heart work.
your purpose. your art. will land in the hearts it’s meant to. you won’t be for everyone. but you are for someone. and to that someone, what you have to give matters. and that’s the beginning of everything.
Creatives are tasked with relaying their truth in hopes of creating something tangible that puts words to the experience of collective strangers. And when distracted by an ego-driven urge to please they cannot feasibly deliver. The writer may become wildly popular all while existing in a state of oppressive discontent. Beliefs and values, watered down, create mediocre work, and that will not sustain anyone wired to live authentically.
Side note: We are all wired to live authentically.
Not to mention what our world loses when artists miss their mark. Think of your favorite authors, plays, speeches, books, paintings, etc.. And then imagine a world void of this particular work.
This is why so much freedom exists within Danielle Doby’s reflection and not only for creative types. All humans get to choose between operating as one’s true self or creating a persona that appeals to the masses.
Several weeks ago, I gathered with a small, compelling group of creatives in a dark L.A. bar room. The Improv venue is perfect for nighttime comedy, but for two days we filled the cramped room during the sunniest hours of a California day. Which provided the ideal amount of disorientation for us to get honest.
Mesmerized, we sat with each other’s vulnerability and spent two days captivated on one focus: getting everyone “unstuck.”
On the stark surface, everyone presented uniquely, and to call our group diverse in nature would be an understatement. Yet, about an hour into the first day, our commonality bonded us.
On some level, we were all saboteurs of our progression.
We kept anchors of doubt hanging around our souls, drowning our authenticity.
We held fear surrounding whom our work might anger.
We feared what we might ruin by taking a chance.
We feared losing acceptance.
We longed to keep a death grip on the status quo.
Each of us was staring fearfully down an unknown road, which had newly materialized after a personal paradigm shift–a necessary unmaking and rebuilding.
We had reached the brink and screeched to a stop.
We had all been idling in space where safety and likeability live, but not authenticity.
We uncovered one more commonality: It was slowly suffocating us to not do The Thing no matter the cost.
And everyone’s Thing was different. A book, a church plant, pastoring a church post deconstruction, revamping a marketing and entrepreneurial style for an already booming family business, starting life over post-divorce, sharing an art form that could be rejected, a ministry. Each person’s next steps promised resistance and risk.
The authentic path promises failure and loss.
We won’t be for everybody. You will not be for everybody.
Thankfully, when our calling and true self connect it paves the way to contentment, joy, relief, and peace.
And that is the beginning.
Suddenly, criticism becomes a mere difference of opinion. The thrill of positive feedback intensifies. Because at the heart of everything, a creative person works on connection is the goal.
The same holds true for you, so choose wisely when your truth comes up against your people-pleasing false self.
The wrong choice will steal your purpose and cheat the world of your gifts.
If you are doing things right, you will know. You will see that you are not for everyone.
Photo Credit: Justin Mast