Newsflash! You’re just getting started.
Whether you think this is good news or bad news depends on your disposition. Some people feel fulfilled and complete every day. I envy them.
I want more. Not more “stuff,” but more out of life. More experiences, more love, more friends, more cats. (Only kidding about that last one!)
I know it’s not fashionable these days to want more. “They” say I should be content where I am and live in the moment.
Can’t I want more and appreciate the present?
I have come to realize and accept that I will never be complete. I am just getting started.
My work is never done.
I will never feel like I’ve arrived. There will always be something more to look forward to, and new goals and dreams to pursue that are optimistic about the future.
This is different than being unsatisfied. People who are unsatisfied are negative, unhappy, and, often, annoying.
I’m satisfied because for me, satisfaction comes from a job well done: getting some exercise, cleaning out the garden, or ironing napkins for dinner guests (I know … ironing … weird, but true).
There is great satisfaction in taking the steps toward your vision and seeing each project to completion.
But the vision may shift, and the dreams will get bigger, which brings the next set of projects.
This is how I’m wired. I’ve been this way … um … forever.
I have come to embrace this part of my nature, and I’m happy and positive because I’m enjoying the journey. I can’t imagine a different perspective than the one ingrained in me.
This brings me to your life as an artist.
You Will Never Arrive
I doubt that you will ever feel as if you’ve arrived, which I consider good news.
My thinking is that if you ever feel like you’ve arrived, you’ve done something wrong because every creative person and entrepreneur I know is on a lifetime search for new ideas. There will always be another:
- book to read.
- class to take.
- show to see or to install.
- museum collection to see your work in.
- email or postcard to send.
- sculpture to sculpt, photo to snap, painting to paint, pot to throw, bowl to carve, or necklace to fashion.
These are all things to look forward to on your artist’s journey.
Your work is never done.
And you should be worried if you feel like you’ve arrived because it probably means you’re out of ideas.
While the rest of the population is waiting in line at the Apple store for the latest electronic gadget, we artists and entrepreneurs are nursing a buzz from new ideas, new art supplies, and new inspiration. It would be foreign to live any other way.
There’s Bad News, Too
Now for the bad news: If you can relate to what I wrote above, you will never have enough time to do everything you want to do.
You’ll never have enough time to make all the art that is incubating in your head. Nor will you have enough time to implement all of the marketing ideas you find here and elsewhere.
However, your creative journey will allow you to explore new challenges that will lead you, at times, to unexpected and rewarding results.
Your work is never done.
This is why it’s so important to understand your values and set your life and business priorities around those.
Embrace the part of your artist soul that is always seeking. It’s one of the things that differentiates you from others.
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