Everyone is an artist. Each person brings sound out of silence and coaxes the invisible to become visible. John O'Donohue in Anam CaraEach of us is an artist. We may not be called Rembrandt or Beethoven but we are artists in our own right. We create, every day, masterpieces in our lives. Sometimes, our paintings are dark. Sometimes of pure brilliant light. Sometimes, our symphonies are of sorrow and tragedy. Sometimes of hope and love.
Sometimes, we sell our masterpieces as 'truth' to anyone who will listen. Sometimes, we keep our stories to ourselves and never let them see the light of day.
And sometimes, we want to disavow the artistic nature which is inherent in all of us. Not because we're not creative souls, but rather, often because we fear our creative nature. In our artistic souls is the power to create from the unseen. And that scares us.
Being accountable, 100% accountable for our beings is scary. I mean, who will we have to blame if we don't pass that driving test, or don't get that promotion? Or our book doesn't sell, or a painting doesn't get bought?
Yet, being accountable for our creative selves means, the act of creating isn't about selling our creations, it's about creating what pleases and stirs and moves us -- in the hope it will please and stir and move others enough to pay for our creative output.
My life pleases me. I don't want to sell it. But I would like to sell more of the output of my life. I'd like to sell more of my writing. More of my paintings. More of my speakings. I'd like to sell those things to make my life more livable -- because 100% accountability also means I'm responsible for how I live. And I like to live comfortably -- not extravagantly but comfortably.
Yesterday, my friend Joyce (who has a beautiful new look to her blog) over at Peaceful Legacies sent me an email explaining why she was adding a link back to any comments she posted. "While none of us are very focused on marketing, I'm starting to think there is a value to building our networks."
She's right.
And... and I have been shirking my responsibility. I have not been focused on marketing. I have been focused on wishful thinking. For all I'd like my livelihood to be dependent upon my creative output, I have not been very creative in how I support and promote and honour my creative output.
A lesson in accountability.
Wishing and hoping do not create success. Nor do they fill a bank account.
Being accountable. Being responsible. Being actively engage in the creative process -- on all sides, creates success.
I can't be 100% accountable in my life if I don't become 100% accountable for how I market and manage my creative output.
When I am fearful of the 'marketing' side of my creativity, I am limiting the expression of my creative output. I am limiting my life.
Author, and one-time longshoreman, Eric Hoffer wrote, "where the development of talent is concerned, we are still at the food gathering stage. We don’t know how to grow it."
I'm going to grow my talent for marketing. Marketing is a form of creative expression. Just as nursing, gardening, lawyering, house building, ditch digging, and every other human occupation are creative outlets for the art-maker for which someone else is willing to pay for their creation. Someone took the time to create this thing called 'cyberspace'. My responsibility is to employ its power to create artful releases for my creative expressions!
My commitment is to grow my ability to employ the technological whizzbangs at my disposal so that my creative expressions become an expression of how I live my life creating more of what works in the art of living fearlessly creative.
7 comments:
my husband started wine making as a hobby. he worked as a mech. engineer for a large company to make money.
after ten years of wine making growth he began selling his wine, and left his job.
to be the head of a small production he knows about all aspects of the business and is involved in them all. grape growing, harvesting, wine making, bottling, stoppers, labels, marketing, paperwork, bills, taxes, tasting, employees, social events, phone calls, etc.
he has become the director of the orchestra while still playing some of the instruments.
to sell what we create, involves being active in many more parts of that process.
it is when we work for a larger company that we become disconnected from the whole process or seeing the whole orchestra. because we get focused on the part that we play. not usually seeing the parts that others are playing.
A wise person once told me "Healing is simply shifting negative destructive energy into positive creative energy". I believe our primary purpose is to uncover, reveal and share the creation of our being.
Excellent post. I just twittered a post from Design Sponge about "Grand Opening Marketing Practices"--stuff we could all put to creative use.
Some people so excel at marketing. I'm grateful for those who can teach and show us who are not so great at it.
Great comments by nAncY and Dave, too.
Hey Louise, thanks for commenting on my blog! I think you're absolutely right. We have to be creative, to live in a way that is pleasing to ourselves and God first, even if it doesn't "sell." That's always how great creativity is produced (which, ironically, often sells the most.)
Holding ourselves accountable for any aspect of our lives is a desirable quality ... difficult at times though.
Ouch. You're so right. I'm actually not TOO bad at marketing my art, but I haven't been marketing my writing at all.
Sigh.
And I used to be a marketing executive; I actually know how to do this. I just don't. Do it, that is.
And boy, just thinking about it awakens ALL kinds of resistance. I think it has something to do with the fact that so much of my work has a spiritual component, and I don't want to be one of those in-your-face evangelists.
But it's also fear. I don't want to get the hate mail I used to get when I was editing the newspaper. And I don't want the kind of "who does she think she is" kind of sniping that went on when I was the smart kid in junior high.
Sad, isn't it, the way we hold ourselves back...
you are all such welcome and electrifying lights on my path -- you spark my thinking and my being into doing all that I can to be authentic and true.
and sigh...
I too was a marketing/PR exec -- am still a PR exec and I know what to do -- I do it everyday for my work. It's for me it gets dicier...
Holding myself back only keeps me stuck in disbelief of the limitless possibilities of my life when I move freely through time and space.
Sigh...
Hugs!
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