Good question, isn’t it?

We writers and artists can get so focused on our creative goals, making money and working to manifest big dreams that we forget: art isn’t life and death.

We’re supposed to be enjoying this. And if we’re not, then we need to change how we relate to our work.

A writer known as Marco Dante (@marcodante) wrote honestly in a blog post about the frustration we’ve all felt when trying to put our work out into a marketplace fraught with subjective opinions, the changing whims of consumer trends and the heart-wrenching personal nature of rejection, hope, determination, and self-doubt.

Whether or not we generate our income from our creative lives, it does our souls good to step back and ask: am I enjoying this?  (By joy, I mean an overall happiness that comes from the entirety of the process. Because we all have tedious parts of the process we don’t enjoy, but must complete.) If we’re not enjoying our creative work, what can we do to get that joy back? What needs to change?

It’s usually a matter of mentally re-framing our perspective. That, and taking a good look around us to remember what truly matters in our lives. Health, family, love, freedom, well-being, abundance, the very fact that we get to spend so much time on our creative pursuits. And, ultimately, the fact that as Beings of Source, we’re here to enjoy life and bless others as we do so.

It may be a change in the type of work we do, the medium, the genre, the outcomes we experience. We may need a different type of art to reinvigorate us or provide new challenges.

So, if you’re not having fun, find out why and decide to change what needs changing. Let go of the weight that has accumulated on you and start fresh.

And if your art just isn’t for you anymore, take a break or quit. This is your life, your story. You get to write it.