Two things occured to me this morning as I was waking up:
1. How much I enjoyed the simple pampering of a cup of coffee delivered to me in bed.
2. How important it is for me to acknowledge the intangible things that I get done everyday.
The coffee delivery, although an important symbol of attentive caring, is not the point.
I honestly can't say that I know any compulsive "to do" list makers. I certainly am not one, but I do from time to time list things that I know have deadlines attached, mark events and appointments on the calendar and I make shopping lists so I don't forget why I went to town. Here's the rub though, I bet that some of those "to do" people experience an incredible sense of accomplishment at the end of their day or week that the rest of us don't experience. Why, because unlike them, we can't look back at the day or week or month and know how many things we got finished that propel us towards our goals because so many things are intangible (paperwork recorded, filed, mailed, appointments kept, deadlines met... think of anything that gets things done, but does not actually make something). We can't see these things once they are done, they produce no material results, so unless they are check marks on a list, we are apt to forget what we accomplished.
If we ignore or forget all the intangibles that we have accomplished, we can easily feel that we have achieved nothing and that's not a feeling that is going to encourage us. If we keep track of the intangibles we can look back over a time and pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for "getting 'er done". A little self-congratulations can be just what we need to keep ourselves focused and motivated.
As you know, I like to make to jewelery and at the end of the day there is a real thing to show for my efforts, but I think that I am also learning to make lists, the check marks are real too. I enjoy being able to say "look what I got done" even on a day when I didn't actually make jewelry.
Try it, you might just like it.
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Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Fire the Customer
Last year a jewellery colleague and I were speaking about custom work.
I suspect that most of us have encountered the problem of being asked to produce an item that we have agreed to make and then find ourselves completely without inspiration or ability to meet the request. “What to do?” becomes the question.
You will recognize that you have fallen victim to this when you know that it will fail to meet the client’s expectations as well as your own.
This conundrum occurs most often when have already produced impressive work and receive numerous compliments from the client. They will go on at length about how wonderful the pieces are, how talented you are and how much they think that you are the answer to solving their problem of producing the work that they have in mind. Inevitably, this ego boost from their praise will lull us into a belief that we really can do what they want. Reality hits later back in the studio and we begin to procrastinate on the project.
First, we are unable to come up with a design in our own head, let alone produce a basic drawing of the proposed design, based on the notes and quick sketches made during conversation with them. Secondly, as the deadline looms we start to panic and wonder why we are not able to do this. Thirdly, we start to look for a reason to escape the work; we start to defer it in favor of other projects, even the mundane of domesticity.
This should give you a clue that you are attempting to make something that is beyond your ability.
There is nothing wrong with knowing your limits. Perhaps the request involves a skill set that you have not mastered to your own satisfaction or perhaps not even tried yet. The issue becomes trying to do this new thing with a lack of confidence in your own ability. Do you really want the custom work to be your first foray into the new?
Probably not. So the reasonable solution may well be to fire the customer instead of staying stuck in the problem. Staying stuck in the problem is self-defeating, your other work is not being done, nor are you building your own confidence and ability at this time. It is wasting your creative effort.
Firing the customer is only difficult because of the guilt that you may feel because you have “let the customer down” but your honesty may well win you some respect too.
Explain to the client the efforts that you did take to complete the work, let them know that you do not have the skills necessary to undertake the work at this time. If you plain to master the skills later, let them know when you think you will have done that. Suggest another colleague that you know can complete the job and allow the client the option to pursue the work elsewhere in the near future, or come back to you later when you have learned more.
There is no shame in indicating that you need to learn more and intend to do just that.
The ultimate reward of firing the customer is that you will have restored your own equilibrium and relieved yourself of a job that has been holding you back from pursuing other tasks that will reward you. The sense of relief is palpable for most of us.
My colleague fired her customer after we talked about this block. She felt a lot better after the firing and indicated that it was a real relief to her to not have this ‘scary’ project pending. She did indicate that her other work had suffered as a result of procrastinating on the custom work too.
I had to fire a customer early last year because the praise went to my head too. It was not easy to do, and it felt like a failing at the time, but it was a relief to me too, and the customer was glad to have her stones back and a reference to another jeweler in the region. I still have not taken the time to learn a very particular skill in creating soldered sterling brooches and I am not sure that I ever will, since it still does not interest me, but at least I know my limits in this regard now.
Moral: Know your limits and respect them but do not let that stop from trying new work when you are ready and willing to encounter the issues that relate to the learning curve; and sometimes we have to make decisions that we don’t like.
I suspect that most of us have encountered the problem of being asked to produce an item that we have agreed to make and then find ourselves completely without inspiration or ability to meet the request. “What to do?” becomes the question.
You will recognize that you have fallen victim to this when you know that it will fail to meet the client’s expectations as well as your own.
This conundrum occurs most often when have already produced impressive work and receive numerous compliments from the client. They will go on at length about how wonderful the pieces are, how talented you are and how much they think that you are the answer to solving their problem of producing the work that they have in mind. Inevitably, this ego boost from their praise will lull us into a belief that we really can do what they want. Reality hits later back in the studio and we begin to procrastinate on the project.
First, we are unable to come up with a design in our own head, let alone produce a basic drawing of the proposed design, based on the notes and quick sketches made during conversation with them. Secondly, as the deadline looms we start to panic and wonder why we are not able to do this. Thirdly, we start to look for a reason to escape the work; we start to defer it in favor of other projects, even the mundane of domesticity.
This should give you a clue that you are attempting to make something that is beyond your ability.
There is nothing wrong with knowing your limits. Perhaps the request involves a skill set that you have not mastered to your own satisfaction or perhaps not even tried yet. The issue becomes trying to do this new thing with a lack of confidence in your own ability. Do you really want the custom work to be your first foray into the new?
Probably not. So the reasonable solution may well be to fire the customer instead of staying stuck in the problem. Staying stuck in the problem is self-defeating, your other work is not being done, nor are you building your own confidence and ability at this time. It is wasting your creative effort.
Firing the customer is only difficult because of the guilt that you may feel because you have “let the customer down” but your honesty may well win you some respect too.
Explain to the client the efforts that you did take to complete the work, let them know that you do not have the skills necessary to undertake the work at this time. If you plain to master the skills later, let them know when you think you will have done that. Suggest another colleague that you know can complete the job and allow the client the option to pursue the work elsewhere in the near future, or come back to you later when you have learned more.
There is no shame in indicating that you need to learn more and intend to do just that.
The ultimate reward of firing the customer is that you will have restored your own equilibrium and relieved yourself of a job that has been holding you back from pursuing other tasks that will reward you. The sense of relief is palpable for most of us.
My colleague fired her customer after we talked about this block. She felt a lot better after the firing and indicated that it was a real relief to her to not have this ‘scary’ project pending. She did indicate that her other work had suffered as a result of procrastinating on the custom work too.
I had to fire a customer early last year because the praise went to my head too. It was not easy to do, and it felt like a failing at the time, but it was a relief to me too, and the customer was glad to have her stones back and a reference to another jeweler in the region. I still have not taken the time to learn a very particular skill in creating soldered sterling brooches and I am not sure that I ever will, since it still does not interest me, but at least I know my limits in this regard now.
Moral: Know your limits and respect them but do not let that stop from trying new work when you are ready and willing to encounter the issues that relate to the learning curve; and sometimes we have to make decisions that we don’t like.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Fun, Food & Friends
Fun, Food & Friends: Sunday Evening Drop-in
This is program that is being offered by the Nashwaaksis United Church , and is a free event on the third Sundays of the month. Right now they have plans for September 21, October 19, November 16 and December 21.
The doors open at 4 with a supper being served at 5 and the talent show starts at 6. Artists and artisans as well as wellness professionals will be on hand throughout the evening for fun and learning.
To learn more, call Mary at 458-9452 or check their web or just show up.
David and I will be there on the 21st helping with a "make and take" jewellery project.
We're looking forward to this opportunity to connect with more folks in the community.
This is program that is being offered by the Nashwaaksis United Church , and is a free event on the third Sundays of the month. Right now they have plans for September 21, October 19, November 16 and December 21.
The doors open at 4 with a supper being served at 5 and the talent show starts at 6. Artists and artisans as well as wellness professionals will be on hand throughout the evening for fun and learning.
To learn more, call Mary at 458-9452 or check their web or just show up.
David and I will be there on the 21st helping with a "make and take" jewellery project.
We're looking forward to this opportunity to connect with more folks in the community.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Brave Moment...
...And it was fun too.
For the first time in years I put a brush to canvas. It was not easy.
I have had the paint, brushes and canvases for well over a year and I have periodically ranted about wanting to try painting again. It was good to play in the paint - acrylic - cheap but very functional when you know that this isn't your main gig.
I learned something that helped today too.
The reason that I shied away from visual art, since I could draw OK and could use oils OK was that in my mind, my mother was better, but she didn't paint much and often voiced disatisfaction with some branch or other of the family tree in regards to art. I got turned off and also I didn't want to appear to be competing with her - and maybe that's an only child/daughter hang-up. My mother liked to work on landscapes and painted in a realistic but not photographic fashion. I am very uncomfortable with realism, besides I have a lot of doubt in my ability and I am hung-up on all of this.
But what I learned is that if I pick really contrary colours to work in: green and blue for flesh for example, that the whole activity becomes a lot more fun; after all it is hard to take a green/blue nude seriously.
The three small canvases, I think they are the standard 5x7, will be signed and dated, probably tacked up on the studio wall and will be replaced with several more blanks.
I know that the 'paintings' are NOT gallery quality, at least in my humble and self-detrimental opinion, but I'm still pretty proud of them because it's real progress. It took a lot of time and a good bit of bravery to try something that I gave up on 20 years ago.
Now I wonder what else I can rediscover and try again?
For the first time in years I put a brush to canvas. It was not easy.
I have had the paint, brushes and canvases for well over a year and I have periodically ranted about wanting to try painting again. It was good to play in the paint - acrylic - cheap but very functional when you know that this isn't your main gig.
I learned something that helped today too.
The reason that I shied away from visual art, since I could draw OK and could use oils OK was that in my mind, my mother was better, but she didn't paint much and often voiced disatisfaction with some branch or other of the family tree in regards to art. I got turned off and also I didn't want to appear to be competing with her - and maybe that's an only child/daughter hang-up. My mother liked to work on landscapes and painted in a realistic but not photographic fashion. I am very uncomfortable with realism, besides I have a lot of doubt in my ability and I am hung-up on all of this.
But what I learned is that if I pick really contrary colours to work in: green and blue for flesh for example, that the whole activity becomes a lot more fun; after all it is hard to take a green/blue nude seriously.
The three small canvases, I think they are the standard 5x7, will be signed and dated, probably tacked up on the studio wall and will be replaced with several more blanks.
I know that the 'paintings' are NOT gallery quality, at least in my humble and self-detrimental opinion, but I'm still pretty proud of them because it's real progress. It took a lot of time and a good bit of bravery to try something that I gave up on 20 years ago.
Now I wonder what else I can rediscover and try again?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Survival and learning
We got through the trade show. It was a long weekend with some high points and a few low ones.
It's not unusual that events like this give one a great opportunity to 'think things through'. The realization is that what we really like to make does not fit the usual 'wholesale' concept. What does fit into wholesale is at an uncomfortable price point for some and OK for others. Nothing surprising in that conclusion. This also means that our marketing has been wildly misdirected to some extent and that we need to reconsider some of our business activities and go back to our strategic plan and rewrite it to better fit what we now know about ourselves to be all too true. It is in following that truth that we will find our niche and our success.
The other thing that has arisen lately is the incontrovertible realization that we will never again be "doing" a certain show in our home town. I'm still not sure if I need to feel bad or just glad that I have a definitive answer to the question and no longer need to wonder about what we are doing the first weekend of November each year. Somehow, writting it down and reading this makes me feel thankful and relieved, and that's a good thing. Another query answered.
I learned another important thing this week, that it's not just artisans/artists that can suffer from intense amounts of insecurity, the people that work around them and try to provide them with opportunities for advancement do as well. Sometimes these people suffer so much so that anyone that questions any of their associations or decisions, even in the smallest way, are subject to an absolute reactionist asperity based on their perception of the questioner's words as highflown and laden with antipathy. A little sang-froid handles that.
It is good to learn.
It's not unusual that events like this give one a great opportunity to 'think things through'. The realization is that what we really like to make does not fit the usual 'wholesale' concept. What does fit into wholesale is at an uncomfortable price point for some and OK for others. Nothing surprising in that conclusion. This also means that our marketing has been wildly misdirected to some extent and that we need to reconsider some of our business activities and go back to our strategic plan and rewrite it to better fit what we now know about ourselves to be all too true. It is in following that truth that we will find our niche and our success.
The other thing that has arisen lately is the incontrovertible realization that we will never again be "doing" a certain show in our home town. I'm still not sure if I need to feel bad or just glad that I have a definitive answer to the question and no longer need to wonder about what we are doing the first weekend of November each year. Somehow, writting it down and reading this makes me feel thankful and relieved, and that's a good thing. Another query answered.
I learned another important thing this week, that it's not just artisans/artists that can suffer from intense amounts of insecurity, the people that work around them and try to provide them with opportunities for advancement do as well. Sometimes these people suffer so much so that anyone that questions any of their associations or decisions, even in the smallest way, are subject to an absolute reactionist asperity based on their perception of the questioner's words as highflown and laden with antipathy. A little sang-froid handles that.
It is good to learn.
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