Sunday ☕ : Number One

Click here to see a web copy of this email Please add Art@StreamlinePublishingInc.com to your address book to ensure it is not zapped by your spam filter. Received this email from a friend? Sign up here to receive Sunday Coffee in your inbox Number One By Eric Rhoads My tradition each Thanksgiving weekend, following Turkey Day, is to paint the fiery red tree across the street. Some years it's freezing cold and I'm out there in my warmest clothes, and some years I've painted in shorts. This year, the tree is dead. No color. I'm not sure why. I'm not certain yet if I'll paint it anyway. But after all, traditions are traditions, right? One of my traditions, triggered by the holidays, is to start thinking about next year. I remember telling my team in January, "We have lots to get done, and before you know it, it will be July." This time it feels like my year went by even faster than normal, maybe because I'm traveling again. In any case, I missed getting everything done. But because there is time to reflect, especially as things tend to slow down, I try to ask myself these questions. Perhaps they will be questions you want to ask yourself. If I could accomplish only one thing in the next 12 months, what would that one thing be? Why is it important? Is there anything else that will get in the way of that one thing? Here's the skinny: I missed that one thing, and I'm just sick about it. I got distracted by projects, by work, by shiny objects, and the most important thing did not happen. And as I examine my heart, I have to wonder if it really was all that important, or if I was lying to myself. If it was that important, wouldn't I have worked on it and completed it? I have no one to blame but myself. I bought into the distractions, I fell prey to the needs of my business calling me away from this priority. Now I'm wondering what my big thing will be for this year. Will it be the same? Has it changed? I have lots of goals, and I have a task list that is a mile long. I have new ideas I want to pursue, new businesses I want to launch. They are all shiny objects. Only one thing really matters. What is that one thing for you? It's worth some deep thought. Eric Rhoads Publisher PS: One of the difficulties about goals and picking one thing to focus on is that other things have to be done. I have to keep my business running because I have lots of families who rely on the work. I have to do things to make my customers delighted. I have to take care of my own family needs. I have to meet budgets to pay the bills. Sometimes one of those things is the one thing. If you're doing it right, it will be a tough thing to figure out. If your one thing is becoming a better watercolor painter… you should attend Watercolor Live online in January. Love Sunday Coffee? Subscribe for FREE to receive Sunday Coffee in your inbox every Sunday, or send this story to a friend: Subscribe to Sunday Coffee Forward to a Friend Who Is This Guy Eric Rhoads? Eric is the founder and publisher of PleinAir magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine (both on newsstands nationally), author and host six of Art Marketing instructional videos and has a blog on Art Marketing, and is author of the Amazon best seller Make More Money Selling Your Art. He produces newsletters American Watercolor, Fine Art Today, Plein Air Today and RealismToday, Creator of; The Plein Air Convention, The Plein Air Salon $30,000 Art Competition, The Figurative Art Convention & Expo, Plein Air Live, Realism Live and Watercolor Live Virtual art conferences. Art instruction video with Streamline Art Video, Liliedahl Art Video, Creative Catalyst Art Productions, and Paint Tube.TV (art instruction on Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV) and host of several painting retreats: Fall Color Week, Paint Adirondacks and PaintRussia, plus an annual collector Fine Art Trip, Rhoads hosts a daily art broadcast on Youtube and Facebook (search Streamline Art Video). He is a plein air , landscape and portrait painter with works at Castle Gallery. He is also heavily involved in the radio industry as founder of Radio Ink, as well as Radio and Television Business Report, the Radio Ink Forecast Conference, Podcast Business Journal, and the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference. He is the author of a best-selling book on the History of radio; Blast From the Past: A Pictorial History of Radio's First 75 Years. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his bride Laurie and they are the parents of triplets. Learn more at EricRhoads.com or see Everything We Do. Streamline Publishing Inc. 331 SE Mizner Blvd. Boca Raton, FL 33432 United States Unsubscribe | Manage e-mail preferences