How will this project support your career development goals and objectives as an artist? To achieve your artistic vision, you will need to select projects that move you closer to the goals and objectives in your career development plan. Project selection involves setting goals and objectives to obtain your artistic career vision. In this article, the third in the series, How to Select Your Next Project, I will discuss how to select a project by evaluating how you will accomplish your career development goals. Career development includes the actions that you take to achieve your artistic vision. The plan consists of purpose and vision-aligned goals and objectives that you believe will lead to your desired career. Successful career development is directly linked to the goals and objectives you set and the work that you do to pursue them. The foundation of career development is a clear understanding of your artistic vision, disciplined management of goals and flexibility in strategic goal setting alongside the ability to adapt to new information, opportunities and connections to maximize them and pursue the best course of action, today. To achieve your vision, you will need to have goals and objectives that support your plan for career development. The project’s that you select should be aligned with the goals that you set for yourself. For example, as an actress, I may want to practice stage combat, dialect, foreign language, dance or singing on stage. In this case, I will select projects that will help me to gain that experience. You want to create a list of goals and objectives every year. Then, each quarter you will revisit your list of goals and select projects that will help you to achieve them. I believe the difference between myself and others is my ability to accept that the artistic vision is the only constant, we cannot control how the vision comes about. I respect new information, connections and experiences and I never operate a plan for today on last year’s or even last months information. Because we are creating our own paths, the path itself appears only as we travel on it. I realize that only a fool thinks he knows the future. But there are some things that we can control right? Those are the things that we must focus on in career development. Therefore, career development involves a plan that includes education and training, community building and value creation. These are things that you have direct control over and that will have a direct impact on your success. In this article, I will discuss how you can define goals and objectives for for these three areas in your career development plan.

I hear a lot of talk about mentorship and networking and how essential it is for career development. I tried this approach for 10 years and I never found a mentor and never had success with networking.  I felt guilty because popular convention insisted that mentorship was a key element of success. Well, I disagree. My experience has taught me that community building is an essential part of career development. The problem with mentorship and networking is that you assign people roles that you expect them to fit into. When it comes to mentorship you are saying, you have done things that I think I want to do, your role now is to let me learn from you and help me in my journey. This is unrealistic. Learning in human relationships is always a two-way street. People, despite their accomplishments, are always evolving. Mentorship suggests that a person is “done” with life. Mentorship as we understand it can only work if one person is dead. But when two people are alive both are growig and learning stretching towards their goals. I’ve found that instead of saying, “Can you be my mentor?” it’s better to say, “Can I talk to you about how you started your business?” This is community building and you are learning about the person who you admire. There are no heirarchies, expectations or roles. There are just people learning and growing. This said, here are some things to think about when building community.

1. What does my ideal community look like?
2. Where is it?
3. Is it large or small and intimate?
4. Is it open or exclusive?
5. What are my values and how do I want my community to reflect my values?
6. What does my community do together?
7. How does my community support my artistic career?
8. What is required of my community in order to be a part of it?
9. What role does my business play in my community?