Do Wha'?

Do Wha’?

How are you feeling about your occupations these days? How much of what you do are you loving to do? How much do you hate doing? How much do you just do?

We see a lot of advice these days to do what you love and the money will follow. It’s good advice up to a point.

I watched two dear friends do what they loved, both were artists. One painted like crazy, then to promote it, kinda just did stuff, some stuff she made up, some stuff people told her to do. She had a show at a gallery that charged her to show there. She made a little money, but has stuck with her Clark Kent job.

The other friend painted like crazy, had a few coffee shop shows and then said “enough.” She started researching how to sell art, and borrowed money to show at a big to-do in NYC where she met with some success, made a lot of contacts, but most importantly saw how really successful artists promoted themselves. She paid attention, learned from what they did, and now, she does what she loves and the money follows.

There is a huge difference between the two, isn’t there.

On the one hand, artist A was diligent about her art, but casual about her approach to selling it.

On the other hand, artist B was diligent about her art, and treated the selling of it as a thesis project, learning everything she could, and taking it very seriously, then came up with an action plan, and implemented it.

Many of us work Clark Kent jobs. We get tons of training in tasks that are meaningless to us, except in the performance of our duties. And yet, when it comes to the stuff that really speaks to us, our art, or music, or dance, or or or, we act like it is inconsequential, that to actually learn how to promote it would be wrong, or that we are wrong somehow for doing what we love because we are too something that we think we shouldn’t be.

And so we talk about starving artists, or actor-waiters, and so on, and grumble about how it’s so hard to break into the field of our choosing. And we don’t do our research, or put ourselves out there where we can actually be seen. Like when I was six, lived in the country, and wondered why I didn’t have any customers at my lemonade stand.

And it often taps into our Personal Doubt, that first moment in our life when we doubt our perfection. We doubt that we are good enough, or that we are right, or that we are helpful, or wanted, or lovable, or or or.

If we aren’t whatever that quality is, then we surely don’t deserve to have our life’s work be something that brings us joy, now, do we. Except that we do. All of us do. We deserve to give wing to our special gifts, we deserve to give ourselves a chance to shine.

Why do I choose to take my life seriously?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 04/24/2013