Strategies for Artists Writing Yearly Goals
Colors of the Arizona desert in January
It's January 1st! It is one of my favorite days of the year; the kids and I have another week off, and we have just spent time with family, had additional sleep, and had all sorts of good food and family events. I would be starting my New Year's resolution goals from past years today. This year, my approach to art business goal-setting is different. Ten years of goal setting, other readings, and new knowledge influence it.
Previously, I used to set target goals for outcomes. I will sell X amount of artwork or make X amount of money. I listed what needed to be checked off like they were SMART goals of submissions to galleries, publications, and group show calls. Then, when I submitted that number of items, I would check off my "successes" even though this didn't mean I had been accepted to the shows or the publications. This also cost a lot of money and had little return on sales or increased awareness of my work.
When I set target goals for outcomes, some years I would make great sales and sell a lot of small pieces, but some years I would sell one or two more significant works that were more than all the small work sales combined. It wasn't a beneficial strategy because the behavior was always the same (make the work, promote it, and see what sells). I didn't have complete control over what would sell or not. One year, I was going to post on social media every day for a year. One year, I would stitch paper quilts an hour a day. Both of those New Year's resolutions stopped happening within January. Not only were they trying to create time to do things where none existed, but I needed to figure out what I wanted out of the goals. It was hard to keep up that motivation when there was no final desired result and when the realities of school schedules and a career play into the daily time needs. The benefits of those goals (even though they were too big) were because they focused on behavior instead of the outcome. In this career, your systems and behavior create the outcomes. Last year, I recognized this art business goal pattern and how huge the goals were and set something more modest. I attempted to send out my art newsletter once per month for the year. I successfully sent over 9 monthly newsletters (which is about *cough* seven more than usual each year).
A recent episode on one of my favorite podcasts, Beyond the Studio, from 12/7/2023, discusses goal setting for artists and how it is challenging because you only sometimes know what opportunities will come up. When Nicole was discussing goals and stated “it’s hard to be specific because you have to remain open” this exactly explained my experience with prior goals. I hadn’t been able to guess what good things might come. When I look back at this year, I got an unexpectedly larger sale of a paper quilt, inclusion in an AMAZING paper encyclopedia, Rag & Pulp, that I didn't apply for, and an invitation to serve on a mother artist panel at Chandler Art Museum. All of these experiences were some of my favorite art business-related experiences of the year, and none of them were things I could have planned for. They all were invitation-based and truly a highlight.
You might wonder what this means for my upcoming yearly goals. I am continuing with my annual goal of a monthly newsletter. It helps me focus on articulating the ideas behind my work regularly in a written format, allowing artists to identify their "why." I will also set a stitching goal of TEN minutes each day, which I know I can always fit in. I have a checklist created to mark my success each day. I also aim to make two 5 ft. x 4 ft. paper quilts and plan to spend ten minutes each day on those two pieces. I can always work more (and do regularly). Still, it also gets me into the habit of stitching each day instead of focusing on other parts of the art business (email, marketing, social media, etc.), which is a significant driver of finishing new work. I won't set any goals around social media, blogging, etc., because those don't drive artwork completion. After finishing my doctorate last year (see Blog Post: How do you work in another industry without burning out?) I will have a lot of extra time for marketing and communication. Still, I plan to dive into the studio more with my new freedom and then evaluate marketing and social media goals (maybe a potential goal for next year).
Looking for more options on goal setting? Check out my friend Taylor Colvey's New Ways to Set Goals guide, which is a stellar start to creating a diverse type of goal setting for different situations. She is a professional coach and an all-around lovely human. Also, listen to the Beyond the Studio episode, 12/7/23, with Amanda Adams and Nicole Mueller, for an excerpt of goal setting for artists and the challenges it involves.