Day Six: Wash it All Away #DoMagick

There’s something cathartic about rediscovering something you’re passionate about. You can get swept away so easily in the court of public opinion that you start to forget why you ended up there to begin with. It’s a pretty simple equation.  An artist/creative person starts out by doing what they love. They are driven by passion and belief in what they’re doing. That thing they create begins to draw a crowd and the crowd starts to praise the things a person is creating. Then the crowd starts making requests and, whether knowingly or not, starts placing demands and expectations on the artist. In some cases, fans might even feel like they are owed something due to their devotion to the creator. Because the person creating the thing loves that people love what (s)he’s doing, the person thinks, “I love my fans and I want to give them what they want.”  The person starts creating for the fans instead of the reason (s)he originally began creating and starts to lose joy in the one thing (s)he once loved and was passionate about.  One day the creator wakes up wondering how (s)he can reclaim that joy.  I’ve been feeling this for at least two years now, unsure how to define it or fix it.  It’s not that I don’t want to create for my fans, I do, but I need to do it in a way that brings joy to me.

This month’s work, so far, hasn’t just made me pause to realize the truth about it, but all the block breaking and cleansing work has opened my eyes with regard to FIXING it.  It’s great to know there’s a problem (as I have known about it for several years), but it’s another thing to have a clear path to recovery. So that’s what I’m going to work on for the next week.  Defining what that path looks like and what the first steps are.  It may mean less time on social media, lots of pre-scheduled posts, etc…

Almost forgot to post this. Left it in my drafts. Oops.