I love money. I don’t necessarily love it for the things it can buy. I certainly don’t like it for the cool designs on the bills. I actually love playing with money. Money is fun! Something about transferring between accounts, investing, using credit well…it’s a blast.
Since money is so fun, I decided I would start playing the stock markets. It was a great…until I started living and dying based on my portfolio’s performance. Every time that number turned red my life was over! Even if I only lost one dollar.
I’m not sure what changed. It used to be a fun game, then it turned serious. Each time I saw that my stock was the only one in the red, I got so bummed. Why didn’t I buy back into Baidu yesterday!?
I eventually had to delete my “Stocks” application. I had to remove myself from the emotion and comparison of it in order to enjoy it again. I’m glad to say, I do enjoy it again.
Sometimes the same thing happens with creativity. When we first began our creative endeavors it was all fun and games. Eventually, it turned serious. It was no longer fun. The give and take that’s natural with art became a death match.
Have you lost the excitement of creativity? Are you comparing your skills to everyone around you and becoming depressed that your skills seem to be “in the red?”
Delete the “other artists” app for a while. Don’t compare yourself to others. Find the joy of creativity again!
Yes that is hard, especially when you look at others portfolios (both artist and financial) and realize how far you are behind. But that is a great reminder.
Yep. When inspiration turns into depression…that's a bad sign… 😛
Same thing happens to me to man. Really have to be intentional not to let this kind of thing get to me. It is often funny when comparing myself to someone it is someone who has far more years experience than myself…
Definitely. We never see the geniuses when they were struggling like we are. 🙂
Yes that is hard, especially when you look at others portfolios (both artist and financial) and realize how far you are behind. But that is a great reminder.
Yep. When inspiration turns into depression…that's a bad sign… 😛
Same thing happens to me to man. Really have to be intentional not to let this kind of thing get to me. It is often funny when comparing myself to someone it is someone who has far more years experience than myself…
Definitely. We never see the geniuses when they were struggling like we are. 🙂
love this post. Sometimes for me its not necessarily the comparison to other artists. I think I sometimes get bogged down because 1) my livelihood and success get tied around the thing I love, which is awesome, but if I'm not careful, I can let that need to create-in-order-to-succeed choke my love for it. And 2) the jest I often go to is "I love what I do… I just wish there was less of it". Sometimes the sheer volume of what I know I need to create can make me see what I used to love as just another task to check off.
love this post. Sometimes for me its not necessarily the comparison to other artists. I think I sometimes get bogged down because 1) my livelihood and success get tied around the thing I love, which is awesome, but if I'm not careful, I can let that need to create-in-order-to-succeed choke my love for it. And 2) the jest I often go to is "I love what I do… I just wish there was less of it". Sometimes the sheer volume of what I know I need to create can make me see what I used to love as just another task to check off.