_a_happier_creative
AT THE BARBER
Yesterday I was getting my hair cut, and I was talking to my Barber about how my approach to creative work has changed. I'm a happier creative now, and that I wished I would have realized this sooner.
As I've said before, the podcast changed my life. As with all changes, it introduced new challenges.
When I make something, one of the things I want from it is for it to get noticed. There is so much noise, and so many things for people to check out... it's so easy and disappointing to be lost in the noise.
Something about the timing and approach of the Creative People Podcast - cut through that noise... even if was just a little bit. Some people were paying attention. Finally!
An idea that I had did it! It got some people to pay attention.
But instead of enjoying it, my mind said... "sure this is great, but maybe it could also make you money"
I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to make money, or making money. But let's talk about fulfillment and happiness. Those things are influenced by mindset and expectations. Expectations dictate our hopes and dreams, which affect our goals.
So you're a creative person, you have ideas, ambition and something to say or make. You start, and it's everything you dreamed of. You feel alive and unblocked, you have physical evidence of what you knew inside. You are a creator!
But then you have the thought or someone says, maybe you could sell this!
Ah, damn... capitalism strikes again!
NOTICE AND REDEFINE VALUE
Now the thing you made, has a new expectation - it needs to make you some cash. After all, things that cost money have value, and if someone pays for something... that means it's valuable. True.
But you made it, and you felt good when you did... that is also valuable.
When you looked at the things you made, and you felt pride. That's valuable. When you lost track of time, and you're body and soul were just MAKING, that was valuable.
But when you move the markers of expectation, and decide that it's only really valuable if you can sell it. You undercut all of that.
Art and creativity are for us, it's for our soul and it's how we exist in the world. Making stuff puts us in a flow that is in line with how we were built to live. But when you change the value to cash, you take those gifts away from yourself.
Some people can manage this fine, they can differentiate between the two with ease. But I haven't been one of those people. It took a mindset shift.
When I returned to working a regular job I decided that my work time was for cash, and the rest of my time was for me. My projects now have no expectations of cash, what so ever. Sure I plan on selling stuff. You can buy my new zine. But, it's a zine... how many am I going to sell?
I made it for me. I made it for someone who went through something similar to me. It has value.
If it sells well, that would be amazing. But it's not the point. The point is is that I made it. It exists. I did the work, I expressed what I wanted to say, and how I wanted it to look. Now I want to make something else.
MAKE SOMETHING… GO ON AN ADVENTURE
Now I look at each creative work as an adventure. Where is this thing going to go? What sorts of adventures could this open up?
Looking back, I wish that I would have looked at the podcast this way. During the Pandemic the Creative People Podcast was a doorway to people, and conversations that were unimaginable before the podcast. It opened up my world, and while I was enjoying it. It wasn't living up to the expectations… I was thinking about how I could make money from it.
If I had approached it as an adventure, I think I would have enjoyed it more. And I don't know if I would have burned out on it like I did.
And so, after a year and a half of working for myself, when all of my efforts had to equal cold hard cash - creative and non-creative. I realized that this was not the best way to live or attempt to live my (creative) life. I needed to separate the two.
The new approach: Work is for money.
All creativity is for me.
I moved the markers of expectation back. The things I make have value. I enjoyed making it, and I'm proud that they exists. Everything that comes after that, it just adventure. A little magic that the thing I made attracted. If that includes money, well that's the cherry on top.
This mindset has made me a happier creative. Despite my resting grump face.
Thanks for reading.
Shout out to Amber at Proper Barber Shop
- Ryan Leacock