Who Are You Creating For?

I’ve been using this newly granted free time to explore new forms of artistic expression. Doing this has shown me that I am more skillful at some creative outlets, compared to others (duh). Overall, what I’ve learned from this process is that not all of the things that I create are going to be profitable, nor should it be.
Breaking the Boundaries
When I didn’t have as much free time as I do now I strictly stuck too writing and dancing. These were the things that I was most comfortable with and in the past it has been fairly easy to make a profit. Trying to explore other options at the time would only take too much time and attention, and I just didn’t have the patience to delve into this a new artistic journey. Recently however, I’ve been wanting to break out of the boundaries that I’ve set for myself. So I asked myself, what’s something that I can create that would be useful for my followers, but still make me money at the same time? Will I enjoy this? Will this be too overwhelming? Can I get a creative job out of this?

Getting my Creative Juices Following
After asking myself these questions, the process to explore my creativity quickly turned into a business plan for selling new items. That’s not what I wanted. Instead, I simply wanted to find different ways to express myself creatively without trying to make it lucrative. Often times, when we try to make money off something that we’re creating, we forget what drove us to create the first place. The goal was not to lose sight of why I began this creative process. In an attempt to keep my focus solely on creating freely, I decided to release all expectations and pressure.
Doing this allowed me to be free in my creative thinking and expression. I was able to create what I wanted to create without any judgements or criticism from the world and most importantly, myself. Through this exploration I found out that painting put me in a meditative trance that allowed me to clear my mind without distractions (something I often have trouble doing). This is just one of the activities that I enjoyed doing without putting any expectations on myself about how fast I should be progressing. Some of the things that I created could be profitable, others…not so much. What I loved the most was that there was no pressure to make the “not so much” items profitable.

Express Yourself Creatively Without Expectations
You will burn yourself out if you try to put a price tag on all of your artistic expression. Not everything you produce it meant to sell. The truth is that not everyone is going to want to buy your “creative expression”, and that’s okay. Your entire creative ability is not meant for everyone. Some of it is just meant for you to see and enjoy in the comfort of your own space. Just because you found something that you’re good at, doesn’t mean to need to find a way to sell it. You don’t want to lose that excitement you had when the idea simply popped into your head.
I don’t want you to believe that the things that you can create can’t be profitable. Everything you create can be profitable as long as you have a plan. But we don’t create to overwhelm ourselves with work, no matter how passionate we are. We create to express ourselves in a way that goes beyond words (unless your a writer, of course), in the hopes that someone out there will relate.

Try to just create for the hell of it. Is it an unfamiliar feeling? Is it difficult to continue the process? Are you pressuring yourself on how perfect or no perfect your creation is? What does this new space feel like to you? Subscribe and comment below…