Put Your Career on a Healthy Regime
With My Favorite 12 Step Program

By Renée Phillips, The Artrepreneur Coach

Copyright Kairos Dance Theater. Photo from National Center for Creative Aging http://www.creativeaging.org/ . This organization, based in Washington, DC, "is dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging and to developing programs that build on this understanding."

I recently caught up with a friend whom I hadn't seen in a few months. I was astonished at how lean and healthy she looked, so I asked her, "What have you been doing to improve your health?"

She replied: I'm actually eating more... high nutrition foods", and she added, "And, I do several more repetitions of exercise each day. Plus, each week I walk further."

As with your health so it is with your career. Doing a little more of something in the positive direction will multiply over a period of time.

What can you do a little more each day that will make a big difference in a year from now?

My 12 Step Program for a Successful Career

1. Reach. Pick up the phone more often and exercise your relationship-building muscles.

2. Invest. Buy some new equipment or hire human resources to make your business tasks lighter.

3. Move. Get off the couch, turn off the TV, shut off the computer more often and attend more art events to shed unwanted pounds of isolation.

4. Heal. Eliminate toxic art supplies and replace them with healthy safety measures.

5. Focus. Trim the excess fat off oversized "To Do" lists and focus on top priorities. Work smarter not harder.

6. Select. Choose only high quality standards in your choice of exhibition venues and you won't be starved for quantity.

7. Avoid. Stop filling up on empty thoughts, unhealthy habits and puffed up promises that only weigh you down.

8. Reflect. Don't go on any crash career regimes. Instead take a sensible and well-planned approach to your career growth.

9. Reject. Refuse the negative stereotype about age and learn to trust that as we get older we can control our urges, become more competitive, more talented and stronger in every way.

10. Protect. Read the labels and contracts carefully to protect yourself and demand only the best ingredients in your gallery relationships.

11. Plan. Follow a balanced diet of creative, career, and financial goals.

12. Persevere. Don't give up. Add one more repetition daily. Before you know it you'll have increased your resistance to failure and your attraction to success.