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Making art is no doubt one of your primary meaning opportunities. But for a rich and complete life, human beings need multiple meaning opportunities—a full menu of meaning opportunities. Here are five to consider. One. Service Being of help feels meaningful. It is a...

Say that you have a studio mate and that you get along pretty well with her. Her paintings look nothing like yours, so you aren’t competing; she isn’t chatty; she has no habits that particularly annoy you. But then one day she comes over to your side of the studio,...

Last week I shared how artists deal with the anxiety of art deadlines. Here are some additional tactics! Tamara explained: I find that accountability to another human, set up at the beginning of the project and kept up throughout, is really important. When I know that...

Here are some thoughts from working artists about how they deal with the anxiety of deadlines. Jerry explained: The thing that works best for me is to have a written calendar that I can look at all at once with all the year’s deadlines written down.  If I need to...

  If you like to paint outdoors and you visit San Francisco, I imagine you’ll pick a spot in Golden Gate Park, maybe in front of the Conservatory of Flowers, or someplace along the revamped Embarcadero, with its views of Alcatraz and the Bay, or on a bench in...

The next introduction to creativity coaching training and the next advanced creativity coaching training both begin on Monday! These are online trainings, fit every schedule, and can be taken simultaneously. To learn more and to register:...

Our mental health depends on us having a good sense of what promotes the experience of meaning in us—that is, a good sense of what sorts of things give us the subjective psychological sense that life is meaningful. This array—or menu of meaning opportunities—is...

I was chatting with a coaching client yesterday about the difference between an “or” life and an “and” life. The people that I know—artist, writers, musicians, coaches, therapists—are confronted on a daily basis with the question, “Should I do this today or this today...

Let’s focus on one of the most important self-help strategies you can adopt: strategically deciding to only think thoughts that serve you. This is a different idea from related ideas of cognitive therapy that you may already know. Here the focus isn’t on whether a...

Last week I described 12 roles that artists can play in society. This week I’d like to continue that discussion. Most artists never think through how they want to relate to their society or what role they want to adopt as an artist. Rather, they fall rather by...