art supplies and clock

The Resources

Welcome back. This week marks the midpoint in the mini-series, From Concept to Completion (C2C). We’ll be talking about the third step in my process: The Resources. This is another important step in my planning process and requires a combination of stepping back to see The Big Picture and zooming in to explore Your Big Rocks in more detail.

We began this process with an overview of the entire 5-step process. If you’re just joining me, take a look at the overview, which will get you up to speed in no time.

Step 3: The Resources

This part of the process makes the goals you set in step 2 (Your Big Rocks) tangible and real. At this stage, we need to consider two things: time and resources. You’ll think about how long it will take to get things done and think about any additional resources that might be needed.

Adding this extra level of detail to your goals helps enhance them even further. And it’s a crucial step before we move to the yearly wall calendar. I use the “Year-At-a-Glance” calendar that I showed you in the overview.

Last week, I used the “SMART” framework to get a lot more specific on my goals. The more detail we added, the more realistic and achievable the goals became.

Here’s where we stopped last week after completing Step 2: Your Big Rocks. I used one of my goals as an example:

Mixed Media Collage Collection goal-

  1. Select “Neutrals in Color” for my first 2022 collection
  2. Pull the 15 canvases, in assorted sizes, and get them prepped by X date
  3. Decide on the color stories to use with the neutral yarns and pull together the appropriate supplies by X date
  4. Write the copy and pricing information for the sales page by X date
  5. Contact photographer and web designer and get on their schedule
  6. Complete the collection by X date
  7. Prepare marketing pieces for the collection launch on X date.

Now we need to add more detail with a particular focus on two things: time and resources. As I said before, you’ll need to consider how long each activity listed in our SMART goals will take. In addition, think of any additional resources you might need to get started.

This stage can seem hard so you might want to hop into my community for help with ideas and inspiration. Things always seem harder than they really are if you’re doing it alone. You’ll find encouraging friends and people who may be further along on the journey with great advice and knowledge to share.

Share the work you are doing in Virginia’s Studio Cats, my free creative community on Facebook. You’ll get encouragement, energy, and support so you can keep making progress.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself as you determine timing and resource needs:

  • How long will each activity take?
  • Are they listed in the right order?
  • Can some happen at the same time or are they interdependent, meaning certain steps must happen before or after another?
  • Did I miss a step?
  • Are additional resources needed? What are they?
  • If so, what is the timeframe for acquiring them?
  • Is there additional prep work needed?
  • Do I need any knowledge-based resources? (In other words, do I need to learn something first?) That’s been a huge one around here lately!

Now it’s your turn to take action and make progress on adding any additional resources to your own SMART goals. I’m excited to see your progress. We’ll talk about your Strategy next week. So, get ready to move to the year-at-a-glance calendar and play with post-it notes!

Join me LIVE on my Facebook page, Virginia Leigh Studio, at 3:00 pm Central every Wednesday to ask me questions and talk creativity.

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