Focus on what you can control

We all know 2025 is likely to be a challenging year.

Politically. Creatively. Technologically. And in all sorts of other ways.

But worrying won’t help. As the 8th-century scholar Shantideva said:

“If you can solve your problem, then what’s the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what’s the use of worrying?”

Keep your focus on what you can control. 

And try to take action, instead of worrying, complaining, telling yourself negative stories. This is not easy, but it is empowering. 

Experiment with new income streams. Even if they start off as more trickle than stream. Be willing to try new things (and fail, sometimes). Campaign for change. Share information, and support each other.

All of this takes the same amount of energy as worrying. But it’s so much more constructive!

You can’t control who gives you work, grants, referrals.

But this at least is in your control:

• How many offers and pitches you send out every week.
• How many grants and bursaries you apply for.
• How often you get in touch with current and former clients to see what else they need.
• How you stay in touch with your wider network, offering help when you can and letting them know exactly what you need.

You can’t control what people say about you.

But you can control your messaging, how clear you are about what you offer and who it is for. 

Is your website clear and inviting? Are you making consistent calls to action on your socials, and telling people how they can book you, support you, buy your art?

You can share what is exciting and unique about you, how you make what you make, the difference your services have made to clients. 

And you can block the trolls and haters, because life is too short. 

You can’t control the state of the creative industries.

Change and disruption are now happening so fast that it can be hard to keep up. And very little of this change feels like it’s for the better. Few of us are earning our money today in the same ways we were 10, 20, 30 years ago. 

But you can research the outliers, the creatives who are thriving in this brave new world. (Because they are there, if you look.) 

Research them, and see what they’re doing differently. Then consider what you can learn and perhaps adapt to your own business.

Want to take more control of your creative career? 

On January 9 at 7.30pm (UK time), I’m running an online workshop with more ideas to put creative professionals like you back in the driving seat in 2025. 

I have no easy answers.

Just some mindset shifts, strategies and ideas to play with and adapt to your own business, creative field, preferred ways of working. 

Interested? Book your place, or get more details here. (And yes, there will be a recording if you can’t make it live.)

We can’t control all that’s happening in our troubled world.

But we can control how we respond to it. 

We can give up. Or we can get smarter, more active, more vocal, more shameless in advocating for our work. 

I vote for the latter. Because what you make matters. And a world without art, music, creative ideas and innovative solutions – the stuff only humans can do – is unthinkable. 

Now more than ever, we need your creativity. In 2025, that’s something really powerful to focus on.