One Artist’s Confession
Here’s what happened when I went for the 24/7 hustle thing:
I tried so hard. I really did. I worked more and harder and more. I lost sleep. I neglected my family and bills. I bled myself dry. I published posts I wasn’t thrilled with because that’s what hustlers do.
And then one day I woke up and realized — “I am miserable.”
Did you know why I think that is? I think that is because I allowed my art to be distorted by a business lens.
When you look at art through a business lens, only one metric matters:
Output.
All that matters is if you’re putting out more than the other guy.
Quality is forgotten. Emotion is irrelevant. Soul is discarded.
The businessman says:
“Post every day! Be on Twitter and Snapchat and Anchor and Facebook and Instagram and Medium! Crush it! Go as hard as you can every single day! YAAAAAAA!”
The artist says:
“Yes, but when do I breathe?”
One of the three phases all Creatives go through is discipline. For the most part, discipline is about knowing how to work.
It is also about knowing when your well is dry.
In this sprint-or-die culture, it takes just as much (if not more) discipline to NOT work as it does to work. I’m sure you know that. You probably do it better than I do.
Yes, you should create things every day. That is what artists do.
But should you be visible every day? Should you be marketing every day? Should you be selling every day?
I’m not so sure anymore.
