Life Doesn't Have a Montage Or a Magic Pill

We're going to make a bit of an assumption here that we all agree on something: life isn't the movies. No huge protests over that? Okay, good.

So life is not the movies, and we probably wouldn't want it that way. Why? Well, we'd be exhausted all the time if life was that exciting - you know, with all the infiltration of ex-CIA spy rings, escaping from zombies and chainsaw-wielding cannibals, and going to weddings four times a week where something dramatic and shocking happens every single time.

However, there is a type of movie (and television show) that you probably either love or hate (we love 'em): The Underdog genre. You know the story - some total underdog has a dream and manages to gain some sort of trait/advantage/knowledge from their tragic past/current situation and then is able to beat out the seemingly impossible odds to reach their dream. Slumdog Millionaire, One Piece, Paul Potts and Susan Boyle (and now Jonathan Antoine) are all such great entertainment because they tell the story of someone who society says should not succeed but fight for their dream and in the end, come out on top. It makes you feel all inspired and warm and fuzzy inside.

The thing about movies though, is that all the hardship, the long hours, the grueling work - it's all abridged. We usually get to see the training ala-Rocky in the classic montage scene or in the occasional flashback. It's all nicely packages to make you feel good. But when you're done watching, how long does that inspiration last?

More often than not, real life quickly takes over, and you find your canvas untouched, rehearsal seems like such a long bus-ride away, the little cursor blinks over and over again on your blank "Untitled document." We turn to distractions, chores, anything else to keep us from having to sit down and do the work.

We get it: doing the work is hard. Showing up everyday, even if you're tired, is hard. Pushing through the painful/ugly/tedious/annoying stage isn't fun. Playing a concert in a bar with two people watching you is tough. Not selling anything, again, at your gallery show while people snatch up other artists' work is difficult. This is the reason why films have montages. No one wants to watch someone slowly get better over long periods of time. We want to see some action!

But life doesn't have montages. To get better, we have to put in the practice. A lot of people also fall into what we call "The Trap of Beginner's Luck." Chances are, at some point in your life you'll probably find something that comes easy to you. Maybe it's bowling, or painting, or surfing, or singing, or making sculptures out of mashed potatoes. People will tell you that you're really good at it, and that'll make you feel good and want to pursue it more. However, if you do decide to pursue it more and more, you'll find that you're no longer around people who are novices. Suddenly you're around people who practice at their craft, and practice often. Then you realize that you are going to actually have to work at this, and then you get discouraged since you thought that this was going to be easy.

Even if you have decided that "Yes, the hard work is worth it" (and we sincerely hope that you have found something worth working hard for), the challenge to keep up that momentum is still there. Feeling like you're not doing enough? Frustrated that you haven't "made it" (whatever that means) yet? Well, you can't magically make stuff happen over night, and you have so many hours in a day, so there really is only one thing to do: Get over it.

Not to be jerks, but really, that's all you can do. You have to just keep working hard and keep on keeping on. Just keep on practicing, keep on hustling, and keep on chasing your dream, and you will (we promise) slowly get closer and closer.

For a practical solution, keep a journal, or samples of your old work. Seriously. It may sound stupid and a waste of time and space, but make a habit of revisiting your old work at least once a year, and you'll be surprised at the results. We look at stuff we did in our freshman classes (holy crap, that's five year ago!) and the difference to what we do now is amazing. Because we are living our own lives, the changes are imperceptible - we gradually learn more techniques and get more experience under our belt; we put in our 10,000 hours. However, when you compare old work with new work (especially after five years), you'll see how much you've improved.

So while we can't promise a magic pill that'll suddenly find you success, all we can tell you is to keep on fighting the good fight, and before you know it, you'll be leaps and bounds closer to your dream than you would have ever imagined.

How to Rid Yourself of Wet Blankets

Do you know someone who constantly brings down the mood? Someone who might make you feel insecure about yourself, or your dreams, or your job, or anything? Basically, do you know any wet blankets?

Chances are, unfortunately, that you probably do. Not all are malicious on purpose, most actually aren't. Some might try to help with unsolicited advice ("You know, you could make a lot more money as a doctor than as an artist. You should really think about medicine." Another type of wet blanket is the kind that tries to make everything a competition, even when it's not. Others might spout lots of statistics that rains on your parade ("You know, art schools have a high graduation rate, but only x% actually get an art job after graduating.") Still other wet blankets might get your goat by saying things in false support like "I'm not telling you not to follow your dream," or "Yeah, that painting looks pretty good, but...oh nevermind, it's great, honest!"

Poo poo on these wet blanket! "But Monkey +Seal," you might be thinking, "of course poo poo on them, but how do I deal with these jerk-face donkey butts?" Well then, if you are thinking that, you must read on!

So, how to deal with wet blankets? There are a few ways to doing this. The first is protecting yourself from wet blankets before you even really have to deal with them. If you can identify these people early on, don't share you ideas with them because you know they'll shoot them down. What's the point in being generous with people who will try to bring you down? There is none! Don't show your dance recital to people who are gonna hate on your choreography, and don't take your sketchbook out of your bag around people who are gonna take it without asking and then criticize your drawings. Skip the jerkwads!

"But Monkey and Seal, what if I work with these buttholes?" Well friend, if you are in a situation where you can't just avoid the party-poopers, you need to identify their behavior as what it is to emotionally distance yourself from them. If you absolutely have to listen to the poop they're gonna say, if you brace yourself for the idiocy, you can create some emotional distance. It'll still be crappy, and you should try to avoid wet blankets if you can, but if you have to deal with them, here's some more tips:

You have to realize that the reason these people are wet blankets and keep hating on you is that whether they know it or not, it's not really about you at all. When someone is harping on your dreams, or your art, or basically just bringing you down, most of the time it's not really about you, but it's about them.

You see, you have to remind yourself that it's their own lame worldview and sad paradigms - they're really just unhappy with themselves and they tend to take it out on everyone else. Their ideas are never awesome enough, so they have to make sure that you know that yours aren't either. Maybe they're unhappy with themselves or were discouraged somewhere along the line, but regardless they're just downers, and it really has nothing to do with the quality of you or your work.

Alternatively, if their garbage-talk is bringing you down, you need to honor your emotions and take care of yourself. Identify the negativity and call it out for what it really is: pure negativity and self-hatred (on their part). Others will want to quickly patch you up by saying "Oh, it's a learning experience," or maybe "Well, that's sorta standard in this industry," or "That's just how he is," but NO! Don't listen to them! The wet blanket is a wet blanket, and that's that!

Administer some self-care stat! Go take a bath with your rubbery ducky, or snuggle with your blankey, or do whatever it is that you do to make yourself all cheery and happy inside. Eat a pint of vegan ice cream and wash it down with some cookies! Take a shot (or two, or three, but only if you aren't driving or have something you need to get done later). Whatever it is, make your inner kid happy.

If all else fails, talk to someone who is going to support you and help you remember that the wet blanket is the crazy person, not you. If you don't know if you can trust anyone, there's always a therapist (or you could also vent via email to us).

Finally, sometimes push comes to shove, and the wet blanket just needs to get put in their place. You officially have Monkey + Seal's blessing to put up a fight if need be. You can call them out on their poopy behavior and regardless of whether or not your actions change their behavior, your heart will know that you stood up for yourself, and that's a really powerful step in itself. Besides, if you call them out in front of a lot of people in a way that isn't full of name-calling, but is very factual, you can very possibly shame them into reform.

So avoid your wet blankets and love yourself. Don't try to dry out the wet blanket, it'll only get smelly and mildewy and eventually will become a wet blanket again. Dangerous!

Artist Envy: A Dangerous Concoction

If you have a lot of friends who are artists, good for you. You are surrounding yourself with people from your tribe and these people will share many common threads. Many will know what it's like to do a 36-hour day in order to meet a deadline, or will know what it's like to really feel the need to finish a portfolio. Others might be able to commiserate with you on your artist's block, or maybe they can provide you with useful tips on new techniques or supplies.

However, having lots of artist friends can be a bit of a drainer as well. While you have many similarities, perhaps you have too many similarities. Perhaps you both submitted to a gallery and only one of you ever heard back, or maybe one of you got a part in a play but no one else did.

We'll admit it, it's hard to be happy for someone who got what you wanted. After all, we have our own unique needs and wants. So today, we want to talk about managing artist envy.

Envy, used properly, can be a great motivational tool. If you see an artist achieving what you want for yourself, it's only natural to feel envy. If you use that feeling to push yourself to do the work and to take your own work to the next level, then great! View the other person as an inspiration that you're striving for and work towards your dreams. Most likely, if you ask, that person will even try to help you to achieve what they already have. After all, awesome people are willing to share their secrets, especially with people who want to get where they already are. Think about it: awesome people are always looking to become bigger and better, so they're very receptive to helping you get to where they are right now.

However, if used improperly, envy can be destructive and totally no bueno. If you look at that other artist as an opponent or an obstacle, then you've already cut them off as a source of knowledge and aid. Additionally, you're creating a negative mindset that not everyone can achieve their goals. Once this becomes your mantra, every time you don't get what you want, it will be a defeat, which you'll brood on, probably causing more defeats. Also, you may become inspired to use underhanded methods like lying or manipulating or stealing or other not-so-good behaviors to get what you want. And once you get known for being underhanded, people won't want to partner up with you. You've now committed to getting there by yourself, and like we've said before, you can't get anywhere alone.

When you realize that the better person you are, the more people are willing to help you out. When we ask for advice from other artists, it is our policy to make sure that we take advantage of the help they've given us, and let them know how much they've helped us along. That is why it's important to see others succeeding as not only friends who are doing well, but also as valuable sources of tips and tricks and advice.

You may be asking what you can do for your friend, if they're giving you such valuable advice and relating their own experiences to you. Well, you can start by following their advice and making sure they know how much you've helped them. And who knows? Maybe some day you'll be in a position to recommend them to another studio, or maybe you'll come across a great opportunity that's not right for you but would be right for them. Return the favor and I guarantee you'll soon have a circle of artists that you can count on to go to bat for you.

So be generous. Be happy for your artist friends who are succeeding, and they will be happy for you in return. Create a community of creative collaboration where everyone is working to help each other obtain their dreams! Believe us - there is always room for one more.

Monkey + Seal FAQs Answered!

Today is Monkey + Seal's 7 year anniversary, so we'll be taking the day off to celebrate. We've decided to massage our own egos by writing up this little FAQ to appease all your burning Monkey + Seal questions!

PS - It's also Seal's birthday! Happy birthday Seal!

Question: How long have you been painting?

Seal: I started dabbling about twelve years ago, but I didn't really paint seriously until about three years ago as of this Spring.

Monkey: I used to draw on my face with crayola markers when I was three, but I didn't start seriously pursuing painting until my Still Life class in 2009.

Q: How did you get to where you are? Did you go to school?

M: A long, round-about way of going to UC Berkeley to study chemical engineering, then realizing that I loved theater, then realizing that I love visual arts and storytelling even more, then going back to school for a second Bachelor's degree in illustration at the Academy of Art in SF. Along the way, I switched my major to Biology (which influences how I think of anatomy and creature design), got a job at a craft store that got me into the SF Zine Fest and the crafting world, and found out how cool silkscreen printing is. Also, lots and lots of support and help from friends who I've met along the way.

Actually, this is such a formidable question that I might post a lengthier answer in the near future.

S: I always knew I wanted to be an artist - I was a big fan of animation and film. After giving up my dream several times, I finally went back to art school in 2007, and finished in 2010.

Q: What made you go back to school?

S: I felt, at that time, that it was "now or never" and wasn't happy where I was. I didn't want to regret not pursuing art, so I made the choice to return to school. I needed structure in my learning because I really didn't have the foundation skills to really learn on my own.

M: My drawing skills were totally lame. I nearly BS'd my way into a painting MFA program without having painted in my life, but I ended up opting for the longer, harder route of actually learning how to use color, render form, tell a story, learn composition, etc. etc. etc. Thus, I knew I needed an ass-kicking structure that would teach me how to put what I see in my head down on paper.

Q: Why do you call it a "Art Cave?"

S: Because our house is cold!

M: Our apartment is dark (we get no direct sun at all) and we live on the bottom floor of a two-story Victorian. Upstairs sounds like there are rabid beasts trampling around, so I imagine this is what it is like to be in a cave. Also, we have so much stuff it sometimes feels like we're in this dark cavern of art supplies.

Additionally, our Art Cave is also the place in our head where we hide from life, as it can be easier sometimes to just squirrel away and make art rather than deal with people, obligations, work, etc. etc. etc.

Q: Seal, what is Monkey like at home? Monkey, what is Seal like away from the public?

S: Monkey does silly dances and grows six tentacles and is typing and screenprinting and is reading a book all at the same time.

M: Seal likes to play in the bath, and likes her chai tea while she paints and plays Japanese television shows in the background. She also makes cute, funny noises.

Q: Who is Monkey? Who is Seal? Why?

S: It's always the other one.

M: What does that even mean Seal? Anyway, I'm Rick, Eve is Seal, or vice-versa, whatever, and it's because I (Rick) looked like a Monkey in his baby pictures. Eve looked like a baby seal when she was little. Thus, Monkey + Seal.

Q: Does Seal like fish? Does Monkey eat bananas?

S: I like goldfish (the crackers) only. Save the tuna!

M: Surprisingly, I'm not a huge fan of bananas. I love banana-flavored candy and artificial flavoring, but I'm not huge of bananas. I do eat them, as they're a great source of Potassium and are great for being on-the-go, but yeah, I like lots of other fruit way more.

Q: What was your biggest challenge to being an artist?

S: Feeling like I want to master everything quickly but realizing that you're at the level that you are at, and that there is always more for you to learn.

M: Learning that there are no short-cuts. You just have to practice, practice, and practice some more. Then, when you're all exhausted from practicing, you gotta do it again. And again. And again...

Q: What mediums do you use?

S: Acrylic, gouache, pastels, and my favorite being Painter X. Wait, that's not true, it's Painter and acrylics together.

M: I primarily use acrylics (with gloss medium) for all my fine art stuff, and digital (Photoshop) for most of my illustration and design work. I actually really don't like Illustrator, but I am slowly learning to embrace Painter. I'm also starting to try and use acrylics for my illustrations, but have yet to really finish a piece that way.

Q: How do I get an art job?

S: Learn the foundations, and practice. Reach out. The world doesn't know what you're doing unless you tell them and surprisingly, someone will hear you.

M: Practice like a nutjob. Read as much as you can on marketing. Learn how to sell yourself. Constantly look for opportunities and take as many as you can without killing yourself. Oh yeah, and never stop the practicing.

Q: Any last thoughts?

S: If you choose to pursue art, it's a long road, but it's rewarding. You have a unique voice, so there is always something to contribute to this world - to art.

M: I really talk a lot. I also like watermelon, and regardless of what I like, you should embrace your inner artist and make sure that you do something creative today. Small steps make a big difference, and remember: there are no shortcuts to greatness.

Honor Your Personal Clock

If you follow Monkey + Seal's personal art pages (ie, not Monkey + Seal but Eve Skylar and Rick Kitagawa), you'll know that a lot of posting happens around, say 1-3am. Why? Is it because of optimum web traffic? Definitely not. It's because that's when we have time to work on our personal stuff.

When people ask us about our working schedules, we get a lot of people surprised that we often sleep at 3-4am, and don't get up until 10 or 11 (or noon, if we can help it). However, we find that it's really important to honor your own personal creativity clock.

Some people are night owls, others are morning people, and there are others who nap a few times a day but work early and late. Whatever your personal creativity clock tells you, if at all possible, try to follow it. If you're a morning person, don't try to stay up late to finish something, get up early to tackle it. If you're a night person, waking up early is going to kill you, so maybe you should try and power through into the wee hours.

"But Monkey + Seal," you may be asking, "what if my job/kids/whatever" gets in the way? Well then friend, you need to do some moving of stuff around. Honestly, it is possible to turn into an early riser. If you are strict with yourself and keep waking up at the same time every morning for a month, regardless of when you get to bed, you can train your body to wake up at the same time each day. However, if you are the most creative at night, you will be doing yourself a disservice. Perhaps your work schedule will fall more in line with a majority of the people you might be doing business with, but you'll be losing out on your optimal time for creating.

No matter how well rested Monkey is, while he is more productive in the mornings, he doesn't really get creative until around 9pm. What this means is that it's pretty pointless for him to wake up early if he doesn't have to. He performs better by doing a lot of his brainstorming and creative work between 9pm and 2 am. Also, naps completely mess up his sleep schedule, and he can only nap when he's extremely sleep deprived. Seal, on the other hand, has two creative spurts: one in the morning and one late at night after dinner. For her to keep focused and creative, she needs a nap in the late afternoon to keep fresh since she's working early and late at night.

Because we freelance, we're able to shift a lot of things around to fit our own personal schedules. But if you're in school or have a set job, a lot of times your schedule might not be as flexible. In this case, the trick is to move around what you can do to make time for your own personal work. If you're a morning person, maybe that means waking up extra early to put in an hour or two before work, or making sure you don't stay out too late on Friday night so you can put in an early Saturday working on your art. Whatever it takes, we encourage you to prioritize your creative work and carve out some time during your optimal creative peak and make some magic.

Planning Your Way to A Dream

To many people, the path to a dream feels very nebulous. Because so much of our emotions are tied to our ambition, we often treat it as we might an impulse and just sort of "go with the flow." While this is all fine and dandy, we suggest imposing some order upon your path, so that you might find your way a little quicker.

Many of us want to quit our jobs, live off our art, travel, etc. But how many of us have a concrete plan in place? Banks won't give out loans to small businesses without a business plan, as it's a risky investment. Due to the way our world works you need to start thinking about the concrete steps you need to take to get your art off the ground. Whether or not you want to be a non-profit or a huge corporation isn't the issue - if you want to be successful as quickly as possible, then you have to start talking a little business.

Let's look at a fictional person, and let's call this artist Sabrina. She wants to live off the sales of her paintings. Since she hasn't sold anything yet, she's looking into the options of selling prints of her work to make them more affordable. She also works 6 days a week at her minimum wage retail gig (which she absolutely hates) to survive.

Now, prior to getting a plan in place, Sabrina has been printing prints a few at a time at the local copy place whenever someone asks her for one. She has an Etsy shop, but doesn't update very often. She's been putting off creating a website, as the technical aspect of it scares her and she doesn't have the money to hire a web designer. So how is she going to change her life around where she can escape the retail job and just paint all the time?

Sabrina need to put a plan into place.

The first step in Sabrina's plan is to figure out her living expenses, and how much money she really needs to survive. She needs to figure out the bare minimum (food, shelter, clothing, student loan bills, etc.) that she needs per month to make it through. She also needs to figure out her ideal income (where she gets to go out to eat, hit the bar with friends, watch a movie here and there, etc.). She needs to figure out her budget because that's how much money she's going to need to make off her art.

The second step is to do the cold hard math. Say Sabrina's target income (where she'd feel comfortable completely leaving her job) is $2500 a month. Now, if she sells her originals, which take her three full days to paint, she thinks she can reasonably sell them for $600. She currently sells her prints at a profit of $8 per print. Because she works all the time, she doesn't get three full days to work at something, so she prioritizes it and works on it a bit each day, even though she's exhausted after work. So let's say the painting takes a week to finish, so she can make four paintings per month. How many paintings does Sabrina have to sell to make it by each month?

If Sabrina sells four paintings a month will make $2400, but if that's through a gallery, she'll only take home $1200 due to the 50% cut most galleries take. She's not sure if she can sell two paintings a month even with mad hustle, but she thinks she can sell one. So that's $300 through her friendly local gallery. That means, she has to come up with $2200 a month through print sales. Which means, at $8 profit each, she has to print, ship, and sell 275 prints per month (or about 69 prints per week, or about 10 prints per day).

Sabrina needs to evaluate whether or not she thinks this is possible, and if not, then she needs to re-evaluate her marketing, her pricing, her sourcing, or all three. She could also re-evaluate whether or not she's willing to make less before she quits her job, and where she can cut corners in her budget if need be.

You see, maybe Sabrina can sell her prints for more, so she has to sell fewer of them. Or perhaps her art translates well into greeting cards and she should look into licensing and wholesales. Maybe her art has an appeal to interior designers, and she could sell her originals for more. If her job is especially soul-sucking, maybe she'd be willing to give up her book-buying habit and instead visiting the library more, or maybe she doesn't really need that phone upgrade. Perhaps she thinks she just needs a better, strategic marketing plan.

Whatever it is, Sabrina needs to face the scary unknown of what she has to do to succeed. Most of the time it's a lot easier to bury your head in the sand and wonder "Why haven't I made it yet?" but it's important to really face the reality that you need to think of art like a business - with a budget, a marketing plan, and a well-thought out course of action. Then, which is a post into itself, comes the real challenge - putting it all into action.

Labels: Paralyzing or Helpful?

Her name is actually Rachel.

Imagine you're at an art show. Or imagine you're at Japantown, or at the supermarket, or at a bookstore, or an art supply store (because honestly that's likely the only places you'll ever find us). Now imagine that we walk up to you and ask you "what do you do?"

What you're most likely to do, especially if you've never met us in person, is to say "Oh, I'm a ______," where that blank is filled in with your job title. Likely, you're probably going to add in who you work for as well if it's a well-known large company. We very often attribute the question of "what do you do?" to mean "what is your job and what company do you work for?"

For us, that's just another conversation point, but for most people, it's a significant indicator of status. If you're a "CEO at a Fortune 500 company," that (most of society thinks) also means you're important, wealthy, competent, and pretty amazing. Society has taught us to create labels for ourselves and what we do, and the media and our own experiences have influenced what we believe about these labels.

The truth of the matter is that we are and are not what labels make us out to be, and that's why they are so powerful and dangerous at the same time. When we allow others to label us and box us in with their own preconceived notions of what go along with those labels, we begin to believe it and get trapped. We start believing that we're talentless, or poor, or we can also start believing that we're talented, competent, and awesome.

If you work or have worked in the (usually) unglamorous service sector like we have, you'll know that because of your job, people won't take you seriously. It's not seen as a "real job" or a "career," and it can totally make you feel like crap. Monkey will admit that when people who he went to school with would come in to his work, he'd feel a little bit embarrassed that he was still doing retail work while they were driving BMWs and were surgeons and lawyers and researchers and project managers, and all the other job titles that society thinks are super awesome and valuable. However, you can let the labels change you, or you can change the labels. Keep reading and we'll show you how.

In reality, there are probably three things you can do. You can let the label define who you are (don't do it!), you can embrace the labels given to you (easier if it's something you like), or you can change the labels. Because you're awesome, we already know you're not going to let the label define who you are. Even if you've done that in the past, since you're reading this, you now are more educated than you were before, so stop and scratch that option off.

You have two things you can do. You can embrace the labels given or you can change the labels. Let's cover option one: Embracing the labels.

If you're going to embrace the labels given to you, they had better be one that you actually enjoy. Say you're a staff art director at Wizards of the Coast, massive publisher of Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: the Gathering, and basically all the geek-tastic, drool-inducing things Monkey loves. You really enjoy your job, and are happy with your life. So what should you do? Hang out with your tribe. When you're with more people who identify as you do, you will reinforce the value of your label.

If this is you, awesome. Continue on and be proud of your label, but stick with us. You might want to do the following exercise anyway to figure out how you can make yourself even more awesome and happy.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you're not 100% happy with the label given to you. Maybe you're a high-salary CEO but you hate your job. Maybe you'd rather be known as an award-winning writer. Maybe you're a barista but would rather be a novelist. Maybe you're a staff art director at Wizards but would rather be a professional athlete or a biologist for the government. Whatever it is, if you're unhappy with the labels given to you, then it's time to change them.

Really, if you know us, any of our magical one-step things is usually a lot more involved than it seems, but here's the single-step method of changing your labels:

Step 1. Give yourself a specific job title that sounds super legit and cool. "Custodian" seems pretty boring compared to "Director of Groundskeeping and Improvements." "Blogger," doesn't quite have the ring of "Weekly columnist for an online publication." Throw this stuff down at parties and people will think you're pretty awesome.

Alternate Step 1. If your job has nothing to do with what you really want to be doing, then just say what you want to be doing, not what you are. We're not telling people to lie and say you're the CEO of Chronicle Books, but you can be the CEO of your own company. Maybe you hold down a retail job or work at a restaurant to pay the bills, but you can still be the owner of a small business at the same time. We're co-founders and owners of Monkey + Seal, an online apparel and design company that specializes in illustrations and screen-printed neckties, and we were all of that even when we both held down retail jobs. You can be the owner of Company XYZ, that specializes in your dream job.

That's it. Yes, we know that you also have to do the work of making a website or some business cards even, or getting a business license, but if you don't start writing your own labels and your own scripts, you'll always be stuck letting other people tell you who you are.

In Eiichiro Oda's manga and anime One Piece (we really need to write a book called "Everything I need to know in life I learned from One Piece), the main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy constantly introduces himself in this way. "My name is Luffy. I'm going to be the Pirate King." In the world of One Piece, the pirate king is almost a mythical status, one that no one in the past 22 years has achieved. It's a pretty unbelievable thing to say, like claiming to be the best painter in the world, or to be the best writer on the planet, but the way Luffy says it, he damn well believes it, and his strength and determination soon makes believers about everyone he meets.

The point of the One Piece reference is that it is a perfect example of someone taking labels and using it to their advantage. Luffy's belief in his future is so strong that he convinces everyone around him that he really will, despite all initial impressions, end up as the greatest pirate in the world. This determination gathers a crew of equally-determined individuals who together will realize their dreams as one.

When you are writing your next "About" page, or writing your first one, think about who you are and who you want to be. Claim your dreams and your labels proudly and let them become self-fulfilling prophecies.

If you are ready to grab your life and chase your dreams, tell us who you are. Post a comment and say hello. By making a public declaration, you're going to be one step closer to realizing your potential. Yes, it's scary, but if you let fear rule your life, you'll never get anywhere. So we encourage you to do it here and leave a comment introducing yourself, with all the labels you choose, to the world. It's your life, and it's your choice, but if you want to be that person we know you can be, take the first action and step into your new identity.