law of attraction

The Ideal Artist Home (Housing)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

We’ve all done it.

Dreamt of the perfect home and what it would feel like to have it. What it would do to make our lives more constructive, comfortable, and creative.

Friends, let me assure you there’s no harm in fantasizing about what this situation looks like (read: the law of attraction), you dear sweet readers, because you should always gravitate towards healthy environments, the ones that will truly satisfy you. And if you’re like me at all, which I suspect you are, you’ve stared down tons of DIY photos featuring custom housing solutions and pretended they were your property.

Images like this.
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And like this.
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Sometimes like this.
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And definitely like this.
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These settings inspire us to actively think about how our environments should look and operate. Which is a good thing. Function combined with aesthetics is a honourable endeavour.

Teenage Art Throb

When I was a much younger artist, I had this ideal artist home all laid out in my mind, it featured so many cool functional elements that it was difficult not to get lost in my own imagination and stay there for hours at a time. Daydreaming my life away. But c’set la vie, as I was quickly course corrected. You see creative cuties, as I went through art school and then got my first adult job, I quickly learned what was possible on my budget and I also learned to put a lot of things on standby. I instead focused on the most important components of my visual empire. We make do with what we can right?

This is after all the first post in a continuing series which was inspired by my Postconsumers post on health and wellness. Which was thankfully a good experience and not a demotivating one. You see friends, what I learned from that website is that sometimes we forget just how good we truly have it.

We live in an age where most people in western society have more than enough. If you really stop to think about it, all we require to live is air, water, food, and shelter – everything else is unessential.

But the astute artist would argue otherwise, stating that the purpose of life is to live it, which means contributing to society in a healthy way – and what better way to contribute than to make excellent art? Thus, the question of shelter is elevated to include elements for the artist. Which also means that finding affordable housing and a sustainable workspace becomes all the more important in your journey to success.

Art & Start Homes

I realize this is a challenge as you start out, but let me offer some words of encouragement, this is not about having the biggest and the best right out of the gate, though many would argue that millenials expect the best. It’s about having better than the constant threat of eviction – you work hard to share your work with the world, but discipline is needed to maintain the basic level of shelter. This means being realistic about what kind of rent you can afford, and then dumping leftover resources (time and money)  from your income earning and shelter providing job directly into your passion.

It might sound like madness to some of you, but I’m not advocating you stop making your art, I’m offering an alternative where you keep yourself out of debt and able to do as much as you humanly can to make your art. You don’t need permission to make or sell your art, but you do need housing.

I have a confession to make – I’m not an award winning, world famous, globe trotting artist folks. Yet. But my intent is to keep at it until something gives, whether it’s fortune or skillfulness, I’ll get there. And you can too. But that’s just a theory, until you make it a fact.

Tim!

 

Death From A Thousand Papercuts (Self-help Books)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Self-help guides are everywhere. You cannot move within 30 links on the internet without hitting one. On top of that, there are over 240,000 self-help books available for purchase on Amazon. And I’m sure that many of them are fantastic, well-reviewed and considered best sellers.

But the thing is, none of these books are really essential reading. Almost all of them have the same ideas to express to you. You can summarize most of these ideas pretty easily and rather quickly if I’m going to be frank with you, dear readers. I read this great article a couple of years back and decided to summarize it’s summary of this idea for you. So which is greater the summary of self-help books or the summary of the summary of self-help books?

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I guess you’ll find out pretty quick won’t you?

12 Lessons From Self-help Books

No martter what the topic, there are commonalities for all tips of self-help and this list of 12 points should do the trick in laying it all out for you, the ever efficient consumer of information.

  1. You are in control of your emotions and can change how you feel. No one else can do it for you.
  2. Mirror successful people. If you follow the habits of the leader, you will adopt them and transcend your current lifestyle.
  3. The law of attraction is real. You bring into your life what you spend your time thinking about. So think on good things OR use affirmations to get you there
  4. Be present and avoid thinking about the past or future. With presence you stop worry and avoid anxiety.
  5. Leave your comfort zone. You need to evolve and grow through discomfort.
  6. Procrastination is bad – Have goals and to-do lists, work on what matters to get what you want.
  7. Accountability for your actions. Own the things you can influence and work to enforce them when good OR change them when bad.
  8. Value your unique qualities. Never compare yourself to others, instead compare your past self to who you are now.
  9. Treat yourself. Have fun, enjoy things you care about. Life experience is important.
  10. Have gratitude. Life is full of problems, but you turn them into opportunities.
  11. Positive self-talk. I can do this. Tell yourself that every time you have doubt.
  12. Visualize what you want. Visualization is a commonly recommended technique with positive self-talk. It is becoming increasingly popular in therapy as psychologists use imagery to not only work through problems, but change behavior. The basic aim is to see in your mind what you want. Advanced visualization incorporates sight with taste, smell, touch, and sound of having achieved your goal.

Should You Read Self-help Books?

With all of that said, you’re probably wondering if you should even read self-help books now. Well friends, I’ll be the first to admit that as I get older, my memory doesn’t seem to be improving, and in some cases, like for instance if I don’t get enough sleep, I definitely don’t remember things that I should.

So you know what they say right? Well no, no you don’t.

Seriously? I just made that point above and you’ve already forgotten it?

The point is this, motivation is temporary but discipline helps us with ingraining new ideas into our being, if you follow a pattern for more then 30 days it begins to take root and turn into a habit, but 90 days its your primary mode of function.

Even once you know the summary of all of these great books, it doesn’t mean you have the practice down to a science. And let’s be honest, the reason why the knowledge is so frequently referenced is because it is pretty useful for anyone really. After all, just because you read a summary, it doesn’t mean you had a moment of enlightenment, sitting with an idea helps in that process. But that’s just a theory.

 

Tim!