THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman:
Well, hello. This is your host, artist Miriam Schulman, and you’re listening to episode 116 of The Inspiration Place Podcast. And I’m so honored that you’re here.
Today we’re talking all about why you should be listing, or as I to say, celebrating your wins. I’m going to be pulling directly from positive psychology theory, brain science, as well as law of attraction theory. It’s going to be a blend of all of those things. But before we get into today’s topic, I wanted to share a really funny conversation I just had with my friend. We went on a very nice socially distant walk outside, it’s a beautiful day here in New York, the day I’m recording it. And my friend is about to turn 60. So she decided because of that reason and along with the pandemic that she was no longer going to dye her hair blonde, it’s now turning a beautiful shade of white.
So we were talking about that and the truth is my hair is actually pretty white underneath all my brown hair dye. I am committed to dying it mostly because my husband likes it this way. Now, for those of you who know what a feminist I am, it might surprise you to hear that I’m dying my hair for my husband, but my husband also accepts my body type. So the way I figure it, as long as I get to eat all the carbs I want, and my romantic partner likes me that way, then I’ll dye my hair for him, that I figure was a good trade off. But the other reason is once I let my hair go completely white, I’m going to look exactly like my mother. And I know my husband is not interested in his romantic partner looking like his mother.
So there you go. So that is why I’m committed to dye my hair. Plus that is the one reason I leave my house pretty much these days. I’m going to be 52 this year. So I figure by the time I’m 60, that’s where I’m going to have at least my cutoff for going white. And I truly, I would have done it this spring. When I couldn’t go to the hairdresser. I didn’t mind the white coming in. I thought it looks kind of cool, but husband, he didn’t like it so much. So there you go. And for anybody who says that 60 is the new 40, I call bullshit on you because when you’re 40, you can still get pregnant. But when you’re 60 or you’re my age, you start to look a little bit pregnant. So kind of worried about that belly, I’ve been growing all summer long with my lack of exercise.
All right. So let’s move into today’s topic because complaining is not exactly what we are going to be recommending for you. In fact, it’s going to be just the opposite. What I’m talking about today is about really focusing on your desires and measuring the gain rather than focusing on the lack or the gap. So let me give you a specific example. It could be that you’re working on your website. It could be that you’re just looking at how much you have left to do, rather than looking at how much you have done, or if you have an income goal for the year. And you’re looking how far away you are from hitting the goal, rather than looking at your art sales for the year and celebrating everything you’ve done so far. So that is the difference between focusing on the gain rather than the gap, focusing on the progress or your gains.
And that’s what we’re talking about today. And I have a specific strategy for diving into it. And I want to share with you why that’s important. What I see sometimes happening when I’m talking to both my clients inside the Artist Incubator and artists who are applying is they’re discouraged because a great deal of time passes when they’ve been working on their goals and the results that they’re seeking don’t materialize. Now, if you have any familiarity with law of attraction, then you know that they preach that you really need to have that improved sense of wellbeing. That that always comes before the evidence of that. And even if you don’t buy into any law of attraction, by the way, brain science does back this up. But that’s why I always encourage my coaching clients. Those artists who focus on the wins because it helps generate that same feeling of wellbeing.
Eventually the art sales do follow that feeling of abundance, but the feelings, the good feelings of confidence, the good feelings of abundance, they must come first in order to take continued inspired action. Honestly, today we are in a very weird time and you might feel you’re in a kind of funk or you’ve been in a funk for a while. If you do, I see you, I hear you. And I know how hard it is to maintain your positivity right now. I get it. If you’re feeling stuck or disappointed with your progress, we’ve all been there, even me. And I’m a very upbeat person. I like to get excited about things. I enjoy it. I like to get enthusiastic. That’s how I want to live my life. But there are certainly times when you feel like things are not going the way that you expected them to.
It may be tempting to slip into that complaining mode. That’s when you may start focusing on the negative, but what happens when you do that? I think, you know the answer, one thing goes wrong, then you notice another thing goes wrong. And then you feel exhausted.
You might feel as though you’re not making any progress or you’re slipping into despair where you completely lack motivation. I’m not saying any of this to chastise anyone. I talk to so many artists right now, and that feeling right now is so prevalent.
But sometimes when we think this way and we allow ourselves to indulge in this type of thinking, it makes our situation worse. We get bogged down in the circumstances of the situation and our negative thoughts, which will lead to a lack of motivation. And then that will ultimately give us an even poor outcome instead of feeling helpless because you can’t change the circumstance, which you believe is your problem. What you can do instead is change your focus because you do have control over that. What you focus on really has a dramatic effect on your perspective, on your outlook and what will happen to you later on today, later on this week. And it’s not because I believe you should just sit in a cave and meditate and things will come to you, it’s because when you change the way you think about things, you will take inspired action that will move you further along in your goals.
Now, as humans we do have negativity bias, which means that we are naturally more prone to place emphasis on our problems or our issues. And as a result, if we’re not careful, if we’re not intentional, we’re going to make those things, those negative things really big, and we will let those things outweigh the good things.
On the other hand, if you focus on your wins, it’s a totally different view of the world. Another way I’ve heard this is to measure the gain, not the gap, and the exact quote comes from Dan Sullivan. So I’m going to give him credit, “The way to measure your progress is backward against where you started, not against your ideal.” So that’s so important. So if you had a commission and it’s the best commission you’ve ever had, and instead of celebrating that, you’re looking at your friend who’s maybe making $100,000 a year and you’re why can’t I do what she’s doing?
And you’re so focused on that gap between where you are and where she is that you’re not celebrating how far you’ve come, you’re going to miss out. So always measure yourself against your starting point. Not how far you have to go. If you lost weight, you got to focus on how much weight you’ve lost, not how much you have left. It’s two different ways to look at the same exact scenario. But one way is definitely healthier than the other. That’s why some people struggle with goal setting or they just give up on their goals in general, because they feel like they’re failing rather than succeeding. So here’s what I want you to know. It’s not that you’re failing, it’s not that goal setting doesn’t work, it’s your focus that needs to change. It’s because you’re focusing on the gap. If your focus is on how you came up short, rather than how much progress you’ve made, that’s going to work against you and it’s going to be very discouraging.
So instead, if you measure your wins, if you count those wins, it has some really awesome benefits. And that’s what I’m going to share with you today. I’m actually going to give you 10 reasons why you should track and celebrate your wins. I’m also going to give you different ways to do that. And this will help you get out of that funk.
Now, for my Artist Incubator members, we do this in a group format every week during our coaching calls. And it’s really motivating for the other members because when they see how other people are getting success from taking action, they get motivated by that too. And by the way, I consider any inspired action a win, not just an outcome, inspired actions often lead to inspired outcomes. For example, I considered a win, pitching a gallery, okay?
You do not have to count it only if that gallery accepts you. So a win does not have to be you sold a piece in art, a win could be you photographed your art and you put it on your website, and you sent out that email. That’s another win. And you reached out to a client who commissioned you and asked for a referral, that’s a win. That’s three wins right there. If you did that every single week, I promise you’d have more success. And more importantly, focusing on an inspired action as a win, rather than just the outcome helps you detach from the outcome and makes you more willing to take those risks. So you’re not saying to yourself, “Oh, I sent an email last week and nobody signed up for anything, or nobody bought anything.” No, every email you send is a win and count those wins. So I want to jump right in and do these top 10 Letterman style, counting down from reason number 10.
Reason number 10, it resets your perspective. If you’re a high achiever, you have to be really careful because your default is going to be negative. And by high achievers, I’m talking to all you type A, head of the class, must get perfect grades. If that’s you, this may come from having a tiger mother being a tiger mother, or just being a Hermione Granger. I’m not sure how that ended up being for you. If you consider an A minus a fail, because that’s how your internal inner critic system works, then your inner critic always kicking in is always going to look for what you did wrong. So instead of looking for what you did wrong, your perspective can affect everything that you do. It’s how you see the world.
If you want to see the world and your day and your future with a more hopeful light than count your wins. You can make this part of your daily routine if you like to, maybe during your morning pages, kind of Julia Cameron style, fill up part of those three pages. You’re not sure what to write on those three pages. Maybe putting your wins there is a good idea. You may want to do this in the evenings as part of journaling. You could also just do this with your partner.
By the way, my husband shared with me, he uses his short drive home from the office to do a mental counting of his daily wins. And sometimes we do this as a family around the dinner table. We’ll say, what was the best thing that happened this week? That’s kind of a win. This is a little bit different than a gratitude practice. It’s a little different, counting your gratitudes, thinking about what you’re grateful for, that’s good too, but this is about really paying attention to your progress in whatever goals you’re making. You could be grateful for them, but not necessarily, so there is a subtle difference there. Now making counting your wins part of your day, part of your ritual, either to start your day or end your day is very powerful.
Reason number nine, I love this one. Listing your wins keeps you from complaining. No one wants to be around an Eeyore, no one. I know some people use complaining as a badge of honor. We all know people like that. And they’re all want to tell you about all the terrible things that are happening, and it creates the worst kind of energy ever. And it can really repel people. This is the opposite of what you want to do, especially if you’re in the business of selling your art, you do not want to be repelling people by complaining. Now the only ones who can complain really successfully and get away with it are skilled comedians. The problem is that a lot of complainers think they’re being funny or ironic, and they just aren’t. For example like me at the beginning of this podcast, talking about my belly, I think I’m being funny. I think I’m being ironic. I’m not really sure if my joke is landing or not, because you’re not here with me to laugh.
So going into that whole thing, this stinks and that stinks and oh I can’t see my friends because of COVID and I can’t go to the museum. I’m not even going to give you examples here, but that kind of complaining can just suck the oxygen out of any room. And when there’s no oxygen and no one can breathe, it’s just the dementors in Harry Potter. When you’re breathing out hopelessness and there’s no happiness left to breathe in, it’s going to vanquish your hope. When you don’t have hope, you’re going to give up on your goals. I think the oxygen is the sort of power that we need for change. The hope that we have, the capacity to change our circumstance or to control the way we act inside our existing circumstances.
When we’re complaining it sort of takes away our power over the situation versus when we focus on the positive. So if you find yourself complaining or like a Debbie Downer ear for just even one minute, stop yourself, stop it, write down some wins, write down some things that you feel positive about that you can celebrate. Talking about your wins in a group with a friend or a group of friends is really does the opposite of sucking the energy out of the room. It’s energizing, but I’ve also found that if I actually write down a win, I notice I’m more likely to take another positive action sooner rather than when I’m just complaining or dwelling on what’s not working. So while you’re listening to this, if you think I’m talking just about your art activities, let me tell you, you can also flip the narrative for everything in your life.
For example, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone complaining that their house is a disaster. Occasionally I’ll think that my kitchen is a disaster, but if I stop myself and change that tape in my head and say, okay, I’ll just wash the dishes in the sink or something like that. Just make some progress. Of course, I make a huge production out of it when I do the dishes, by the way, usually my husband does the dishes, but I’ll make a huge production about it.
But here’s the thing, when you focus on what you do do, it feels really good and it can totally shift things into owning your own power over the situation. I also like to have the five thing rules. So if my room is a mess, I’ll say I’m just going to put five things away. I don’t focus on that I want the whole room cleaned. I just think if I just make a little progress, it’s going to make me feel better. So you do have the power to change the thought that the house is a disaster with a small change, and you can even take a page out of the mindfulness practice of turning your dish-washing into a daily meditation practice.
Moving on to reason number eight, counting your wins increases your happiness. There’s actual research about this, that when you share an achievement, when you count a win, when you celebrate a win, if feels good, it makes you feel better. And ultimately happier. Now, I’ve heard this and I’ve read about this in a bunch of different books. And I was trying to find an article to backup the research by quoting somebody, but unfortunately I was trying to Google this and I wrote this podcast on November 4th.. November 4th. So when I was Googling how, “Counting your wins increases your happiness.” All the results that came back had to do with counting votes or wins for the election. I swear to God, there was nothing from positive psychology. It was all the news, which I actually wanted to avoid.
But here’s the thing. And this is why those two things are actually related. Every time you count your own winning, your own happiness, your own progress, it’s a vote for your own happiness. Think of it that way.
And counting wins is really age old wisdom especially if you think of it like counting your blessings, it’s a little bit nuanced, but let me just share with you a quote. This one is from William Penn, “The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.” So you see how that philosophy is exactly what we’re talking about here. Don’t add up your troubles. Don’t focus on complaining, focus on your blessings which is really another word for what your wins are in life. Now, if you want to nerd out on happiness research, there’s actually a whole section in the bookstore dedicated to positive psychology or the research of happiness. So like I said, just internally focusing on your wins is really great. Writing it down is even better.
But when you go the extra step and share the wins with a friend, with a peer, with a group in a mastermind. When you do that and somebody else responds positively, your feeling is actually going to last longer. So when I tell my husband, honey, I washed the dishes and he’s like, “Wow, Miriam, that’s awesome.” But the truth is a clean house really isn’t that important to me? Which is why I find joining a mastermind and the right one, so powerful because I really need a place to share the wins that people can appreciate because my husband really doesn’t understand my business to that level. So a mastermind is a place to share your wins with others who understand how important it is, how hard it was to get there and they get it. Now, the other Ron, I’m talking about Coach Ron in the mastermind group that I’m a part of with him.
He also makes a point of asking us to focus on our wins. And I love that practice. And that’s why I model it inside my own mastermind group. When other people are cheering you on, it feels really good. And it enhances that happy feeling. And that ultimately raises my vibration.
Reason number seven, celebrating your wins makes other people happy. So hopefully you live in a culture of celebration and not the opposite, but if you don’t, you do have the power to change this. You can be the one to start sharing your wins. And maybe even if you see complaining or negativity, that’s your cue. Think to yourself, what’s something I could talk about right now that’s a win. If you’re sharing your wins, people actually love it. I’m not talking about bragging, but they feel that positive energy, they want to be around you and that shifts your environment whether you’re at home or at work or wherever.
It shifts everything to a happier place. So for example, when I was walking with my friend today, my friend Deb, she doesn’t really know much about my business, but I was trying to explain to her, you know, I have 14,000 people on my email list. She was floored by that. And it felt really good to share that win with her, kind of in a non braggy way. She was happy to hear about it.
She wouldn’t have known, and it’s so much better for me to be sharing that positive thing about my life than to add to the complaints, because anybody can complain and it’s just not fun to be around. One of my challenges as a coach leading a group program is many times I feel responsible to manage the energy of everybody in the group. And sometimes I’ll have a client who comes to the group and doesn’t have wins to share. So I’ll give her homework so she’s prepared, that she has to actually write down those daily wins. When I do that, that artist will always come back the next week with plenty to share. And it’s amazing how this happens.
Reason number six, sharing and celebrating your wins shows your progress. Now like we said earlier, high achievers tend to obsess over that gap and we kind of get hyper-focused on what’s still left to be done, and that can be discouraging. But again, counting your wins forces you to see the progress. So perhaps you got halfway to your goal, like you organized all the photos for your website. That should be a huge victory, but you’ve got to look at the gain and not the gap. No focusing on how much work you still have to do, which just reminds me when you look at fundraising campaign, you know what I’m talking about? When they have those thermometers and they’re filling in how much progress they’ve made towards their goal. And they’re not obsessing on what’s left, they’re encouraged by how much they filled in. This is definitely a cup half full, not half empty philosophy.
But what I hope you’re starting to understand is that really what we’re talking about here today, the counting of your wins, the listing of your wins, the celebrating of your wins. This is a tool and this will really help you get there. So here’s a tip, if you struggle with negativity bias, or you have a very strong inner critic, before you have to launch into a lot of work, something that you have to do, and maybe you’re feeling discouraged by how much you have left, before you start listing out what all the next steps are, take a second to list out how far you’ve come, the wins, the progress you made, because when you list your wins, you’re going to be able to see that progress firsthand. And it’s going to have such a positive effect to motivate you, to get your work done. Let’s say that was to finish your website, whatever it is.
It’s also why during my group coaching sessions, when I asked my members what they plan on working on next week, when they create a really big goal like finish my website, I say, hey, wait a minute. That’s a really big goal. That’s not a one week goal. Can we break that down into something more manageable? For example, perhaps the goal should be, create your about page, not just finish your website, finish the website, it’s too big. How about just create your about page, or even chunk it down smaller. Perhaps a smaller goal could be draft the copy for the about page. That’s a good goal that can be accomplished in a week. Whereas building your whole website, that’s a huge undertaking. The huge undertaking-ness of it can really stop you in your tracks because it can feel overwhelming about how much you need to do.
So if you can break it down into baby steps and cross those things off your list, you’re going to feel so much better and celebrating each of those wins as you continue to move ahead. Here’s another thing. I encourage my members to create three goals for the week. This is something we do inside the Facebook group on Mondays. This is something that I do both with the mastermind members, as well as the self study members. It’s something that you can do too, even though you’re not or you may not be in my Artist Incubator program, you can just do this inside a planner. All you have to do is create three goals. Now, one of the reasons I love a paper planner, by the way, and if you want to know which one, it really doesn’t matter, but I think it’s important that your planner does have a weekly view.
So when you write down those three goals, you can keep them in your focus the entire week. You’re not just sitting at your desk and making up what work you need to get done. You can always look at what the three goals are that you’re getting towards for the end of the week and take that into consideration.
So now inside the group, sharing our weekly three is highly motivating since we’re all artists, other people’s motivation creates beautiful energy. And it’s so inspiring. I know so many people get inspired by the ideas and seeing what things people are working on. And by the end of the week, which by the end of the week I consider Fridays, on Fridays I invite them to come back and share their progress on their goals. It’s okay if you don’t get everything done that you set out to do. Often, if you don’t it’s because you either didn’t chunk it down into baby steps or you didn’t schedule the time on your calendar. That’s a whole different topic by the way. But I just wanted to point that out.
So we’re about halfway through. Reason number five in this top 10 countdown for why you need to list your wins is it shows that it’s working. It shows you what’s working. If you ever feel like you spent the whole day putting out fires, that takes a lot of our attention. So just taking the time to celebrate some wins actually helps us identify, okay, what’s not the problem? What is working? And then when you know, what’s working, you know how to duplicate it. It can be really tempting to focus on what you need to improve or what needs to change or whatever. But there’s a big advantage to focus on what’s working because that’s how you can double down on it and ask yourself, how can I lean into this? For example, my artist’s client, Kara Gilmore, she knows she was making lots more art sales when she painted bigger. And now she’s left behind those small paintings and the crafts that she used to do. And she’s able to make a full-time income from her artwork by painting large. You have to notice what’s working.
This is something I encourage artists to look at. What’s already working instead of trying to chase a new strategy, or God forbid the newest social media craze. Look at ways you’ve already sold your art. What kind of art was it? How did you sell it and lean into that. And also ask yourself why, why did that work so well? By the way, we’re going to include Kierra’s website in the show notes, schulmanart.com/116. So you could check out her gorgeous artwork. She’s also creating a online class on how to create large abstract paintings the way she does. He has a secret sauce for learning how to blend her acrylics. And it’s something you’re definitely going to want to check out. So look at her beautiful art and see if you can get your name on the wait list for that art class
Reason number four, celebrating your wins improves your self esteem. I think this is huge, huge. If all you think about are your setbacks or your failures, you’re going to feel terrible. That’s just all there is to it. And so just listing your wins reminds you that you’ve achieved things and you’re making strides towards your goals. You are winning at something, whatever those winds are, and it changes your mindset and how you feel about yourself. Focusing on your wins is even more powerful than the affirmations that a lot of mindset coaches, including myself, I think I’ve said that on this podcast in the past. Focusing on your actual wins are more powerful than an affirmation because when you do an affirmation, sometimes your brain is going to argue with yourself, wait a minute that’s not really true for me yet. So it’s much more valuable to focus on the truth of the situation, the wins that you’re actually experiencing.
It’s a valuable practice to learn to affirm yourself. What’s true about yourself. What’s winning about yourself and value that. So many times we feel like we need somebody else to help get us out of the funk, or to feel encouraged when really we have the power all along, which of course makes me think of Judy Garland at the end of The Wizard of Oz, you have the power my dear. Now, if you’re feeling discouraged, maybe just pause and identify three things that went well today. What are three things that I’m winning at and help shift your mindset? If you do the opposite, it can have a really damaging spiraling effect if we’re not careful.
Hey, we’re getting towards the end. Number three, raises your energy. Now we all know when we’re dwelling on our problems and the setbacks and the things that are going wrong, notice what happens. Even in your physical body, you will feel it. And this is actually one of the reasons I dislike traditional psychotherapy. There tends to be too much focus on negativity, too much focus on the problems. And I had often felt myself feeling worse after a therapy session, which is why I stopped going. And it’s also why I try to shun the news like CNN. I actually can feel my stomach start to churn. All that panic porn can make me feel physically ill.
However, the opposite happens when you focus on your wins and what’s positive in your life. If you start listing your wins, win after win after win, you’re going to start to feel lighter, more floaty, more energetic. And the people around you will feel that way too. Now, we intuitively know this. If you think of people who you know, who has the most energy, most likely they’re not the EWARS that are down on themselves.
Think about the people you know in your life who have good energy that you would admire. They’re usually people who are positive. So if you have a journal, just start writing these things down even if the day ended poorly. Something went wrong during that day. The other day I had something like that happen to me. I had a prospect call and it didn’t go the way I wanted, just didn’t go well. I felt was feeling really negative. So instead of ending the day on that Debbie Downer feeling, I took a pause and write in my planner. So I didn’t even bother to get a separate journal right there. I wrote down what did go well today. Or what did I learn. What did I learn from that call. That’s a win to me as well.
So I can do the deeper work and think about what did go well, what did I get done? What did I accomplish? And like I said, a wind doesn’t have to be that you sold the painting. You don’t always have control in those things. That’s why I like to focus on your inspired actions that you do have control over. So inspired actions are always a win, they’re progress in the right direction. And that’s how you can maintain a better state of mind. And that’s the energy I want to bring to the other people in my life.
Reason number two, focusing on your wins improves your productivity. So all the reasons that we listed so far, they do add up to more productivity. When you feel better, when you have a positive focus, when you’re energizing yourself and the people around you, you’re going to get more done. When you’re learning from your achievements, you’re building momentum and that’s the recipe for a productive day. So listing your wins, it’s going to improve your productivity.
And finally, reason number one, celebrating your wins gets you into the vortex. Now, I’ve been hinting a little bit around the edges of this conversation. Well, maybe not just hinting because there definitely is brain science, positive psychology research that backs up everything I’ve shared here today. But indulge me for a while. Let me get a little woo on you. If you heard that law of attraction, you’re still not convinced, here is the skinny. like I said at the start of this podcast, and I’m going to paraphrase Esther Hicks a little bit, celebrating your wins is how you get into vibrational alignment with abundance. Now, the time it takes to pass between now and the manifestations of your desires, your biggest art goals, your dreams as an artist, whether for you that’s more recognition, more art sales, more income from your art, whatever it is, it’s really about all the time it takes for you to replace those negative thought patterns with the positive ones.
That’s really what we’ve been talking about today. Replacing your complaining with positive thoughts. And this is not the same thing as toxic positivity, not the same thing as pretending things are okay, or ignoring your negative emotions. You can process your emotions, that’s not what we’re talking about. It’s about focusing on what is working instead of what’s not. This is how you loosen your resistance to the success you are seeking. The more you step into this practice, the easier this will become for you. Your resistance will subside and your allowing will begin. This is how we replace the doubt with belief. And I think this is an exact Esther Hicks quote and the abundance will become evident. The truth is I have a meditation app on my phone. I’m not sure if you can still get it in the Apple Store. I got it quite a while ago, and you may not be able to get an up-to-date version, but I have it and I’ve played it so many times that I’ve internalized that last statement. But the more time goes by the more I start to really understand what she means by all this.
We’re trained to believe we must focus on the obstacles and that is not true. Attention to the obstacles makes the problem bigger, not in like this weird way, but because when you indulge in all that despair, you’re not helping yourself. When we feel negative, it’s harder to paint. It’s harder to create. It takes longer to get our work done. As you continue to raise your vibration, to align with the abundance that you’re seeking, those inspired actions you need to take will present themselves to you. You will actually get more inspiration. The evidence of this vibrational shift will become obvious to you in two different ways. First of all, as we described here, you’re going to feel better. And then second, the physical evidence, if financial improvement is what you’re seeking, the physical evidence of abundance will start flowing to you.
It’s so satisfying when this shift occurs, because you really start to understand both in a logical and intellectual way why this is true. But also from the standpoint of your emotions and spirituality. Most people do not expect their path to great abundance to be one of ease and joy. They may have been taught that they have to work hard and experience hardship and focus on that obstacles and beat up on themselves when they don’t quite get it right. But the exact opposite is true.
Focus on celebrating your wins and let that vibrational energy lift you up and inspire you and be happy for other people. I have a last few words to share about celebrating your wins, why it’s so important. And really this last part could be a podcast episode all on its own. But it’s why it’s so important to celebrate the wins of other people.
If you believe that there’s a shortage or lack of abundance or it’s unlimited supply. So when somebody else sells a piece of artwork or gets a commission, if you don’t feel happy for them, if you feel that resistance, that’s what the resistance means. If you’re not quite feeling happy because somebody else got something that you want to check it, check it right at the door. So again, from Esther Hicks, “When the success of another makes your own heart sing, your resistance is gone and your own success sores.” That is what she’s talking about. When you reach the point where you no longer feel the jealousy when somebody else has success, that means that resistance has gone. So let’s do a quick rundown on all the reasons to celebrate your wins. Number 10, it resets your perspective. Number nine, it keeps you from complaining, number eight, it makes you happy.
Number seven, it makes other people happy. Number six, it shows your progress. Number five, it shows you what’s working. Number four, it improves your self-esteem. Number three, it energizes you. Number two, it improves your productivity. Number one, it’s the fastest path to get you into the vortex.
When you do these things, you’re going to get out of that funk. And if you’re in a funk, this is a tool to get you out. I do think that this is something that you can bring other people in your life along with you on the journey. So if you’re with a group of friends or you’re with your family, or you’re with a group of other artists, whatever that group situation is, and you find it’s a bunch of complaints, whether the complaining about their life or equally problematic complaining about what other people are doing, you can gently remind them that we’re not here for that.
You can even say, hey guys, I feel like we’re indulging a negative energies, there way we could shift that because I think it’ll be better for all of us. Another way that you can immediately shift the conversation is ask them, instead of saying, hey, we want to shut down this negativity because it’s kind of negative to be pointing out the negativity ironically. But a way you can shift it very quickly is change the conversation by asking, hey, what’s working now in your life. Or another question that I find immediately shifts the energy in any room. When you ask, what are you most excited about? And you’ll see how it instantly shifts the energy in the room in whatever situation you’re in. So let’s wrap up. We’ve included links to all the places I mentioned here in the show notes, schulmanart.com/116. And don’t forget if you liked this episode, you have to check out the Artist Incubator.
I now offer both that mastermind experience as well as the self study experience. The last day to get your application in will be December 11th. And I will close applications either then or when the mastermind is fall, whichever comes first because I’m already taking applications for 2021. Once it’s fill, you’ll have to wait for a spot to open up. To apply go to schulmanart.com/biz. As I mentioned earlier, I actually have the full details of the program on that page. So you can see if it looks like a good match for you before you apply. When you do apply, if you qualify for the one-on-one call with me the next step, you’ll actually get my eyes on your art business and I will share with you the steps you need to take to reach your goals.
I hope I get to talk to you go to schulmanart.com/biz as in B-I-Z. Okay, next week we have on the one and only Erica Cordae. And we’re talking about poverty mindset. And trust me, you are not going to want to miss it. So make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button in your podcast app. And if you’re feeling extra generous, please leave me a review. We’ve made it so much easier for you to do that. Just go to schulmanart.com/review-podcast. By the way, if you pop your Instagram handle at the end of the review, I’ll even give you a shout out over on my IG Stories.
All right, guys, thanks so much for being with me here today. I’ll see you the same time, same place, next week. Make it a good one.
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place Podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/Schulmanart, on Instagram @Schulmanart. And of course on schulmanart.com.
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