I've been working as a professional, self-supporting artist for almost four years.
Am I suggesting that you should do the same?
Not necessarily, but exploring your own creativity could have unexpected benefits.
Pivotal Point
We all experience points in our life journey, pivotal points, where we face a crossroads, where we have to decide what we are going to do with the rest of our lives.
For me, that moment came in 2012. I was newly widowed with four children. My once thriving ebay business was slowing ebbing away in an increasingly saturated market.
That was my pivotal moment, but such moments can take many different forms.
Maybe you lose a job. Maybe you're going through a messy break up. Maybe it's a midlife crisis. Maybe you just wake up one morning and realize that you're not happy.
Pivotal Point: what do you do now?
Self Expression
Find your thing. Find your own brand of creativity. Find your art.
Maybe it's painting. Maybe it's poetry. Maybe it's cooking.
Find that thing that makes your soul sing.
Explore. Don't be afraid to try a hundred different hobbies. Pursue a thousand different interests.
Find your thing.
You are creative. Ignore that voice from your childhood that tells you that you aren't. You are human. You are a creative being.
It just might take a little time before you learn how to express yourself.
I tried a dozen different outlets before I really connected with my creative voice. I beaded jewelry. I played with fabric dolls. I wrote poetry. All that before I started tinkering with some basic graphic design.
Something clicked in my brain. I started exploring ideas. I started taking creative ideas further and further. I took a chance and entered a few pieces into a local art show. I won my first blue ribbon.
I'd become an artist without purposely setting out to become one.
I'd just learned not to be afraid to try new things.
You might surprise yourself.
Creativity as Therapy
I started working more and more with graphic design because it relaxed me. All my problems and anxieties just floated away when I started working on a new piece of art on my computer.
Art became an essential distraction from the worries of daily life.
Over time, I began to put more and more of myself into my work. I worked out my anxieties and problems by using them as creative starts for a specific art piece.
Art stopped being just an escape. Art became my therapy.
Connecting with my creativity helped me reconnect with who I was, helped me find that lost little girl in me, helped me learn what I wanted. Art gave me a new life.
I left that pivotal point, stopped being paused at the crossroads, and started walking down that path.
Art became my life. Find your voice. Find your creativity.
It may lead you to unexpected places; unexpected, but wonderful places.