Creative People Are Flaky & Moody & Broke Too

After the rambling intro to last weeks guest post by Pace and the subsequent  mentions of it in the comments. I decided to knuckle down, take the comments in the jovial, well-meaning spirit they were meant and vow to stop gatecrashing my guests posts.

Then as I was reading and preparing this post, I thought to myself, “What the hell am I doing? I’m not being creative enough. I should be throwing an artistic hissy fit and going on a huge absinthe fueled rampage resulting in me waking up in a Paris brothel sans my right ear, left kidney and sanity.”

Then I though “Nah, I’ll just go back to England for a week and listen to people whine about corrupt Politicians the economy and heaven forbid, the rain. It may not be quite so arty, but it’ll make me more miserable in the long run”

Todays guest post is courtesy of Deb Owen from DJO Creative. Deb is an upbeat creative type that you’ll find hanging around on Twitter when she’s not helping people tap into their creative potential.

Creative People Are Flaky & Moody & Broke Too

Creative people are flaky, moody, and broke.  And they’re difficult to work with.  Oh!  And let’s not forget they’re all drunks, and it’s quite possible they might slice off a part of their anatomy over a lost love.

Working with people stuck in jobs they hate, sometimes there is a creative professional inside screaming to come out.  Most of these people would never think of actually leaving the accounting cubicle for creative work.  (I know.  ‘Creative’ and ‘accounting’ should never be used in the same sentence lest visions of Bernie Madoff dance in our heads.)

Worse yet, they reach a point where they won’t even do the thing they love to do as a hobby.  They just wither away and die creatively, left walking through life as a shell of their former fulfilled and happy selves.  They’re unhappy alright.  But at least they’re safe.  At least they know what to expect.

Deep down these people have negative core beliefs about what it means to be creative.    And let’s face it, there are plenty of stories out there a creative person can look to to reinforce this belief.  After all, as a society, we don’t like the stories of the happy, successful author living their dream life.  We prefer the tragic, yet romantic, stories of Ernest Hemingway drinking and writing in Key West, or Van Gogh chopping off his ear.

These stories serve to reinforce the negative thoughts that a creative person has, which only perpetuates the fear.  “If I let myself be creative, I’ll go insane,” the designer says to himself.  “If I let myself do creative work, I’ll be broke,” thinks the photographer.

Just as anyone who is blocked or stuck in a job or life they hate, they seek out information, including real but larger-than-life examples, that will prove these thoughts to be correct.  (Who doesn’t like to be right?)  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Everyone on the planet does not hate their job.  Everyone in the world is not in a miserable marriage.  All writers are not insane.  People do build extraordinary lives.  And there are plenty of creative professionals out there building everything from a successful portfolio career to large design firms to brands that extend past their chosen art.  These people identified being creative one of their many strengths.  A strength to be played up and developed and incorporated in their careers.

But it’s not just happening with ‘the creatives’.  Professionals in every arena are living the dream.

The thing is?  It all starts with being creative.  (Yes.  We are all creative.)  It starts with envisioning what your extraordinary life – and extraordinary career – will look like.

That’s the first step.  Imagine what you’d like your life to be, what you’d like your job to look like.   Take as much time as you need and stick with it until you can see as much detail as possible, as vividly as possible.  When you see things as clearly as you can, write it down.

Next?  Well, next…..you take the next step.  And then the next one.  And the next one.  Keep moving forward, taking each next step, until you can call Bono and tell him that you found what you were looking for.

All the best!
deb

Deb left her corporate gig to start a corporate training biz – and be a photographer.  Now, she’s helping people who want to be more creative get that way.  And showing blocked creative professionals how to start living the dream.

After running 3 out of the last 4 posts as guest posts, normal service will be reumed later this week when I get back to sunny Florida. I’ve had some really excellent guest writers recently and if you think you can offer something equally as good I will be back to running one per week as of next week and would love to read what you have to offer.