Are you an artist?
I don’t mean if you paint or sculpt or play kick-ass rifts.
I don’t mean if you are a Picasso, an Andy Warhol, a Leonard Cohen or a Fred & Ginger.
I don’t mean someone you would obviously call an artist.
I mean are you someone who ROCKS at what you do? Someone who is passionate about how they do things? Someone who isn’t just doing a job, but being and creating in every area of your life and in every relationship?
We are all artists. But are you tapping into yours? Why is it even important?
An artist creates. An artist sees connections that perhaps others may not, or at least materializes it. An artist takes a risk, to say something, to present an idea. A different idea. All artists strive to be individual, to be who they are, regardless of what others think.
Most artists do it, not because of money but because they feel drawn to. They are compelled to explore and share their art. Money is just the energy exchange. Outrageous abundance comes when you are aligned with joy.
Art, through its creative element and the questions it brings up, contributes to humanity’s evolution. To keep pushing the boundaries, always standing at the leading edge of thought. To makes things better. To help people see more, see differently. And love more.
Are you an artist? Are you someone who has EVER gifted something because you simply had to? Because that is who you are? A smile? A hug? A letter to your councilman asking for a traffic light at a dangerous intersection? Anything that was not expected of you? Something “out of the ordinary”? If you have, you are an artist. You have let your artist talk and breathe. You have let your artist out to play.
You have let yourself out of the paradigm of the average that society is so comfortable with.
If you have done it once, you can do it again…and again.
Why is it important for you to express your creativity?
Why is it important for the world for you to express your creativity?
Because the system relies on the law of average to sustain itself. Average is easier to handle. Average is more predictable. Average is more controllable. Average is cheaper.
Systems by nature depend on the components to interact within certain parameters. They are interdependent – dependent on the behaviour of other elements. Systems break when the cogs decide not to be cogs.
A system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole.
And this model is fine for certain systems – I wouldn’t want my liver cell to suddenly decide not to be a liver cell, when I still need it to be a liver cell. But even cells are dynamic and responsive. They have a survivalist instinct.
People as cogs, as part of the system, are different. We are not meant to be robotic. We are not meant to knock out the same task over and over our entire lives. Not anymore anyway. As Seth Godin points out in Linchpin, this industrial model worked before because the security we traded our hourly labour for existed. Unlike a farmer, a factory worker was rewarded for every hour he worked. Unlike a farmer, his payout was not subject to nature, a highly unpredictable force. So yeah, in these ways, it made sense. Then.
It no longer does. Whereas, in our parents’ and grandparents’ generations (and great-grandparents’ time, depending on your age), people worked their entire lives at the same company. They were part of the family. They were taken care of, with pensions and retirement funds. Now? Well…
This is why it is now really important to unleash the artist. Not to (directly) break the system, though it does need to be revamped in major ways. But to put the spirit of humanity back into our work, into what we do, into who we are, into how we relate to each other. I’m not accusing any of you of not loving what you do. I’m not accusing any of you for not putting forward your best effort. But would you not agree that MORE is possible?
MORE is most definitely possible now. It may have been harder before, harder to break out of the mold and be the genius that you are, rather than the Average Joe that was stamped into you. Maybe it was easier not asking the questions. Maybe it was easier not making choices or having to figure it out. It was certainly safer. But safety is an illusion. Being average and “living the dream” (whose dream?) are so last century. Being the artist genius you are and living BEYOND your wildest dreams is the new paradigm, the new mondus operandi.
NOW is the time to unleash your artist, to put art back into your work, into all that you do. Your art is your value, your contribution. Following the script you were given or thought you were given is no longer a viable way to live. There are no rules to life. Instead of freaking out about not knowing what to do, lean into it, embrace the inherent freedom in not having to conform. You make your own rules now.
I’m not saying “rules are meant to be broken”. I’m saying some rules are stupid now. They may have worked and made sense when they were made. But when things don’t evolve when time evolves, their antiquated framework will crack under humanity’s natural push for MORE.
Don’t buy into a system that no longer works, that no longer serves our needs or supports our growth.
Buy into yourself. Step up. Walk your talk, in every arena of your life. When you segregate your life into neat little compartments, you are cutting yourself off into not-so-neat little versions. Authenticity is the thread of YOU running through everything you touch, everywhere you go, and everyone you meet.
So align yourself – do more of what you love, do less of what brings you headaches. Often a tweak is all it takes to resolve conflicts. How can you connect passion with everything you do? How can you put the art back in your work? Hey, yeah – and get paid (financially and otherwise) for just being YOU! How awesome is that?
inspired and evoked by Seth Godin
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