If you are feeling stuck in your art, unable to move forward with your business, or simply feeling uninspired, it may be contributing to your overall happiness (or unhappiness) not just with your work, but your home life, too.
So this week, I have put together six full-proof tips for getting back on track down the “happiness path” in your business and in life.
And for even more inspiration, visit my Art to Inspire gift guide, featuring 20 additional prints and originals to make your heart smile, after you’ve read through this post.
1. Choose your own path: Don’t compare yourself to others. It will only get you heading down the wrong path quick. Instead, choose your own path and know that the one you choose is the absolute right path for you at this moment. Trust your intuition and let that little voice inside of you in.
2. Creativity takes courage: When you are feeling down remember that you are courageous as a creative entrepreneur. This stuff takes guts. And it can be tough. I mean come on, even Henri Matisse thinks so! Are you really going to argue with Matisse on this one?
3. Sing your own song: Be you! I can sense that you are the very best version of yourself when you are around people you feel comfortable with. Maybe your close family and friends – with them you let your hair down, you sing your own song, act a fool without apologizing, speak your brilliance, and just “get real”. If you can do it with them, you can do it with everyone else (strangers, perspective clients, and fellow biz owners included).
4. Don’t wait for inspiration. Pursue it: Don’t wait around for that magic moment to strike you. Create the magic moment yourself. If you wait, you’ll never get there. And we are not living in eternity.
5. Haters gonna hate: You have to know that “haters gonna hate”. It happens to everyone at some point. It is not just you. So, you need to remember that you cannot please everyone. Period! And you also need to learn to be okay with that. If you can do this, you will be so much happier.
6. Always radiate sunshine: Finally, make an attempt to radiate sunshine from the inside out every day. It’s the little things that bring joy to your life. If you can find those things, you will radiate happiness (and sunshine) until the end of days.
What do you do to maintain happiness in your business (and in life)?
Share your response in the comments below.
Brittni Mehlhoff is the editor of the 
Don’t wait for inspiration… pursue it. YES. I can attest that some of my best posts have been post I sat down to write with NO idea what I was going to write. It was like pulling teeth. I said “Well, I have to write something today” and just got on with it. Yes, inspiration works too– but it is completely unpredictable. Instead, better to expect and to rely on your own abilities. Know you have it in you to do it… And get it done! Thanks for a great post today!
Don’t wait for inspiration… pursue it. YES. I can attest that some of my best posts have been posts I sat down to write with NO idea what I was going to write. It was like pulling teeth. I said “Well, I have to write something today” and just got on with it. Yes, inspiration works too– but it is completely unpredictable. Instead, better to expect and to rely on your own abilities. Know you have it in you to do it… And get it done! Thanks for a great post today!
I’m working on patience, both in business and in life. I’m finding that if I get impatient with the progress in my business I’m also getting more easily irritated and impatient in the rest of my life as well.
I’m finding that either taking time completely off or work to achieve small tasks (where progress can be easily measured) are helping me stay happy and be more patient.
Very good suggestions. But i think you mean ‘foolproof’ and not ‘full-proof’.
I love n.5. I think I have spent most (as in at least 90%) of my energies to avoid hate and hostility.
And – clearly – I failed at this attempt. And – as weird as it may sound – haters will hate you even more when you try to please them. So it’s pointless.
Thanks for this inspiring post (all of these 6 points are great).
Awesome! I love how this is helpful in regards to business AND life!
Thanks for the smile on a monday! The “haters gonna hate” visual made me laugh out loud, those two old coots from the muppet show are a classic example.
#1 is the hardest for me: Choose Your Own Path. I feel that I am being bombarded in the blogosphere by “how to succeed” mandates. Information overload. I end up overwhelmed! I also identify with Ashley Inzer’s comment in response to Down in the Weeds. Trying to put creativity in a corporate day-planner straight jacket just doesn’t work for me, either. It works in my horrible, stultifying day job–but not in my creative life!
I get back to happy when I unplug myself from the computer and the to do lists and the day planners, and go into my sewing room and shut the door and see and feel the fabric–then I am calm, inspired, and creative.
I totally needed this today. Thank you.
[...] this week, I put together six foolproof tips (or full-proof as I called it on SG – I am full of proof that these simple reminders will [...]
I love these six steps..each one of them has significance for me. All the comments are wonderful too. I get trapped in feeling like a failure when I get brain locked and no new ideas. But I try to keep those creative juices flowing. I appreciate this post! Thanks….Diana
What an encouraging post. I agree with Elizabeth’s comment above too; that inspiration isn’t simply something that hits you when the “magic happens,” you make it happen too. That’s what makes us “creative entrepreneurs,” afterall. And yes, haters will certainly hate–I needed that reminded today to try not to take it personally–you’re right Brittni, we can’t please everyone. All of these tips are excellent reminders!
You are the best inspirational art curator ever. I always want each piece displayed on every square inch of my workspace to help me get through the day.
And as always, inspiring messages to motivate to get through the work week!
Thank you for the great ideas. I have two more that help me when I am stuck. They are similar in that I tend to stagnate because I expect whatever I create to be perfect the first time I have a go at it. So the first, “Dare to be mediocre!” reminds me that it is risky to put myself out there. The alternative is to create nothing and be safe. Once I accept that I may produce nothing original today, I often have the best results. The second is a corollary to the first and probably familiar to many. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” It reminds me that I can always edit, erase, re-do, revise, paint over, deconstruct, reconstruct, set aside, or stand in awe of what I was able to create!
[...] wise words from Scoutie Girl [...]