Sustainability: Having the Ability to Sustain Your Chosen Life Style

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By A | December 4, 2007

Sustainability, as a word, has become an iconic trigger for global and large scale movements related to: the environment; city/state/federal/world economics; social classes and structures; and the like.

However, at its core the definition of sustainability remains simple - to keep in existence; maintain; to supply with necessities or nourishment and to provide for.

When you choose to pursue your art form as a life style, considering strategies for sustaining yourself – mind, body, spirit – are key to being successful in that endeavor.

In the Guerilla Exhibitor [GX] your Vision Statement engages your spirit – it is the motivation behind that which you do in your life and your art. The Stake in the Ground (an event about you and your art) is your mind’s expression of that Vision and provides it with a place to focus your actions. In the course check-ins we report on and are supported in our physical well being – looking at sleep, exercise and nutrition – and modifying them where necessary to keep ourselves healthy.

The way we plot our course to support all these areas of our being, is to understand and map the resources we say it takes to make all that happen. The three resources we look at are Home Base, Time and Money.

Home Base relates to the physical structures that surround or support us. These include things like our home, the rooms in our home, our office, studio space, car, computer, and the like. We look at clutter, functionality, aesthetic traits, atmosphere and more. Participants also take time to look at their health and well being in terms of exercise, health care practices, and nutrition.Time and money are just that – time and money.

During the first two weeks of follow-up to the weekend intensive we consider these elements from two perspectives:

Where You Are Today (Current State), and
Where You Want to Be (Target).

When we compare the Current State to the Target, we notice a difference between the two pictures. We call that difference the Gap. Our job in GX is to design a pathway that helps you successfully traverse that gap, getting you from your Current State to your Target in a well thought out plan. Planning is one of the keys to sustaining.In order to understand this simple process in this article we’ll focus on one of the three resources: Money. The terms we’ll use that relate to a money gap are: Cash Flow, Budgeting, Gap Analysis.

Cash Flow
Cash flow is your pattern of income and expenses, and the resulting availability of cash. We track our income by source and our expenses by category. We also make note of any savings and debt – including the interest developing on both. We break the analysis down into two categories: Personal and Business.

Understanding your cash flow, both current and intended, is the top tool in being able to design and implement a sustainable arts-based career from a financial perspective. The goal is to have at least enough cash available, at any given time, to cover regular expected expenses, as well as a cash reserve for unexpected expenses.

GX cash flow excerpt

Budgeting
Budgeting is defined as an itemized summary of estimated or intended expenditures for a given period along with proposals for financing them. To have a sustainable career, we look at how much is needed to cover all our expenses, to pay off our debts, to sock away dough in some kind of a savings program, to invest in our art, etc.

Think of Budgeting as a tool to define where you want to be.

Your current cash flow analysis helps you define your budget/s. In analyzing where your money has come and gone in the past, you begin to see patterns and can then assign numeric values of where it needs to come and go to achieve your goals.

When comparing your current Cash Flow with your Target Budget, there is often a difference between where you are today, and where you need to be in order to achieve your business goals. This is the Gap. Understanding and bridging this Gap is the next step in defining the pathway to the fulfillment of your goals.

Event budgets

Gap Analysis
When we look at the Gap, we begin to see where we can eliminate unnecessary expenses or modify others. We begin to brainstorm around our current income sources - seeing where we can increase our income from existing sources by producing more of something or modifying the process to eliminate or reduce the expense it takes to produce the art. We also begin to imagine receiving income by adding new sources that are consistent with our Vision of ourselves as artist – like creating a line of fine art reproductions, publishing and distributing a coffee table book, teaching, speaking, collaborating, licensing our work to a greeting card or publishing company.

In the end, taking the first step in relation to your money is the most critical – understanding where you are. We’ve provided an Excel spreadsheet to help you with this process. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Once you understand your current cash flow, then you can budget for where you want to be, and finally plot the steps to take to span the gap.

In the Guerilla Exhibitor we follow a similar process when analyzing time and our Home Base, and in the end we have a clear idea of where we’re headed, and begin to understand how we’re going to get there. This is the way we achieve sustainable outcomes – by knowing where we’re going and how we are going to get there – because then it becomes easier to take effective actions while beginning to eliminate actions that detract from our intended goals. And this becomes achievable through the support of the other course participants, your course buddy and the facilitator – because a little encouragement can go a long, long way on the road to fulfillment.

The name of the game is Sustainability. You and your art are worth the investment and effort. Here’s information on the next Guerilla Exhibitor course in Portland: