You don’t have to justify to people why you can’t live without it

People are operating on an outdated definition of what it means to be a creator.

As if there was some focus committee or consistency police whose job it was keep people in their lane for the duration of their careers.

Sorry, but that’s weaponized fear mongering and mob mentality stuff. When you live your life as a liberated individual, focus is about consistency of identity, not activity. It doesn’t matter how many different things we do creatively, it only matters that we’re the same person when we do them.

And sadly, there are people out there who like curating other people. They’re intimidated by prolificacy because of their own lack of imagination and permission. When they see an artist who likes what they like, and lets themselves have it all, they lash out to compensate for a lack of fulfillment.

They have contempt for creators with a diverse portfolio of personal and professional interests because, deep down, they wish they were spiritually inclined to actually do all the things that make them happy.

The question the artist has to ask is:

Are you limiting yourself just because people won’t accept the fact that you can do something else?

If so, it’s not too late to unlearn that mindset. Within the discipline of personal creativity management, there’s an entire subcategory of mindsets that revolve around permission, aka, giving yourself some kind of formal consent to do, be or have something.

Imagine you’re a full time graphic designer with a very fulfilling day job, but you are also thinking about doing more live performances on the weekends.

Think about how you might generate opportunities to express yourself despite access, audience or affluence. Give yourself permission to pursue different avenues of artist expression, even if you’re people accuse you of being all over the place.

Screw those people.

When it’s your heart, you don’t have to justify to people why you can’t live without it.

There are almost certainly plenty of untapped venues for you to flex other creative muscles. You simply need a broader, more inclusive and less limited mindset to notice and capitalize on them.

Remember, being an artist is not about hammering one nail all your life, it’s about hammering lots of nails, one way, all your life.

If you focus on doing lots of things from the same place, you’ll never have to worry about being all over the place.

And if people can’t accept that, then invite them to go see a therapist and talk to that person about their problem.

Are you limiting yourself just because people won’t accept the fact that you can do something else?