We confuse love for purpose
We would not be musicians and artists if we don't love what we do. This is a challenging profession with physical and mental demands. We strive for transcendental artistic goals that, alas, we might rarely (or never) achieve. We are achievement junkies. We subject ourselves to criticism and rejection constantly. We put ourselves in the position to be tested every day. We make huge sacrifices.
Despite all this, we still want to do it - because we love it. And we feel so lucky when we get to do it because so few of us actually get to do it for a living.
Whether we've "made it" or are still trying to forge a career, we expect that the love for our art is enough to keep us going - forever, through the good and the bad days.
We perhaps even think that loving it is our purpose in life.
I don't think it's that simple.
Our love can give us motivation, passion, and creativity. It also limits us. Here are four ways it can do so:
It can make us feel stubborn and stuck, especially when something is not working. It prevents us from having an awareness of what needs to change in order to keep growing. We become blind and directionless.
It can make us subscribe to a scarcity mindset where we are so lucky to have our coveted positions. We make sacrifices against who we truly are or allow violations of our values, because we believe we are just lucky to do what we love. We become smaller and disempowered.
It can make us feel inadequate and shameful for not "loving it enough" to sustain a career in the arts (financially, logistically, emotionally, physically). It is not a helpful source of resilience.
It can make us think selfishly. We focus only on how it enriches us more than how it contributes to other people. It doesn't help us clarify and articulate how others would benefit from our work and what our work does for the greater good.
Our love for the arts is simply not enough. And we confuse it for our purpose, for our "why," for the reason we exist in this world.
That's a nice, lofty idea. But to have a sustainable career, we need a valid sense of purpose so that our love can thrive and burn longer.
This is easier said than done. It can take us a lifetime to find our purpose. A good place to start is simply recognizing that our love for the art is not our purpose.
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