THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman: Treated your creative journey like a video game. Games keep you hooked because they reward you with small wins, but you don’t have to beat the whole game in one sitting. You just need to clear level one.
Speaker 2: It’s the Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast, an art World Insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Hey there my friends! Welcome back to the Inspiration Place podcast. This is your go to place for all things creativity, mindset and marketing. I’m Miriam Schulman your curator of inspiration for today, and if you’ve ever felt like you’re falling Behind, or you’re overwhelmed, or you’re beating yourself up because you haven’t gotten enough done. This episode is for you. So you know the feeling like you’re scrolling through Instagram. You’re seeing other artists posting their success, celebrating gallery openings, or they’re announcing their sold out collections, and suddenly you have this little nagging voice in your head that’s like, why am I not there yet? I’m running out of time. I’m not doing enough. So if any of this sounds familiar, and of course, like the big one, I’m falling behind. So if any of this sounds familiar, take a deep breath. Know you’re not alone. I’ve been there. I hear this from artists all the time. And today we’re going to break this cycle of self-doubt. I’m going to give you some practical strategies that you can use. I’ll also be sharing some real stories, not the real names of the artists, of course, because I want to protect their privacy. But I just want to help you recognize you’re not alone. And more importantly, I want you to know that you can shift that feeling of falling behind to actually getting forward momentum. So grab a cup of coffee, get comfy, and let’s dive in. Okay, let me share a story.
Miriam Schulman: I have a client. We’re going to call her Sofia for this. She recently moved into a new studio and this was a huge, huge, exciting milestone for her. Like previously, it was in her home and this creative space was a dream come true. She took out a full year’s lease. But then one of her kids started struggling in school, and then she found out that her husband had lost $100,000 in his business. So instead of diving into painting, she froze. Days passed. Weeks passed. Weeks turned into six weeks. And she told me. Miriam, I haven’t painted in over a month. This is the longest I’ve gone without creating in years. Years. And I feel like I’m shutting down. But here’s the thing. I see this all the time. Maybe it’s not a kids poor. Grades. Maybe someone’s spouse is cheating on them. Or maybe it’s an illness or a diagnosis. And yes, yes, realities of life are real. I’m not going to discount them. You definitely need time to mourn and to readjust and pivot. But if you’re anything like my client, Sophia, painting is the one thing in her life that gives her pleasure and she enjoys. So why was she avoiding it? Sometimes the moment an artist takes a big step forward, like Sophia did by renting a new studio space, that’s when fear creeps in. That little voice in your head starts whispering, what if I can’t create anything good enough? What if I’ve lost my spark? What if this was a mistake? Sophia wasn’t lazy and she wasn’t uninspired.
Miriam Schulman: And she is Uber talented, but she was paralyzed by the pressure to succeed, to make all of this worth it. So what was she doing instead of creating. It was definitely keeping busy. That’s why I said she’s not lazy, but she was answering emails, checking bills, rearranging or organizing her art supplies. I know some artists tell me they spend the time like cleaning their brushes. Everything except actually painting. Does that sound familiar? If you’ve ever told yourself, I’m going to get started when things settle down. But somehow things never settle down. You might be caught in the same trap. So what’s the fix? It’s not to push through. It’s actually simpler than you think. And I’m going to get to that in our action steps at the end. But first I want you to know that this avoidance, the avoidance that Sophia had, and perhaps the avoidance that you are experiencing yourself is fear based. This fear based logic is what your brain is using to keep you safe from potential failure. I’ve said this before and it’s worth always repeating, but our brains have evolved for survival, not goal achievement. And whenever we feel that something we’re about to do is uncomfortable and involves any kind of risk, in order to keep us safe, our brain will come up with all kinds of reasons why either this is a bad idea or something else is more important to do.
Miriam Schulman: Which is what? What was happening in Sophia’s case or what’s happening in your case? If you’re finding other things to do besides creating your art, why is that? What is it that is keeping you frozen? For Sophia, what we unpacked is she created this huge expectation for herself that she needed to create a masterpiece every time she went into the studio. You don’t. She doesn’t. And neither do you. You just need to create This is why the solution to this will be setting tangible goals. A goal such as I just want to get my art out there, or I want to create art that I’m proud of is not measurable, but a goal such as spending three hours working on your art for four days a week is something that you can check off your list. And if you focus on these small, measurable, creative actions, it helps you bypass this fear. This structured approach removes the pressure of subjective self-judgment that constantly asking yourself, is this good enough? Instead, it emphasizes progress and consistency. That way, feeling worthy or accomplished isn’t tied to external success, like making a sale or getting accepted to a show. Simply showing up and creating and doing what you say you’re going to do is the achievement. So I talk about this in chapter 11 of my book Artpreneur when Margaret, which is also not her real name. You’ll notice that both in the book and on the podcast and on this YouTube channel, that when I’m sharing a success, I do like to use the real name.
Miriam Schulman: Or if I’m sharing a neutral story, I will use their real name. But if I’m sharing a struggle or something where I feel like I want to protect the privacy of my client and something might embarrass my client, that’s when I will use a fake name. So anyway, all the stories in this episode today are real stories, but fake names. So Margaret told me she was procrastinating and when I asked her why, she said it’s because she lacked confidence. And I told her it’s really the other way around that she lacks confidence because she procrastinates. This changed everything for her and I want you to feel proud of your effort. I want you to feel proud of your work and letting the pride of the work motivate you. Let pride motivate you rather than fear, because fear is not a good motivator. Hey there my friend. If this episode is hitting home and you’re feeling stuck and in a creative block, I got something just for you. We’ve turned this episode into a free guide that breaks down all the strategies, and you can get this absolutely free over at SchulmanArt.com forward slash worksheet. This guy is going to help you break through resistance. Start creating again. And all without that nagging fear of falling behind inside, you’ll get simple, actionable exercises that help you overcome fear and procrastination.
Miriam Schulman: Set clear, achievable creative goals. Gamify your process so you stay motivated and finally get you back into creation mode with confidence. This guide goes hand in hand with what we talked about today, so don’t wait. Grab your free copy now at SchulmanArt.com forward slash worksheet. I’ve linked that URL for you in the show notes. Schulmanart.com forward slash worksheet. Totally free. My gift for you. And now let’s get back to the show. Now I want to tell you about Marco. Marco was stuck in comparison. Despair. He’s also super talented, not a painter. He is a sculptor. And last week he went to a very high profile opening in New York City. But he spent the entire time comparing himself to the other artists, and he came back feeling defeated. And he said, Miriam, I walked around and I thought, why is there art in this gallery and not mine? And why are they selling out? And I’m not? Am I even good enough? This is the danger of comparison. Despair. It tricks you into thinking that someone else’s success means there’s less room for you. But that is not true. Now I want you to know, my friend, I am not immune to any of this. I’m really not. Right now, it’s not other artists success that I find triggering. Or as my therapist likes to say, activating. But I do get activated or triggered by other authors or podcasters.
Miriam Schulman: Now, I went to Dartmouth with a woman named Mel Schneeberger. That is her real name, by the way. She was a very popular pretty blond girl, thin all the things. And she was in the It Girl sorority. She had a full time handsome boyfriend who was in the fraternity that I had crushes on all the boys. Not her boyfriend, but doesn’t matter. It’s the concept. She was popular then. And guess what? She’s popular now. Really popular. She has the number one book on Amazon. Not. Not in my category. She’s not an artist. Number one book on all of Amazon. And the number one podcast on all of iTunes. Yeah. More popular than Joe Rogan, by the way. She does not go by Mel Schneeberger anymore. But let me let you in on a secret. Every single person. So me, you, everybody else has felt envy, has felt self doubt. But the ones who make it aren’t the ones who have never felt self-doubt, who have never felt envy. They’re the ones who don’t let it stop them. So if you’ve ever felt that sting of comparison despair, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Nothing wrong with you, but I’ve got a strategy for you, and it’s coming up. Now I want to introduce you to Nina. She is an artist who was always busy. I say this a lot in my boot camp, which I don’t think you can sign up for it yet, because we’re recording this in March and this is coming out of March, and the boot camp is not until the end.
Miriam Schulman: The next one’s not till the end of April, but a lot of times in my boot camp, I talk about how I know it’s not that you aren’t working hard enough, it’s just a lot of times you’re not focused on the right Thanks. So Nina was posting on Instagram, organizing her supplies. She was even sending out emails, which is great. She was researching art fairs, but she wasn’t making time to create art, so she really didn’t have a significant body of work. And she was always promoting the same tired out old body of work. And then she was starting to feel like an imposter because she wasn’t in her art studio creating either. She wasn’t a painter. She wasn’t a sculptor. Nina is a clay artist. Nina had fallen into the common trap of being busy, but not really being productive. She was working in her business rather than on her business. Or maybe I screwed that up. Maybe it’s the other way around. Anyway, I did an episode about this that’s related and we will link to it in the show notes. It’s called rocks first. And I did this actually a full year ago in 2024. So this is about drowning in that endless sea of things to do and how to prioritize and but never really getting anything done. So the whole rock concept comes from Stephen Covey, his book, which we will link for this in the show notes for you to the seven Habits of Highly Successful People.
Miriam Schulman: Anyway, we’ll link for it in the show notes for you. And the whole concept is that if you had a jar, let’s say a mason jar, and you wanted to fill it with rock, sand and pebbles, you would get more into that jar. If first you put the rocks in, then you put the pebbles in and then you filled the rest with sand. But if you started with the sand, you wouldn’t be able to get anything into your jar. So your task on your to do list are like the rocks, the pebbles, and the sand. If you fill your jar up with sand. You don’t have room for the most important things which are your rocks. So the thing to do is to identify what your most important things are. And the most important things are. Not all this busy work. The most important thing for you, if you’re an artist is your art. Is your writing is your content. If you’re a content creator, whatever it is that you consider what it is that you create, that’s the most important thing. So identifying what that is and doing that first and prioritizing it, that’s what you need to do. We’ll link that Rocks first episode for you in the show notes as well as I did an episode that goes over all of Stephen Covey’s lessons, which are the seven habits of highly successful artists.
Miriam Schulman: We’ll link both of those for you in the show notes. But now let’s get back to Nina. So I asked Nina, why aren’t you making any new Any work. She wasn’t. She wasn’t even pitching herself. She wasn’t really moving her art career forward. So I said, hey, Nina, what is it you want most? And she said, I just want to feel accomplished. But that was our aha moment, because the only way to feel accomplished is to set yourself up for small wins. Which brings us to today’s action steps. Okay, my friends, now it’s your turn. If you’ve been feeling stuck, whether it’s from fear, comparison or being too busy on the wrong things, here’s what I want you to do. Number one, create a starting ritual. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. Instead of waiting for inspiration, create a simple ritual to begin. Now you could do one of those tried and true things like you set a timer for 15 minutes. Maybe you do a warm up sketch in the studio. For me, I always found the best way to get me in creation mode was to put on my apron. Maybe you need to light a candle. Just do something that signals to you. It’s time to create and remove all the pressure. Just show up and start. Number two set measurable, doable goals. Instead of saying I want to create art I’m proud of, which is very vague and totally subjective.
Miriam Schulman: Set a goal like I’m going to paint for three hours. I’m going to write for two hours, or I’m going to write two hours, three times a week, or I’m going to complete a chapter each week, or I’m going to complete a painting each week, or I’m going to complete. Whatever it is that you do. I know you’re not all painters ears listening to this. And I will send out five pitches this month. But make it very clear. Make it measurable. Your brain will always try to convince you that you’re not doing enough. That’s part of the survival mechanism that not enoughness. Sometimes it helps us, but it’s not helpful if it shuts you down and leads to burnout and overwhelm. When you see your progress, it’s easier to stay motivated. Number three stop moving the goalposts. If you finish something, celebrate it. If you reach a goal, acknowledge it. We tend to immediately ask what’s next without ever appreciating how far we’ve come. Now, just like everything else I’ve talked about in this episode, I’m super guilty, and it’s one of the many reasons why I put a pause on writing my second book. I made my goal for 2025 inner peace rather than an external accomplishment. So here’s your challenge. I want you to write down three things that you’ve already accomplished this past week. Big or small, it doesn’t matter.
Miriam Schulman: Just celebrate your progress in chapter 11. Stay inspired of my book Artpreneur. I call this Celebrate Your Wins and it’s step five of the goal getting not just setting process. If you need a refresher, you’ll find this on page 213 of the book. And if you are too busy to read, just queue up chapter 11 of the audible and have a listen again. Number four gamify your process. Now, one of the biggest reasons artists feel stuck is that and it’s not just artists. Anybody with a goal. Why people feel stuck is they set huge, overwhelming goals without any checkpoints along the way. So instead of seeing your progress, they only see how far they still have to go. But what if you treated your creative journey like a video game? I’m learning how to speak Hebrew right now, and Duolingo, which as you may know is a language app, does a fantastic job of gamifying the whole process. So they have like all these lessons, and then each lesson is broken into little steps. And like you complete a thing and they celebrate and they have a leaderboard and they have so many things to gamify it. Remember, games keep you hooked because they reward you with small wins, but you don’t have to beat the whole game in one sitting. You just need to clear level one. So I don’t care how you do this. Points stars progress bars to show how far you’ve come, because you don’t want to just count wins as sales or successful pitches, and you don’t want to quit.
Miriam Schulman: You just want to try again. So the goal is not to be published in three magazines. The goal is to pitch yourself to ten magazines or 20 magazines and celebrate that you did the work. So how can you bring this idea into your art practice or your creative practice? Here are a few ways. First of all, break your goal into many levels. Instead of finish a painting, or finish a collection, or finish a ceramics, perhaps it is create for 20 minutes today. Perhaps it’s sketch three thumbnails. Track your wins. Visually, you can keep a progress chart, a checklist, perhaps a jar where you drop a coin, a button, or a bead for every session you complete. Reward yourself. Treat yourself to a fancy coffee or treat yourself to an art supply you’ve been eyeing. When you hit a milestone, change the way you think about failure. Instead of seeing it as proof you’re not good enough. Treat it like a video game. You just learned something for your next attempt. The key is to make success feel fun and achievable instead of overwhelming and impossible. So instead of asking, am I falling behind? Start asking yourself, what’s the next level I can conquer today? Now don’t forget you can get today’s episode as a free guide. You’ll find that over at SchulmanArt.com forward slash worksheet. All right, my friend.
Miriam Schulman: You are not falling behind. Your journey is your own. You’re like a flower in a garden. And the flowers in the garden. They all bloom and open at their own time. Some flowers open in the spring, some open in the fall. Some open late in the fall. It’s all okay. You don’t need to measure your success against anybody else, just yourself. Like Martha Graham says, you’re only in competition with yourself. If today’s episode resonated with you and there’s a friend you want to share it with, I’d love to hear from you. But why don’t you just screenshot? If you’re watching or listening on your phone, screenshot it right now and share it on Instagram. And if you tag me at Schulman Art Schulman Art I would love to cheer you on. Or if you’re watching, leave a comment below this video. I’d love to know which of these tips helped you the most. And if you feel ready to stop spinning your wheels and finally make progress in your art career, you’re a lot closer than you think. Success is just within reach. And maybe it’s just a few things you need to change. I’d love to help you inside the Artist Incubator. You don’t have to do this alone to see what it’s all about. And to learn more, go to SchulmanArt.com. Slash B as in boy is an ice cream, Z as in Z. Okay my friend, until next time, stay inspired. Keep creating. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: 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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