The Mental Shift to Become a Professional
You may believe that having the right skill set, the right connections or the right amount of money makes you a professional, but you’d be wrong.
These ideas of professionalism place the value of your work on external circumstances, but any creative who’s been making art for a decent amount of time knows that those external validations quickly fade away. It’s wonderful for your paintings to receive critical acclaim, but when you have to face the blank canvas again, alone in your studio, months later, the critical acclaim you received won’t be the inspiration you need to paint again.
These external factors may or may not be symptoms of a professional creative life. What is more an implication of your professionalism than those outside experiences is your internal mindset. The mentality you have in approaching your work is what separates a professional from an amateur.
When an amateur is confronted with a difficult moment in her process, the response comes out of the typical human coping system: fight, flight or freeze.
If the amateur fights, he becomes destructive instead of creative. He doesn’t accept the reality of his limits or rejections and instead of using them to learn, he fights back through anger, bitterness or sheer stubbornness.
If the amateur copes with flight, she runs away from the difficult moment of creation. She abandons her work so she doesn’t have to deal with the uncomfortable parts of the process.
If the amateur freezes, he stalls. He doesn’t make anything. He won’t move forward to his next draft, he won’t share his work with a creative partner.
If, on the other hand, the professional is confronted with a difficult moment in her process, she works through it anyway.
She accepts what is true. Maybe she didn’t like how her film turned out but she learns from it. She stays with her process and sees it through to its natural end. The professional doesn’t freeze either, she moves forward, working (even if it’s only incrementally) to push her work forward.
The professional and the amateur experience the same doubts, insecurities and fears.
Once you become a professional, you still have all the uncomfortable moments of creation, but you know how to push through those moments to keep creating.
When you’re a professional, you may still struggle with self-doubt, but you’ll know it’s not your job to judge your work and you’ll do your work anyway. When you cross over from an amateur mentality to a professional one, you may still be uncertain about where exactly your creative path will take you, but you’ll be open to the possibilities and follow your instinct so you can adapt to whatever comes your way.
Decide to make the mental shift that helps you grow in your art.
Everyone fights the same battles, but it’s how you choose to respond that ultimately defines your professionalism. Show yourself you can handle the heat by staying in the proverbial kitchen even when it would be easier to run away.
