Sometimes it’s challenging to decide what to do when your passion and your income start to intertwine.
I’ve noticed that I often go back and forth between two very different sides of me - an artsy side and a business side. Through a bit of experimentation, I have learned that one is *heart* and one is *brain.* Both are good; one is not better than the other. But I’m realizing that when I make heart decisions surrounding my art, music, and how I spend my time with both, I am WAY HAPPIER than when I make a brain decision… Brain decisions usually revolve around making money and having it all together and “shoulds,” whereas heart decisions usually follow inspiration and intuition. I am learning how to use both as needed… which is tricky.
Here's an example - at the beginning of 2019, I was super pumped and set out to turn “my passion” into my full-time career. I wanted to share the parts of my journey as I went, thus “caitlininprogress” was born. I quickly hit a wall when I painted some things that I WILL NEVER SELL because I love them so much with all of my heart. And they took months to create! At first, I got really discouraged because, well, I had made a brain-decision to sell everything so that I could make money that way. I thought that was how I was going to financially turn my passion into my full-time income. But my heart could never let those paintings go, so now they are hanging on the walls of my home. That's when I realized that I can't always make brain decisions about my art. I can't always treat it like a business.
I’m also learning that in the same ways I can’t do that to my art… I can’t do that to my music either. Or my writing. Or anything else I create.
Because I create with my heart, not with my mind.
Creating art and music and writing is when I turn my mind OFF and just allow things to happen. It’s probably the only time in my life when I turn my mind off, which is why it’s so good and therapeutic for me. I just stop thinking and let it out.
It took me a few months to work through this heart/brain issue, but I want to tell you where I have settled and drawn a line between the two...
I want to tell you because I can’t remember a time in my life when anyone asked me if I *wanted* to sell my art. I don’t think anyone asked me if I *wanted* to share my music. I’m finding that, when anyone finds out you do anything creative, the next response is YOU SHOULD SELL IT! YOU SHOULD SHARE IT! MAKE AN INSTAGRAM!
And yes, here we are. I share my art online, sell it, and I do occasionally share my music here as well too. But it used to be the most secretive thing about me. It used to be something that only the closest people in my life knew about. It used to be hidden and tucked away. In those times when it was just me, myself, and my creative process, I was 100% IN THE FREAKING FLOW. Uninterrupted by what people thought about what I created, uninterrupted by opinions and shoulds and rules.
It was when I started sharing it with people that all the rules and shoulds and opinions came in, at a time when I wasn’t fully aware enough myself to make intuitive decisions about it.
Thus is life, right? It comes at us faster than we can process, so we do the best we can with what we know at the time and somewhere along the journey, we start making decisions for ourselves and not based on what people think of us. That’s the goal, isn’t it?
But even through all of those years, becoming more of myself and less of people’s expectations of me, I’ve still read my fair share of business tips, “how to run a creative business” stuff, and taken others’ advice on what will help me “make it” in the art and music worlds.
This is why my brain gets in the way sometimes. Because even if I’m good at making art I love or not caring what people think about what I’m creating, my brain still likes to think it “knows everything” and “makes the best decisions.”
A way I’m learning to overcome that icky feeling of being stuck between my heart and my mind is to let my heart guide my art decisions. This has taken a lot of learning, practice, and trust, so I wanted to share with you what has been working for me in hopes that it can relieve you from some of the pressure you might also feel. I want to be the person who asks you to consider what you truly want to do with your time and your inspiration, not tell you what you “should” be doing. Someone needs to ask that question - what do you want to do?
So I wrote this for anyone who is
considering selling or sharing their art
selling/sharing their art but struggling with the icky feelings associated with “shoulds,” “rules,” and “business stuff,”
wanting to make art in general
or anyone who has read this far and doesn’t necessarily create but you’re reading it - just know you can apply this to anything you feel inspired to do in your life, whether art-related or not
Wherever you’re at, whatever thing it is that you’re considering doing or making in your life… bring it to mind and then proceed...
FIRST - ASK YOURSELF THESE VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS:
Why am I doing this?
Is this what I want to spend my time on?
Does this inspire me?
Is it calling to me?
Is it all I want to do with myself right now?
If the answer is “yes” to all or most of these, I think you have a heart decision - something in your heart is calling you to do or create whatever it is you’re thinking about. If you answered “no” to most, your heart might not want to do this thing.
Now, ask yourself these questions:
Am I doing this because someone said I should?
Am I doing this because it’s what you’re “supposed to do”?
Am I doing this because it seems “smart”?
Am I doing this because it’s what someone else has done/said that probably knows what they’re talking about/doing?
If you answered “yes” to all or most of these, I think you have a brain decision - something your mind is telling you to do based on what you “think,” what you “know,” what you “think you know,” or what you’re “listening to from others.”
You could have said yes to questions on both sides - that’s fine. There’s no right or wrong answer here. I just believe that it’s important to ask yourself why - why you’re doing what you’re doing. That’s all. Know if it’s because you want to in your heart or whether it’s based on something else.
Moving forward, here’s my advice on a way to navigate the heart and mind when making decisions about what you’re creating or what you’re inspired to do in your life. When I say, “art” - remember that I believe art is any creative expression of yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a painting. Whatever YOU consider your art is what I’m talking about here.
Let Your Heart Guide Your Art:
1 - Create/take action based on what is inspiring you and calling you RIGHT NOW.
Sometimes it's a new idea, sometimes it's something that needs to heal, sometimes you just need to create for fun... this is following your heart, which creates happiness.
2 - Give the art/project/inspiration space to be whatever it needs to be/become
Aka, DON'T RUSH THE PROCESS, just let it do its own thing... and take pics so you can remember how you did it - this comes in later... this is giving your heart time to create the thing in its own timing.
3 - Once it's complete, ENJOY IT ALL TO YOURSELF BEFORE YOU SHARE IT.
Because sometimes when you share it, it can immediately lose its dazzle effect on you and create pressure for outside affirmation or sales. That kind of pressure is unnecessary when evaluating your own art and journey. AKA - soak it in!
4 - Write about it somewhere.
Document why it is special to you, what you love about it, title it, whatever feels natural to write down at this point. This will help so much when time passes and you try to convince yourself that it was bad art, or when someone doesn’t like it, or if it doesn’t sell, etc. It will give you a reminder to revisit when you wonder why you did this thing in the first place.
5 - After that, then decide… do I want this for myself? Do I want to share this with the world? Do I want to sell this? Can I let this go?
Try to let your heart answer… and if you want it for yourself, KEEP IT. If you feel like… “I want to share this with the world!!” then do it! If you want someone to be able to purchase this from you, if you’re willing to let it go live with someone else forever, list it for sale. That is the brain and the heart making a decision together, considering what is best for the heart before switching over to the brain/business side of things.
6 - If you decide to keep the original to yourself, would others enjoy this in the form of a print, product or resource?
If so, do you feel like turning it into one? If yes, proceed by using the original to create a print, product, or resource. If you don’t want to spend time on it, DON’T. This, again, is a joint decision between the heart and the brain that will keep you HAPPY in the long run. (This is the step I’m currently working on)
It takes practice in trusting yourself to make it through each step without jumping ahead. In the past, I usually have shared art pieces and projects in stage 1 - but that has let all kinds of voices and influences inside my headspace that I wasn’t ready to let in yet.
None of this is to say that you can’t share or sell things in any other way/order - this is just a process that I’ve found very helpful for keeping the act of creating, my art process, sacred. It gives me space to learn what I need to from what I’m creating before feeling any outside pressure. It allows me to process my own journey uninfluenced by any type of outside affirmation, engagement, or lack thereof, that I might get from sharing it in a post.
You inevitably will find your own process and what works best for your heart and your mind. This is part of creating your own path and living your own journey. My hope is that this helps give you a trail map of sorts - a path I’ve gone down that helps free me up to more exploration and joy in my art than feeling pressure to share/sell everything I create or that it all has to amount to something.
Does this resonate with you? I’d love to hear how this process helps you if you try it! You can reach me on IG or here to let me know.
Keep going, friend.
♥