Growth Path - Productivity and Personal Development for Artists

1. Growth Path - Lessons 1 - 4 - Course Teaser + Defining Your Vision: Hello there. I'm Taylor Peyton that the mean under oncourse.com and I've created growth path to help you develop your artwork and your productivity and time management skills using things I learned over the last nine years as a freelance illustrator, concept artist, and course creator. Alright, so this class is for beginner to intermediate students. As far as personal development, time management, and productivity goes, we'll be touching on and giving strong introductions to how you can get clear on your goals, instill habits to help you achieve those goals and optimize your approach along the way, whether it's your mindset or your environment. If you're a beginner artists, this course can help you reliably and consistently finished other courses and build your skill if you're an intermediate or an advanced artists, this course will allow you to finish your projects and pieces more potently and with greater clarity, productivity, and direction. Since this course is so short, I feel everyone who isn't already making high to low six figures doing exactly what they love will benefit most from it. And by the end of the course, you'll have a list of dreams, a chosen goal from that list, and the clarity of vision and action, you'll need to achieve that dream. So before we hop in, I just want to give you a little bit of background on me. Basically, my name is Tom Hayden. I've been a pro artists and solopreneur for ten years. I created the beginner drawing course. I have sold over $50,000 from those eight plus courses I've created. Not all of them are on that site. I have three JAK YouTube selves. I've never had to work a nine to five more than three months. I have completed over 1,000 pieces of artwork. I have published two albums, those are musical albums, and I've also completed a 16-week mentorship with a noun fantasy artists, peter more Bakker and Sam for legal. So first, before we get started on anything else, this is a really, really, really important step. I need you to develop your vision outline. Your vision outline is just what's going to help you achieve clarity of vision and we can refine the throat, the course, but you need something to work with and to work on. Just take five to 25 min to roughly outlined some of your dreams, goals, projects you want to work on things of that nature to help you practice some of these principles and ideas that I'm going to impress upon you in this course. So stop now. Take five to 25 min, write down all that good stuff, and then we will proceed. Alright, so we are now back. I hope you've spent those integral five to 25 min writing down your vision outline. If you did not pause this video immediately and go back and do that step, I cannot overstate how important it is to have some sort of template free to work from for this course. Otherwise you will get so much less out of it. And I don't want that for you. I want you to get life-changing transformation from the things that I'm going to show you and the modalities of working I'm going to give you. So you need a vision outline to do that. Otherwise, you're gonna be having no clarity. You're gonna get so much less room and it's just not gonna be great. So go back and do it. Otherwise, if you did, Congratulations. Here's the course outline. We're going to talk about the creative mind, setting goals, productivity and time management, building habits, productivity power-ups, and finally some cute little magic bullets, quote unquote, for artistic progress in power. 2. Growth Path 03 - Tapping into the Creative Mind: So what do I mean when I say the creative mind? The creative mind is a powerful tool capable of unlocking immense potential. It is how we start from nothing or some base, very grounded Earthly elements and build them up into magical, crystalline, gorgeous, sparkling artworks and projects that are going to stimulate and give people amazing experiences. And you're gonna go through the process of making them, which will be an amazing experience for you. The creative mind is the force that we're gonna be tapping into that will inspire, awaken, and act as our muse. So creativity is a very mysterious force. It is hidden beneath the surface and it's waiting to be unlocked. It can be someone through the power of your intention. Once we tap into it, we can access the depths of our soul and create inspired works of art. These are not works of art that you make just because you have a quota to fill or because you think you should. These are the things that are literally just, well, not literally because when we're talking very metaphorically here, but these are the things that are deeply embedded in your consciousness, in your being, in your unique blueprint as a person. So if you're an experienced artist, writer, and musician, creative of any sort, you have felt this force before when it does come through. It's just something that we're going to have to get more and more aware of as we work with it. And even this one thing be so rewarding if you can do it, which is just get more and more conscious when this force is coming through when you're tapping into it when you hit that flow state. Because then that's when the fun stuff happens. That's when you surprise yourself during the creative process. Lastly, it loves consistency. The Muse really likes when you're consistent, it wants you to acknowledge it and to have a reverence. I don't mean to worship it. I'm not saying blast FIM or whatever, but it's just about having appreciation for this force that if you've ever played music and all of a sudden this great progression comes out of this melody just appears before U, you're sketching and the lines start to make sense and become this potential of something gorgeous your surprising yourself. That is what I'm referring to. That is the Muse. So the body is the vessel for the mine. Let your creative mind roam free and you will magnetize your efforts to be productive, surprising even yourself. So the creative mind is something that you just have to become aware of before you really start diving in to some of the more productivity things we're going to be getting into. Since this is really early on in the course, I figured this is the best place to get you very, very aware of the creative mind. So I promised in the course description we're going to have some actionable items to get you implementing these things. And I am not kidding about that. So the assignment for this portion, again, do not continue until you do this assignment is to ask your subconscious by using the power of your conscious thought to assist you before beginning. This can be meditative, it can be a prayer, or it can simply be a thought of intent. So say, I am going to work now, I want to create something that is deeply aligned with what I like, what I enjoy, and what I want to see more of manifest in the world. After that setup Pomodoro timer for 25 min and you can just use a timer app on your phone and then begin to sketch, compose, or right, based on one of the ideas in your vision, outline. Just detach from the process and enter as much of a focused trans as you can. Don't worry about the timer too much. You can glance up at it a couple of times. Don't worry about anything. If you only have 15 min, set the timer for 15 min, just get this assignment done. And it really, what this does is two things. It gets you used to setting timers and it gets you in the habit of talking to your muse slash subconscious, which is one of the most important parts of being an artist or creative of any sort is to just really get in the habit of knowing that there are layers of your brain and mind and neurology that I'm not going to dive into the theory for because a, I don't have the expertise to do that. But B, it's just not within the scope of this course. These are things that seem magical, but there are very good scientifically backed reasons for the flow state, for being able to ask them use as the Grecian or the people of your who came up with the more metaphysical explanations for these things would tell you. There are many, many things that are very mysterious, but they're very powerful. And a big part of this course is helping you tap into those things. So set your timer, get ready to work on just any random idea on your vision outline list, because this is going to help you start to cement some of the things and habits that are going to be very powerful for you moving forward. 3. Growth Path 04 - Goal Setting 101: Welcome back. I hope that was a great experience for you, even if it was somewhat dicier, somewhat rough. Don't worry, we're just getting started with this. We're just starting to kindle a fire that is going to be burning by the time we get through all of this, we're just starting to stir the whirlpool of our creative potency. So if things are starting off a little slow, do not worry. We're going to start to energize and create more potency moving forward, as long as you're doing the assignment that is the most important part. But this chapter we're going to talk about setting goals. Setting goals is an important part of personal development for anyone that does not exclude artists. We're going to make sure that our creative ambitions can be achieved. So creating goals, we have to make sure that they are one realistic and achievable. And this is all basic goal-setting stuff, but it's definitely something we want to talk about, something we want to hammer home and put at the forefront of your consciousness. So we're going to talk about smart goals. We're going to talk about habits over goals. We're going to talk about sprinting versus marathoner and talk about having clarity and concision. Alright, so smart goals for artists with examples. So smart goals, we've all heard these before. Probably specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. All of these things that you've heard from personal development stuff before. They I mean, they work what can I say? They have worked for you? It's because you didn't have some of the other pieces of items in this course or they were not realistic or achievable or actual smart goals. But if you haven't heard this term before, it is a really good term for helping to make sure that we are actually putting into play things that will happen. So some of these examples of smart goals are painting a specific number of canvases in a certain amount of time or creating a certain number of pieces of digital artwork in a given period. Now the important distinction here is to remember to tap into the creative mind when doing these things. So you're not just going through the rubric and going through the course and getting it done, because that is not how you're going to make the magic. The magic comes from you tapping into what you really like, what you really love, and being very aware of that. And getting very intentional when it comes to creating. So even if you set a smart goal, make sure that you're tapping into the creative mind with it. Alright, so stop now and set 123 smart goals for practice. I know you're like, Oh, I'm just starting to get through this course. There's barely just a video and I have to do work. But yes, that's exactly the point. I'm getting you in the habit of being productive. What good would this course be if you are not producing? So stop right now once again and just take a second to set 123 smart goals. Again, goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So that means that we can say we painted three different studies of still lives, which is an achievable thing to do. Within a three-week period. There's a still-life a week or something. So this is something that is really, really important to know how to set a smart goal. So I want you to practice it by setting 123 smart goals right now. You don't have to work on them right now, but just practice setting them. So take a few moments to brainstorm and define achievable objectives for yourself to keep your creative potential growing. 4. Growth Path 05 - Habits of effective artists: Alright, hopefully you're not just letting this auto-play and jumping to the next video without stopping and setting some smart goals. If you are, please pause the video, go back and do those smart goals and then resume. For those of you who already did that. We're gonna be talking about habits over goals for artists. Habits can sometimes be greater than goals for artists because habits will develop a routine. And those routines are going to carry you with their own momentum to be in creatively consistent. So by focusing on the process rather than an outcome, you can stay motivated and consistent on your creative journey. We've all been to that place before where basically we are just creating without I'm really having a lot of drive or a lot of ambition, but for some reason we're just carrying it along. Or we have stopped for iteration. And it's like, Oh, well, I should get the habit going again and then it's kinda hard to turn those gears and get them spinning. But if you're really good at setting habits, if you know the principles of setting habits, then you become even more powerful as a creative. So I want you to stop right now and think of three habits that lead to achievement. So after this video is done, pause it and I just need you to realize that consistency and discipline are the foundation of success. You can not get anywhere if you're not doing it consistently. If you're not taking step after step after step, if you stop, you're never going to go from your office to the bathroom. You have to have the ability to take step after step. It doesn't mean you're always moving, but you need to know that the movement is what's going to carry you from your destination to your next destination. So just think of three to five habits that when cultivated, will naturally lead to achievement. And I'll get you started off by telling you about, well, maybe bringing a sketchbook with you everywhere means that you're sketching more than if you hadn't. Maybe if your pencils are pretty sharp and you're more likely to draw things of that nature are the things I want you to think about. Pretty sharpening your pencils or leaving a sketchbook in your car, something like that. And I want you to just brainstorm some of those ideas because if they come out of your mind, they're gonna be more powerful for you then if they come out of my mouth. So just think of some ways that you're creative habits will help carry you towards some of those goals that you wrote down earlier, which is why it's very important that you did that vision outline exercise. So we're gonna talk more about setting up a workspace, making sure that you're taking regular breaks for health, things of that nature. But for now, again, to stop the video, write down some creative habits that are going to help you once you start cultivating them. And then we'll talk about ways to cultivate those habits. 5. Growth Path 06 - Sprinting vs Marathoning for Artists: Alright, so continuing with our goal setting chapter, this is going to be a video talking about sprinting versus marathon running for artists. So creativity is often a marathon in that you're gonna be going at a pace that is sustainable for you, sustainable beam, the keyword. It requires a lot of consistent effort, dedication, and patients to reach the finish line. But the other option is to sprint. Sprinting is really helpful in creative endeavors or in other goals as a move that you can use. Much like in a video game where you have a sprint meter, it runs out, but sometimes you need to get from a to B a little faster or to get from a to a to a little faster. So short burst of creative energy can be used to jumpstart ideas or breakthrough creative blocks. E.g. if you were redoing a 52 card deck, then you might spend a long weekend. So three days, eight-hour workdays, sketching out all the ideas you have for the deck. And it's like a classic playing card deck. You know, you've got your kings or queens, your jackson, all the different suites. And let's say you're sketching different designs for the hearts and sketching different designs for the Jackson, the kings and all of that. And it's like really strong creative burst. But that process is not sustainable, drawing 8 h a day. It's sustainable for your body or your mind or your health. There are some things you gotta D got laundry, you got dishes, you got grocery shopping, eating healthy, working out, whatever. The sprint is really powerful for getting that first, initial burst. And then you take a break day, you come back and you look at what you did and you start your marathon again. So one piece every four days you want to finish or maybe finished two pieces a week or something. That just goes really well with setting your smart goal. Knowing when to sprint versus knowing when to go into marathon mode. And most of the time it's marathon mode. But when you have the energy, the time and the logistics, the sprint can be super powerful. So another thing to really talk about and hammer home is clarity and concision for artists projects and goals. So developing your project requires a clear goal and concise plan as we've been talking about. But you want to make sure that you're thinking about the steps of the project, kind of visualizing in your mind how you're going to get there from a to B to C, etc. And a huge reason why a lot of artists fail or projects fail is because the clarity and concision is not there. If you're not clear on what you're doing and if it's not concise enough to actually follow those steps, you're pretty much setting yourself up to fail. So focused on one goal at a time, perhaps you're like one to three months. And if that goal is big enough and appreciable enough, you're gonna be breaking it down into phases and setting smaller goals for those phases. And the way you do that is by prioritizing your goals. So making sure you have the clarity and concision is essential, but you have to prioritize it down to one goal. So you can't be working on multiple goals at once, typically, especially if you're not very versed in productivity practices, in personal development, in time management. So start with just one thing. I know it's hard to pick one for now. Even just to help you get the principals down in this course is not a long course. It's a short-course because I know that people don't have a lot of practice with productivity, which is why you're taking this course. So, right, one smart goal for that one item and give yourself a rough timeline and the steps it would take to get it done. So let's say you want to redo your portfolio just for an example, you'd write the number of pieces you're going to need done. So maybe you say six or seven. The themes, maybe you want a fantasy, fantasy, some sci-fi, some post-apocalyptic, and those are gonna be the themes you're orbiting around. And maybe it's gonna be lots of creatures or whatever. So it's get those themes locked in. And then look at what clients or customers you're going to be targeting. And finally, give yourself a deadline. So it's going to take you three months to redo it. So that's the one smart goal for this chapter. There's gonna be a lot of ways to break that goal down and a lot of different habits are going to cultivate and all those things that we're talking about in this course. But if you had to break it down to just one, I'd recommend probably the smallest goal if you're not very confident in your personal development time management skills at this point, just pick the smallest looking goal you have on your list. And if all of them seem too big, maybe even just stop and generate a smaller one. But that pretty much wraps up the initial goal-setting chapter. And this is the last assignment of that chapter. So when you get this one done, feel free to move on because then we're gonna be talking about other productivity practices that are going to power you up. 6. Growth Path 07 - Time Management for artists 101: Congratulations, we have made it to the chapter on productivity and time management. So these are again, essential for being an artist and making sure that the personal development side of being an artist is not atrophy. Breaking down projects into smaller tasks that we've been talking about, studying those realistic deadlines using some of the smart goal principles, we can make sure that we're using our time effectively. So some of the things we're going to talk about in this chapter are where your time is going. Temporal control, timing being everything in a lot of ways, and scheduling and rescheduling when things start to work or not work or fall apart or what have you just dealing with some of the scenarios that life will throw at you. So where your time goes for artists, planning is the key to success in any endeavor. And so we're no exception. Take a step back and assessing where your time is actually going and can help you plan better, set better goals, create all of those more vibrant projects and ideas without having the constant interruptions and breakdowns that typically tend to plague us as we're trying to achieve something. So your resources that we used efficiently in that regard. So understanding the ebb and flow of your own creative process, recognizing that you have to rest to do your best and having the essential things in place, like knowing where your time is going is really important. So the way to do that is to take note and track your time. How are you going to track your time? You want to spend at least a one to three days doing this. I know that if you're just getting started with this sort of thing and you're like, Oh, I have a good idea, I'm on my schedule. I know how to figure out what I'm doing day to day and I work these hours or go to school these hours and mobile blah. But if you're not actually tracking your time, you have a very vague, very fuzzy notion of where your time is going. You could be spending cumulative 6 h on Twitter doing almost nothing over the span of three days. And those 6 h could have made a whole new piece of artwork for you. So what I want you to do is analyze your time spent and identify patterns and the time and make adjustments to it to be more productive and efficient. So the big key here is to set a reminder on your phone right now to track your time. Set a reminder for the morning and the night. So that could be an alarm that says track your time. What did you do? Where did your time go yesterday? Or reminder to track your time for the day. So setting an alarm at night and alarm in the morning to remind you to track your time is really important. You can just do it in a notes app on your phone. You can say, Okay, I spent an hour eating breakfast and watching YouTube. And then you went to school for whatever number of hours or you, you had work and now at work you did this and maybe you've had time for something else. So just get really into the habit of knowing where your time is going because we're on autopilot so much of the time that we don't have the ability to really break stuff down and know how much wiggle room we have. You might find an extra 10 h in the week. And that is an insane amount of time to be getting your projects done to be improving your skills. So that's a huge assignment for this course. Do not skip this step. I know it sounds boring or weird, but this is your life. You should be interested in your life and where your time is going. If you'd like all met a person who tracked stuff and I'm not a person who figures out where my time is going or really pays close attention to my bank account or all this stuff, then that's a dangerous place to live. That's a really not a good way to exist because so many things are going to fall through the cracks. You're going to get in a lot of trouble. You're going to deal with a lot of mistakes you could avoid. Again, either learn these things over the course of ten years of my adult life. And I would rather that if you are younger than me, you didn't have to go through so many painful lessons. And if other than me, you might have already mastered some of these things. So this might be very easy for you, but it is really, really potent to track your time, because understanding where it's going, whether you are younger or older, or it doesn't really matter as much. But the key here is just know where the hours, minutes are slipping and where you can find more ways to utilize them. And then you'll start to notice like your energy patterns, like maybe you're really tired around 03:00 till about 04:30, you almost can't do anything. So it's good to take a nap or to arrest or to eat a good meal and go for a walk. So once you know where your time is going, you can start to control it and schedule it better and know where your temporal control comes into play. So activities and time blocks, we want to really carefully choose those things to get max productivity and ensure the best use of your time for your creative projects. So creating a plan, setting goals, it bears repeating. I'm going to hammer you over the head with these things over and over and over through this course because I don't want them to slip. I want them to get into your conscience, into your conscious and sink into your subconscious so that these start to become natural things for you. So make sure that you can better manage your time by knowing where it's going and then your creative potential will start to take care of itself. 7. Growth Path 08 - Scheduling + Rescheduling: Another thing to be mindful of when developing your artistic prowess in terms of productivity, and especially in terms of timing, is that timing is everything for artists. So from the moment of inspiration to the moment of execution, you need to be aware of timing. You need to start to attune your senses to certain things, such as the ability to recognize when you should take action, when you should take a break, etc. So some of the bullet point examples are when you get a great idea, sketch it down quick before it's gone on a post-it or a napkin. Just get that initial idea out of your head because it will disappear on you. You will forget it and it's gone to either. Likewise, if you wake up from a dream with a full story, you're painting in your head, get it out as fast as possible. Exteriorize it, take action right then and there, because that is when it is the most fresh in your mind, that is one of those bubbled up from the subconscious from them use from that mystical inner place. And you are the one to steward that by working on your craft and turning that idea and something that others can experience and taking yourself through the creative process. So when working on longer projects, you should really take note of the times when you feel very energetic and the day versus the times you feel really kinda lazy or lax or your eyes are starting to close on you automatically, because that is not the best time to making progress. It is unavoidable that there are going to be times where you are very tired or very de-motivated or having negative feelings, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be doing it. It just means that you should schedule for prime time more so than trying to make up for lost time during non-prime time. So primetime, you want to capitalize on much, much more versus getting yourself into these poor working habits of perhaps working at times where you are pretty low-energy. Another thing to do is to schedule your break times. If you do not schedule your break times than unscheduled break times are going to happen and those are pretty rowdy. They're hard to corral. So why do you have on scheduled break times? You're going to be surfing Twitter for 2 h, going down your Facebook feed for 45 min and realizing that the time has just alluded to you and you're tired now. So it's really good to schedule a break like a good, strong five-minute break, and figure out what you're doing in those five-minutes. That is, for you, like drinking a cup of coffee and really enjoying it or getting hydrated by drinking water with electrolytes or something, just something you can do in that five-minutes and then maybe Schedule 15 min or longer breaks. All I'm going to watch this animation I've been meaning to catch up on or I'm going to really rest and let myself nap for 90 min, schedule it in because then you can have this additional sense of relief when you're actually on break. Schedule. The break for as long as the break should be scheduled for. So sipping a cup of coffee and responding to attacks, that's a good five-minute thing, whereas a power that might be up to 90 min. So make sure you don't miss fit the time factor to what the task or break is. So that's really important because timing is everything when you're scheduling it out. Lastly, for our timing chapter here, scheduling and rescheduling. So managing your own creative process is really important for getting your potential out of your work and yourself and you're being, but sometimes you need to adjust that plan. So learning to reschedule your creative projects can really help you keep momentum and stay on track for success, rather than pick it up next month, next week, whatever. So if you quote unquote break the chain or dropped the ball or habit, schedule a time to bring it back, even if you only have literally five-minutes if you were writing in your novel. And for some reason like that crazy. It's been four days and you're able to do anything, just open up that Google Doc and spend 5 min. Literally just get yourself back on track. Because that five-minutes can be the difference between dropping the ball for a week, dropping it for a month or even longer. And that is the antithesis of productivity. So that's kinda the last thing I have for you in terms of the time chapter here, we're going to be getting into the building habits chapter next. So just go back and review the various slides and things that I've said in terms of time and makes sure that if something resonated with you, take some more notes on it, you try it out. You build your own actionable exercise. Because I can give you these actionable exercises, but it's really important for you to be figuring out your own way, to operate in your own way to build these productivity and personal development skills. So let's get into the next chapter and we will be talking more about the habit side of things now. 8. Growth Path 09 - Habits Deep Dive: Building habits, building positive habits is so important for your personal development, especially as an artist, you're really going to be focusing on developing those good habits, setting aside time for doing what you do, whether it's drawing, painting, coating, whatever. You really want to unlock that potential again. And the only way to do that is by getting these things down, by getting these habits down, by getting your time management skills down. These are all skills that in general school is not great at giving us. It's not really that effective. In most cases, you might have gotten lucky, went to a very good school, whether it was college or more compulsory education. This is why I made this course for you so that you can get into these skills and really start to unlock those wells of creative power you have within you. So we're going to talk about habits, system for success, some of the best practices, the environmental optimization, which is one of my favorites, and then process potency. So let's dive right in habits systems for success for artists with some examples. So creating a habit system that works for you is essential for success and as an artist, habits that really are going to propel you forward if you are kinda getting where we're going with this, the previous things that I was showing you, our skills, but you can make a habit of those skills because skills and habits go hand in hand. So by planning out your time and activities, you're going to prioritize the things that are really important to your creative success and make the most out of that potential. We keep talking about brainstorming habits for creative success. This is where I want you to stop and pause the video. I know, I know we're not very far in again and yet you have more work to do. But really we're just going to write down at least ten habits that you can cultivate big and small that will naturally lead to achievement or improvement. So this can be picking up a guitar and playing to a metronome for five-minutes. It could be sketching something from life for 10 min, or it could be as big as visualizing yourself drawing a masterpiece until you fall asleep at night. So all of these habits are really, really important to start to work into your being and work into your little time slots and you're big time slots. So if you're sitting on the bus commuting to work or school, you can have a sketchbook with you, you know, someone else is driving. That's a habit. And it's a habit that paid big dividends for me when I was in art college. Another habit you could potentially explore is to just get in the habit of thumbnailing for 15 min in the morning. Just different ideas, letting your subconscious work right when you're just sitting there with your cup of tea or whatever. And then you'll have ideas to work on for the rest of the day or possibly even the week. So I want you to stop here, put down ten habits you think would be really effective for that visionary outline that you created in the beginning of this course. And then you can resume the chapter on building habit. 9. Growth Path 10 - Best Practices for Habits: Alright, Hopefully you had a good time brainstorming habits. I'm gonna give you some examples here. So developing that creative practice is a very intricate process and it requires a well-rounded approach that incorporates mindful habits, active goal-setting and productive strategies. So all those things feed into one another. You'd like creating a synergy here between skills, skill-building and the habit that drives those things, that drives the building of skills, that drives the productivity. So from basically things like mindfulness meditation to efficient time management, understanding these best practices and adopting the right habits can help you make the most of that potential. One of the big things here is to make sure that you are taking this course and getting into the habit of writing down all of your big goals for one and then refining that list, really going through it, really thinking about it, breaking it down, practicing, spending active time at your smartphone, at your journal, wherever you want to keep track of these things. And getting used to looking at what you wanna do and pulling it apart. Some people work as project managers and they still can't get their creative goals to really work for themselves because it's one thing to do it in a compulsory way for work or you lose your job. Another thing to try to make yourself create, and it's just sort of a tricky thing seemingly, but it becomes less tricky the more you get into the habit of it because then it's second nature, it's natural for you. So mindfulness meditation is a good one to adapt because you're going to be much more aware of things when you're in a state, not to create in a state to create, you're going to be able to pay better attention to your thoughts and to detach from them, better attention to your emotions and to detach from them. When I say detach, I don't mean in ways that are going to make you less human, but in ways that make you a stronger, more well-rounded human. Because this is personal development at its core. We're not just talking about art here. We're talking about things that are going to help you fuel and tire our business and fuel every area of your life. So getting into some of these habits like meditation, like getting used to looking at a calendar every day, getting used to making to-do lists, getting used to breaking stuff down. When you are good at this, you become a crazy superhuman. So many people are not good at this stuff. And I, myself am still just getting better and better because I got lucky and I married a woman who is amazing at it. It gives me the ability to understand what it is to be productive and to have more potential unlocked by scheduling things, by looking at where your time is going, by breaking big scary tasks down into things that can be done. So getting into the habit of looking at your calendar or planning your day, or even just the habit of thinking about habits is going to automatically start to shift your behavior and make you a stronger artist and person in general. 10. Growth Path 11 - Your Creative Environment Matters: Next I want to talk about the environmental optimization for artists, which is your studio or space. So a comfortable place for you to work that is inspiring is going to be so key. Sometimes it's in a coffee shop, sometimes that is in your own home studio. Sometimes it is in a co-op studio where you're working with other people who are doing things that inspire you or that you're seeing how hard they're working in that makes you want to really put in the time and the effort into focus. So the setting is really important if you've ever heard of people doing psychedelics, whether you're into that sort of thing, what they stress all the time is set and setting. So the setting is where you are. If you are in somewhere comfortable if you're not at a party or at a gigantic concert, you're going to have a better experience. You're gonna get more out of it. So when you're talking about setting yourself up for a really, really potent creative session or for creative work, you are going to make sure that there's less distractions in your environment. You're going to make sure it helps you focus and doesn't pull your focus away. Your higher levels of creativity and productivity are accessed. So let's talk a little more about an environmental optimization. How close are your pencils to you? Are they pre sharpened? Where is the trash for getting rid of bad work quickly. So you're not spending time on a sketch that just sucks how organized as your hard drive is it easy to find your work in progress files rather than start a new file? Do you incentivize yourself to do that? You're basically designing things so that your human, the more animal, the more natural part of your human is going to interact in the environment in a way that is beneficial to you achieving those goals. So are you leaving your phone under the room when you have a real working time block, your environment is going to dictate all of this. So you want to control it as best you can. If you live with people, sometimes they're not home at certain times and it's really good for creating. Maybe you stay up really late and you have the ability to sleep in and late at night is when you do your best creative work. So if you want to draw more, you like, take a sketchbook with you wherever you go. All of these environmental control factors are going to give you a lot more power when it comes to building your habits. So controlling the things going on around you. Sometimes you work really well by yourself for certain phases. Sometimes it's really nice to be talking to friends on Discord when you're finishing up the piece, because that last 20% is just so tedious and talking to friends, it doesn't distract you too much. It's just enough to keep your hand moving while you render out every last little bit of the shoulder armor or whatever. So now what I want you to do is to take ten different ways and write them down that you can brainstorm. Set another timer with the key, set another timer for five, 10 min, and brainstorm ten ways you can affect your environment to achieve the goal you chose from your visionary outline. So that could be, as I stated before, making sure that your sketchbook is nearby and making sure that your easels already set up, making sure that the files on your hard drive or easy to find just ten ways you can make it very easy for yourself to cultivate these new habits through environmental optimization. E.g. I have a timer on my desk. It is right here. I can turn a little knob and it's in the resources section this particular time or that I bought from Amazon, it's like a couple of bucks and it lets me get started right away. I can set a little five-minute timer. I can send it all the way to 55, but the timer is literally sitting on my desk, so it's easy for me to change my channel by turning the timer on for focus. That's just one example of something that's environmental. So take the time to pause the video, write down ten things that are going to change in your environment or you can change in your environment to make it easier to achieve your goal, to build better habits, and to build your skills. 11. Growth Path 12 - Process Breakdown - How You Work : Next we're gonna get into your process potency. So understanding the creative process for your artwork, how clear you are on how that process evolves and unfolds. So are you aware of what is and isn't working in your own process? It can be really helpful for you to write down your process, e.g. so it could start somewhere with an idea and then you begin your sketches. You pick your best sketch, you redraw that best guess so that it's more clear. You do clean line art because you're going to finish the sketch now because you went through all this early-stage stuff, finally, you do the flat fills that you're separating things into colors and values. You get to your shadows because you wanted to find the forums and figure out where the light sources and when you know that you know where the highlights are, you can then begin to soften edges or the style starts to work and you start to get more form. And then you finalize it with various effects and whatnot that you've learned how to do, etc. So that's just one example of knowing how to walk yourself through the full process of creating a piece of art in a cohesive style because it follows the same steps, the same outline. So you should know each step and where you can improve things. Maybe you pick the best sketch and then you would insert, find, reference and do studies right here before you redraw the best sketch. So you can have more than one process, but it should be ever evolving and optimizing you to generate the results that you're after. So it's really important to get really familiar with your process the same way that I'm placing your attention through this course forcibly on things like your flow states, things like time management, things like habits, things like your environment. I want to place your focus again on your process because it's going to help you understand how you make your work, how you've made your best work. You can continue to make your best work, and where you can optimize it, where you can add what you can track. 12. Growth Path 13 - Productivity Power Ups: Alright, so now we're going to talk more about productivity power-ups for artists, for meditation to automation. There are a lot of ways to stay focused and to supercharge that productivity, which is what this course is all about, that is what your growth path is a tuned to. So to discover the best tools and techniques, you're going to want to make sure that you're looking into things like the Pomodoro or other timer tactics. The Pomodoro is just my favorite, is easy to set the 25 on, five off, and then another 2055 off. And then you do a 25-minute 15 or something to that effect. So you basically have to have a timer where you're going in taking breaks, go away in taking breaks. Another thing is monk mode slash obsession, which is sort of a really extreme way of dealing with productivity. And it's not for everybody all the time. And for some it's not for them at all. And for some people they can handle a lot of it. So we'll dig into that later. So you know more about monk mode and it's an option that you can exercise. It's kind of like the sprint of sprints really. But you also are going to find ways to marathon. And in there too, we'll talk more about that. And then there's what I like to call a little bit of everything some of the time, which is sort of a cheeky nod to Bo Burnham and his song, but it will prove very fruitful as far as a productivity power-up goes. So when we're talking about the Pomodoro and other timer tactics, you can really that elbow to the next level by using Pomodoro is to prioritize and focus on tasks. So breaking down your projects into smaller tasks and setting a timer, you can stay on track and reduce those distractions. Your Instagram scrolling, your deeming your whatever it is that takes you away your unscheduled video game time. So you can just take your Pomodoro and have 25-minute sketching ideas and then a five-minute break, 25 min for finding one of the ideas, five-minute break, etc. So that's the Pomodoro tactic. You can set your timer. So however you want to set your timers and you'll find that different types of timers work best for different types of activities is just something you have to get into the habit of doing. The easier you can do that, the better really because habits are all about decreasing friction, especially when the habit is early and very young. And it hasn't had a chance to really cement itself in your character, in your everyday life, in your thinking. So Monk modes last obsession for artists is a powerful tool to channel your focus and passion into that single creative project. Typically, I don't recommend it for most people because you really focusing and obsessing and you can reach a really big jump, a really big leap of progress, which may be necessary, but the other areas of your life are going to suffer. So you really want to take into account the fact that, okay, if you have a whole year of your life, Let's say you live to be 70, 75, 84, if we're so fortunate, 90, 95, a whole year of your life is something that you would be giving up to, say build the skill to even start working on an album or working on a concept art book, or switching your job to working as a concept artist or illustrator in the industry. Spending a year saying no to friends, going to few family events, working really assiduously, burning through your savings. Monk mode is not to be taken lightly. But that being said, if you have this focused obsession and you're using this course to really dial in your productivity modalities. It can shoot you to the stars in a relatively short amount of time. Give you that initial burst of power to make that big life shift. But afterwards you want to settle more into like a sustainable, more marathon type modality. So one of the better tactics for productivity if you already have a really busy life that I already have hinted two is a little bit of everything some of the time, which is a strategy that works well when you've already assessed your time blocks already. And you know that you don't have a lot of them. Maybe you can schedule two big ones during the week where you're working for three or 4 h, but you want to squeeze a little bit more out. And you have little moments here and there, but nothing that you can schedule is a big time block, in which case you would get good at squaring away little 51,015.30 min to an hour chunks in order to keep making steady progress every day in a schedule that's either unpredictable, are very busy. So you can write a book like this or practice tricky parts of a song you're composing your learning. You can render out the hair in one session and then move on to the hands the next, if you're doing a painting or a drawing or something. So a little bit of everything from your project using some of the time you're afforded by a busy or demanding lifestyle. So since we've talked about the productivity Power Apps now, such as the Pomodoro timer and some of these other things, we're going to take a break and get into the quote, unquote, magic bullets for artistic progress and power, which are kind of cute little ways of adding even more fuel to your fire. 13. Growth Path 14 - Productivity hacks + Accountability Group: Okay, so some of these hacks, and I call them hacks, like the magic bullets for artistic power. Or just little ways that in and of themselves are not probably going to make a massive difference. But when it comes to squeezing out those extra little percentile points of productivity and potency, they're gonna be helpful. So one of them is lion's mane for clear thinking. So the lion's mane mushroom is a powerful natural supplement that helps you improve cognitive clarity and focus. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries to reduce stress and improve concentration. And as we know, life can be very stressful and concentration can be very scarce. So the lion's mane can be helpful in that regard. Another one, which is kinda funny. I'm, I'm using this program to generate these funny images just to help with the presentation and speeding up the productivity of it. So I don't have to go and dig for files all over the place. When I wrote like swelling peppermint or lemon oil for productivity, this leg goes out and I'm fine with it. So aromatics sense of lemon and peppermint can awaken the census and inspire creative productivity. And this is something that not a lot of people know about unless you're into alternative health circles. This is scientifically backed and has been shown. Again, I'm not going to dig into all the theory for this course. It's more about just getting you into these little principles of practice and hoping you build habits and time management and whatnot rather than long tree teases into the scientific abstract papers. But it has been shown that either the oil or the actual citrus itself or the smell of peppermint itself from the plant can help to reduce stress and allow for a more productive working environment. So again, controlling that environment. If you have lemons in your drawer, you're going to make lemonade out of. Why not just take a little slice of it, save it for later in the fridge and smell it before you work. There's literally nothing to lose unless you're like a cat and alone makes you gag, in which case, I'm sorry. But you probably already knew that before you came with this course. So another thing with the peppermint oil, that's one I have yet to try for myself. But essential oils are really affordable and you can get an essential oil diffuser to or you can just drop a little bit of peppermint, extract in water and smell it. I don't suggest imbibing any of these things. I won't be responsible for that, but these are just nice little hacks again, that can help push the productivity just a little further. Speaking of the AIR, this one kinda, kinda sucks, but visualization, day and night for success, wealth and achievement. Visualizing success, wealth and achievement during the day can help bring clarity and focus on the task at hand. And this is one that I do pretty religiously. I don't miss many days, and if I do, I certainly don't miss the night. So visualizing the goals during the day will really help you remember what it is you're working towards. And it might even trigger your subconscious to work even more efficiently. And even better. Athletes visualize their moves. Dancers, musicians, performers, people giving speeches. It is a natural part of our human abilities. And oftentimes you just forget to tap it or make a habit out of using it. So visualizing and night before you fall asleep can really help you create more of that natural connection with the thing you're trying to work on or trying to master. So I highly, highly, highly suggest these ones. They usually don't make all the difference, as I'm saying, but they really, really helped to augment what you're already doing. Some of the more principled things like time management, productivity practices, environmental control. So that is all I have for you in this course. I really want to thank you and congratulate you for making it through this approximate hour of productive potency. I really want you to make sure that you did the assignments to double-check on stuff, to go back and re-watch it. And maybe even once a week because it's so short and it'll help keep you on track, help you reinforce those connections that you're already building. And I have a discord group for you, which is in the resources PDF with this very course and the power of community will help keep you accountable within the server. We're all helping each other stay focused and motivated on our creative goals. You could find the balance between fun and focus. So tracking your progress in your own thread in the server. So it's really, really helpful. I found that threads, forum threads were really helpful for me to stay on track and to get feedback when I was developing in my earlier parts of my artistic career. And now I'm using them to help complete projects. And I hope you'd like to be a part of that. So again, the link is in the resources PDF along with some of the other things like the timer or various videos that might help with productivity. Again, I want to thank you so much. And if you want any coaching or consulting in terms of this in a one-on-one capacity. If you've already paid for that package, then just be sure to e-mail me. Otherwise, you can check it out again in the resources PDF because I know sometimes having somebody look over your stuff, give you one-on-one feedback, keep you accountable, can be really helpful if you don't want to do the group thing because that can be intimidating for some people. Happy drawing, heavy creating. And I wish you prosperity and practice and potency on your growth path.