Today’s Mandala Message: Spend Less Time
This week I’m working through Principles #59 and #60: Master the Spending Game and To Spend More, First Make More of Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles”. We continue with more principles about money and our relationship with it. I set my intention today to ponder spending less time making money. Canfield states: “When you are building multiple sources of income, do your best to focus on creating businesses that require very little time and money to start and operate.”
About ten years ago I attended an art marketing workshop. We were invited to bring a piece of art that best represented what we do. I brought my color pencil “Falcon” mandala (18”x18” framed). It took me about 30-40 hours to make over a period of about three weeks. Another artist brought in a piece that took her about twice as long as mine did.
During part of the workshop we focused on pricing our art. The facilitator pointed out to us that if two paintings, roughly the same size but are priced differently, were placed side-by-side, the general public will tend to buy the cheaper one. The idea being “why should I pay $500 for this painting when I can get this one for $250?” Essentially she told us that factoring in our time to create our art, unfortunately, has little bearing on justifying the price. (Not sure I 100% agree with that)
Sadly, the facilitator suggested to that other artist that she may want to reconsider how she creates her art. I don’t agree with her suggestion however if making money with your art is the goal, you may need to consider a new way to do it. As for me, I’ve stopped creating my mandalas with color pencils for two reasons: 1) it takes a long time to finish a piece, even the small ones, and 2) it’s painful to my hand…I believe I now have arthritis in my lower thumb joint.
On the plus side, making the decision to stop using color pencils allowed me to explore other media (watercolors, mixed media, markers, gel pens, acrylics, and now digital). It has expanded my creativity to even greater heights while also allowing me to spend less time making them…which means I have more time to create more or work on other projects like updating my website, uploading my art to ‘print-on-demand’ sites (creating passive income), and so on.
A good mindfulness practice would be to ponder where you could spend less time while making more money.
So how about you? Where could you streamline what you do so that you spend less time doing it? Is there a way for you to create passive income from what you do?
“Your greatest asset
— Brian Tracy
is your earning ability.
Your greatest resource
is your time.”
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.
Mandala of the Day 