and follow your individual path. Don’t try to follow someone else’s path."

 

 

 

"Vision is seeing things as they really are. Being fully aware of the truth at the moment, which is timeless and without space. In order to see what you want, where you’re striving for, you have to trust that what you’re seeing and hearing is truth. Vision has a forward motion. It is all tied up with intuition. It’s like developing a muscle. You need to spend time working on it and strengthening it, as well as spend time untying and unfurling the fear and lack of trust in your own judgment. 

 

Vision comes to me through doing. Being completely wrapped up in a process and let something bigger than yourself come through. That’s where trust comes in. It’s the same process when you’re developing your life vision or professional vision.

 

Practice and process is the basis of everything. Without that, there is no vision. For me, vision happens 24 hours a day. My whole life is a series of what ifs and artful transformations. And a big part of my visioning is teaching, both art and yoga. I’m always learning from my students. A core of visioning is curating what you have for those you’re teaching. 

 

I think of visioning as something immaterial and infinite. Planning is what brings it into reality—manifests it into reality. Planning is the basic technology for making things happen. But, ultimately, it’s about trusting and believing in yourself. Find the truth that works for you. Vision comes when you’re getting out of your own way."