Good morning!

I’m so excited to start publishing a new blog post weekly starting today!  If you’re signed up to receive an email notification, THANK YOU, and expect to see me in your inbox every Sunday morning 🙂

So why am I making a big deal out of publishing a weekly blog post?  Well, these are a few reasons.

1. I want to get better at writing.

Like many other visual artists, I enjoy drawing or painting far more than writing about it.  Writing in a way that compels people isn’t easy.  I just don’t feel as comfortable writing creatively as I do with making something with my hands.  I’ve had this blog for about a year and a half now and only posted things sporadically and not super intentionally (except for the daily happiness project, but it was 99% visual, and not much writing was involved).  Now that my daily happiness project is over, I wanted to refocus the goals of this blog going forward.  We tend to avoid things we don’t like to do, like going to the dentist or the gym, or having a difficult conversation with someone – writing is one of those things for me.  Like everything else, you can only get better if you practice it, so I’m doing it publicly here 🙂

2. I’m holding myself accountable.

When you start doing something new – especially when it’s something you’re not super excited about, like things I mentioned above, you tend to procrastinate.  Especially when your inaction doesn’t really hurt anyone else.  If I choose sleeping in over going to the gym, who cares, right?  No, nobody really cares.  But what if you belonged to an online group where you have to report your fitness progress to your friends on a regular basis?  Sure, you could still skip going to the gym, but you may make your decisions about it differently.  I’m a pretty disciplined person, but I was definitely procrastinating starting  this weekly blog posts.  Oh, I have all these other art projects I want to work on that are much more fun, and nobody knows I want to do a regular blog post yet, so…. PAUSE.  Sometimes, in order for you to get started on something, you need to tell others that you’re doing it and by when you’re going to do it.  It sure helped me with my 365 day “happiness is” project!  I recently tried this method at my day job in starting a new career development program for employees, and it’s totally working! Win!

3. I want to help others who are in the same boat.

One of the things I know about myself is I don’t like making mistakes, especially in public. It took a lot of courage to start sharing my artwork on the internet because I never thought my art was that good, and I would’ve been so hurt if a stranger criticized my work.  Art is like a small piece of my heart and soul on paper.  But I knew I had to get over the fear if I wanted to be a working artist someday.  Doing my daily happiness post helped me a lot with getting over the fear.  Seriously, when you do something every day for a year, even facing your fear gets old 🙂  It’s not that I’m not afraid of sharing my work because I still do.  It’s more that I’m able to recognize the fear and insecurities, and they don’t keep me from going out of my comfort zone as much.  I want to use my blog to share my experiences and tips to help someone else who may be going through similar things.  I will be sharing mostly my experiences in art and creativity, but a lot of the themes will be relevant to anyone who wants to grow personally, too.

Future blog topics I can think of right now:

• 9 Reflections on the Daily Happiness Project
• How to Give Your 100% at Your Day Job While You Give 100% to Your Creative Dream
• How to Find Your Unique Artistic Voice
• Find and Work with Your Accountability Partner
• Setting Goals and How to Document Your Progress
• How to Find What You Need to be Successful
• Why Self-Care is Important and What You Can Do to be Good to Yourself
• Let’s Talk about Creative Rituals
• Ongoing Topics – Updates on new products and works, my creative processes and tools I use, roundup of useful resources and inspirations, my life and interests etc.

I think this is a  good start.  Please let me know if you have a burning question or want to tell me what you’re struggling with right now so I may incorporate them in my blog 🙂

I decided to do weekly blog because it feels frequent enough so you don’t forget about me completely 🙂 and comfortable enough pace for me to commit to. I chose Sundays because I read somewhere that people tend to have more time and energy to read things that come in to your inbox on a Sunday.  I also thrive in a more structured environment, so having a regular commitment is better for me anyway.

I’m so grateful you will be on the receiving end of my weekly blog.  You have been a really supportive community for me, and I hope I can give you something valuable in return!

Speaking of value, I want to share a couple of inspirations that motivated me to focus on writing this year.  Hope you find them helpful too!

1. Seanwes podcast: I’m sure I will be referring to this podcast from time to time in my future blog.  But this show really changed my life and my mindset about being a creative entrepreneur.  A really high quality podcast packed full of tangible tips!  Can’t say enough good things! They talk about the importance of writing in this episode and this one.

2. Laura Belgray: Laura is a very successful copywriter and a funny lady.  I love how honest and practical her advice is.  You can download her “5 Secrets to Non-Sucky Copy” on her homepage for free!  I’m subscribed to her e-newsletter, and it’s full of gems as well.

Have a wonderful week 🙂  Talk to you soon!

xoxo  Yuko