Information Overload

(imported from my former photo blog)
Ever arrive at a moment in your business as an artist when you hit a wall?  When you ask yourself career altering questions like "Why am I here?".  Reality staring you in the face with hard data like lack of sales, little return on the investment in social media exposure, leading you to seriously contemplate dropping the art all together?

I'm an information junkie, a compulsive researcher, so I'm always reading and listening to experts on marketing.

Yesterday I hit a wall.  My head was swimming in self doubt.  Is it my marketing?  Is it the economy?  Or worse, is it my art?

This morning it hit me - the aha moment - I have been here before.  This is what I call the saturation point.  I can assimilate no more information, nor can I effectively move forward.  I need to stop, take a deep breath and take a break.

Ultimately the best thing we can do at this juncture is to distract ourselves with a totally unrelated activity.  This is when I am most grateful for my day job, which is quite unlike my art business.

Go for a walk, a bike ride, a drive or shopping trip.  Just step back and let the dust settle.

Look at the depressing life of Van Gogh, or the many changes that Picasso went through.  All artists struggle in some way or another.  It may be the nature of creativity.

After these comparisons my optimism will return, theorizing that perhaps I am ahead of my time, or maybe I'm just not marketing to the right audience.

More importantly, just recognizing information overload when I see it, and halting all other fatalistic thinking, will set me aright.

I am grateful for the sign, and give in to the invitation to slow down, regroup, detach and take a new perspective. 

I welcome your thoughts or tips on this subject.