Written by NZINGHA for TheGlamSquadFiles™

This is not an easy subject matter. 

Why? Because it involves TRUST (which most of us if you’ve lived long enough have had our trust betrayed that’s why most don’t give it so easily) and TIMING (a nebulous thing humans cannot with all of our manipulative efforts cannot nor ever will seem to control). 

Most of us want our success RIGHT NOW! No delays and for some no hard work involved. But that’s NOT HOW IT WORKS! Sometimes we have to wait. WAIT?! What do you mean wait (you may be thinking), YES WAIT.

But I’m ready now! (You say)

But in truth ,…Hummm, maybe, just maybe you’re not as ready as you think you are. 

Could that be possible? Yes, sometimes you’re not as ready as you think you are because there are elements at work or you simply need more time in the oven you sweet lil dough ball! Mwah!😘

Yes, I see I’m going to have to be gentle with you on this one. (Smiling)
Okay this requires that you just hear me out on this one and trust that I too have had these career questions. I’m speaking from experience with you. 

First things first…try not to compare your journey and process to anyone else’s. Why? Because you don’t know what’s going on with them no matter how successful they may be. Because with greatness comes great responsibility…a responsibility you know nothing of nor may be able to handle!

Right now you may be on “downtime”. What exactly is downtime you may be wondering. DOWNTIME is the space of time in between your last project and your future project. There’s no telling how short or how long that span of time may be.

  
While you are on “downtime” you’re likely to be flooded with many emotions (frankly,some positive and some negative) and even have unexpected unplanned situations occur. I’ve always known that those downtimes are times or rather OPPORTUNITIES are for you to grow in some way/ways.

I’m going to be honest with you. During downtime you may feel any one of these negative things and more:

1. Anxious 
2. Fearful
3. Doubting the time
4. Negative self-talk
5. Cabin Fever

BUT, try instead to not go the negative thought route and take that time to do some positive self-talk! POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS!! Reinforcing the positive aspects of who you are and your God given gifts! This is good self-talk and thought.

Example:
Let’s take a look at one interesting and successful individual (Okay, no he’s not an MUA or Hairstylist but he’s a great example of what I’m talking about) Muhammad Ali! 

Boy is he one to talk about! His self-talk was not just self-talk to himself but to his opposition and to the world!! He made proclamations that were actually projections about what he would do and who he would be! And from what I can see it works!

I’ve done similar self talk and still find I have to do it even now. It’s a daily practice in affirming good things in your life…is it easy? Humph! Honestly not always because those negative thoughts come BUT FIGHT THOSE THOUGHTS! You are who you say and believe you are. Trust me I’m doing some self-talk as I’m typing this!

On your downtime maybe try:
DO POSITIVE SELF TALK: Be gracious with yourself be strong in yourself because guaranteed the world with have enough harshness for you so, “put on your armor!”

IMPROVE: Improve your skills by taking classes or other things to improve yourself and your skills 

ORGANIZE: Organize yourself and your kits because work is coming soon! BELIEVE THAT IT IS! So you’d better be ready for it with everything in order (I’m doing that right now!)

COMMUNICATE: Communicate with other Artists always! Isolation only pushes you further away and possibly into depression. COMMUNICATE!!! In this you will find community and the Artist Community can be very comforting with life experience. We all basically go through great times and hard times but if we build a community we can share our experiences and grow from them.

WRITE: Try keeping a journal. No you may not be Ernest Hemmingway writing a novel but you can collect your thoughts this way and monitor the progress in your life. You can even surprise yourself about yourself! Lol! I’ve kept several journal throughout my life and career. I’ve even had several for different purposes. 

A VIZION BOARD: Create a ViZion board or if you already fulfilled and old one then it’s time to do a new one! I think honestly this method is great for Artists because it’s goals we can SEE and not just on paper or in our minds but kind of like a daily visual reminder.

PRAY: Yes, I mentioned prayer because you know what we need wisdom and guidance about the next steps in our lives. If we knew it all we would not find ourselves in situations where we simply ask for help from others who may know more or different.

I’m not perfect but, I do hope I spoke to someone’s heart today…
Paint On viZionaire,
NZINGHA