The only way to rise to the top is to defeat your weaknesses.  For many, that means doing the work and staying with it despite being distracted. Learn to love your work – even the pricky bits – and you won’t be so distractable, and self discipline will feel more like self indulgence, which is my favorite way to go.

Make it a habit. Even if you are not making money from your art, get in the habit of working on it every day. If you are making a living at it, don’t take it for granted. WOrk it, practice it, keep learning. Don’t let it get old.

Don’t forget the details. Do the errands, save the receipts. It pays off – mostly in headaches you won’t have later.

Set daily goals for how long you will work on art or practice your music, or how many pages you will write. Don’t get up until it is done.

Make it easy to get started.

Find the time during the day when you have the most energy, and don’t waste it. Use it to focus on your art. Most people have biological low times and high times.

Get interested. When you are interested in something, you can focus for hours at a time. Don’t worry so much about the money or the deadline. Enjoy the process. Have fun. Play around. Experiment.

Hit the ground running. Are you like me, full of excitement and anticipation at the start of a project? Go from brainstorming and ride it till it runs out of steam. Keep the momentum until you are bored. Get as much done as you can and then hand it off to somebody who’s good at finish work.

What turns you on? Recognition, feedback, helping others, deadlines? Set up your work so you maximize the motivation these provide.

Clear your plate. Eliminate distractions.

Set goals. When you are clear about your vision of what you want, it is so much easier to focus, to keep heading toward those goals instead of wandering around in the ozone. Setting goals forces you to be honest about yourself, your needs, your dreams. It is hard to do. It is the first, last and best discipline for the creative person. If you take nothing else away from this travel guide, take this: set goals for yourself. Put your dreams into words and those words on paper. Then say them aloud, not just to yourself, but to everybody. Repeat them daily. Then start working toward them.