We need to be less afraid.

I mean, come on, what do we really have to lose?

Think about it: if you have your health and people who love you, you have everything. Art – or any creative endeavor – is just play in this wonderful game of life. It might be what we do for a living, and we might be dead serious about it, but in reality what’s the worst that can happen to you if something doesn’t go right with your art?

That’s what I thought. It’s not that bad, is it.  So what are we so afraid of?

Most of us we stumble on the financial aspects and risk-taking that going full-time (and by full-time, I mean you make your living financially from your creative work) brings. There’s uncertainty. There’s what ifs. There’s the sense that you are absolutely, ultimately responsible for your financial fate. Which you are. But until you cross the border into full-time creative work, you won’t know the true extent of your personal power to create a life you love.

For all those folks who will talk you out of taking the leap – of, dare you even mention it, quitting a job in this economy (there’s never a ‘good’ time to quit a job, by the way)- they need to answer for their own dreams that are waiting for them to take a risk.

What happens when you take the leap? You learn that you can fly.

But here’s the secret: you’ve always been able to fly. You were born to fly. To follow the path of your unique talent and dreams. It’s just that you’ve spent too much getting dizzy looking down at the ground below and not enough time looking up at the endless sky.

I know, I know…what if it doesn’t work out? That’s what you want to know, right? What if you have a family, dependent on you?

Well, what if you could know that you had the power to lose it all financially and then earn it again? What if money wasn’t such a big deal? What if we took a more playful perspective with this amazing opportunity we have to live by our creative work and took more chances? What if the worst that could happen is losing a job, losing a house, losing the ability to maintain the same standard of living – wouldn’t you still, ultimately, really, in your soul, be okay? Couldn’t you find the resolve and power to find another job (there are jobs out there in many fields), to live with less, to start over, if you had to?

Of course you could. Many people are. And that’s one of the greatest blessings of a tough economy – it hurts, but it shakes us up and sets us free from the fear we have of what might happen if “the worst” happens to us economically. Because we are stronger than that.

We’re always stronger than we think we are.

Money is energy. It follows your lead. And if you are making decisions based on what you know in your soul to be right for you, you’ll create the financial energy you need to live your life.

So, let’s be less afraid. Let’s take more risks. Let’s enjoy this journey on earth and dare to do what we love.

My post Overcoming Rejection: Stop Allowing Others to Decide Who You Are talked about how we need to “be” the artists we want to be and not give other people the power to tell us whether or not we truly are artists. Only we can decide who we are. But it was pointed out that “being” without “action” won’t get you results.

Absolutely true.

Dreams don’t come true without you. You have to take action. In fact, you have to usually be in a perpetual state of keep-trying-don’t-give-up action.

Action backed by faith that the Universe is doing its part to arrange the right circumstances, timing and connections needed. As someone once said, it’s easier to direct a moving object than one that’s not.

So move.

But move with confidence and faith. Always focus on what it is you do want, not on what you don’t. Then take steps toward it.

Don’t strive. Don’t worry. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re in a do-or-die situation and that if your dreams don’t come true, your life is over. It’s not, it won’t be.  Appreciate the life you have now, in this moment with a quiet contentment and joyful anticipation of what’s next. (Couldn’t we all benefit by being a bit more lighthearted and playful about our oh-so-heavy dreams? It’s easy to live too much in the future – thinking our “real” lives will start when this and that goal is attained. Life doesn’t work that way. It’s now. The greatest gift you can give yourself is to be happy now. And remember, happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy.  I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” So true. Happy people tend to be more open to possibilities and opportunities that present themselves, too.)

So, here’s what you can do to keep walking steadily into your dreams:

• Learn your craft. Every artistic endeavor has it’s own craft elements that professionals master – that means you need to be continually learning, improving and practicing.

• Do your art. Write. Perform. Play. Paint. Spend more time actually doing your art than thinking about doing it.

• Put yourself out there. You have to be where the action is. Not necessarily physically, but participating at some level.

• Take chances. Whether hiring a consultant to advise you on your work, auditioning, to contacting other industry professionals  (even those that you don’t think are reachable) keep presenting your work in ways that will allow you to gain the feedback you need to improve your art.

• Trust yourself first and most, but know that professionals in all mediums know how to accept and learn from credible feedback.

• Enjoy the process. Have fun with what you are doing.

• Think BIG and take small steps everyday toward that big dream.

You have nothing to lose by trying your best to live a creative life that makes you happy.

And in the end, living a happy, well-lived life is what matters, right?

Few professions are as subjective to the opinions of others as creative ones. Perhaps because artists are usually self-proclaimed. Yes, you can get a college degree in your artistic field, but that doesn’t make you an artist, does it? Usually not. You’re an artist when you decide to be one.

The only problem is we don’t trust ourselves, enough, do we? And we fall into the trap of validation. Or rather, letting other people’s opinions and job titles decide whether or not we really are artists.

We’ve all been there:

• waiting for an agent to decide if we actually are writers
• waiting for a script to sell to decide if we can call ourselves screenwriters
• waiting for a manager or label to sign us to decide if we are musicians

Then, once that happens, we start to look at numbers:

• large sales = we must be artists after all!
• fans and followers flow in = we’ve made it!
• second, third, fourth deals are made = we’ve arrived!

Or have we?

• sales fall  = we wonder if we aren’t good enough after all
• fans attack, criticize, followers unfollow = we question our talent and abilities
• deals break, we’re passed over, agents resign = we wonder what we were thinking in the first place

Yes, it takes dozens of other people and circumstances to align to achieve monetary success in any artistic field. But would we be more successful if we stopped allowing other people to decide who we are and we made a decision to be who we want to be?

I think so. People sense vulnerability and insecurity. If you don’t know who you are and you give other people the power to decide who you are, they’ll decide.

Would people relate to us differently if we held a firm conviction of who we are and did not leave that up for debate for anyone?

Would being an artist hurt less? If we were judged on our work and didn’t mix it up with our identity? After all, if you’re a doctor, you’re a doctor – doesn’t matter whether patients like you or not. You don’t question whether you’re a doctor, you know you are. Everyone else knows you are, too.  Same goes for almost every profession I can think of.

Rejection is 97% perception and only 3% fact. We attach huge meanings to rejection as artists, hinging our identity, our self-worth, our value even as human beings on the very subjective opinions of others. In reality, we’re inflicting this pain on ourselves.

If we didn’t leave our identity as artists up for debate, we’d start to see that when someone says no, it may have nothing to do with the quality of our work at all. It certainly has nothing to do with our identity at all. People have very refined tastes for what they like and don’t like, what interests them and doesn’t. I know I do. I can tell within the first 3 seconds of a song whether or not it interests me. Does that mean that the song isn’t good or that the artist isn’t a “real” artist? Hell, no. Whether I like or don’t like a book, a song, a film has everything to do with me and very little, if anything, ever, to do with the artists who created it.

The business of art has created some very odd dynamics. The idea that you submit art to an “agent” in the hopes of finding a match are very much like trying to find someone to marry you. It doesn’t work that way. You need to be the best artist you can be, learn your craft, do quality work, stay true to who you are, don’t pan to trends and say what your spirit has to say. You need to be happy, enjoy creating, love what you do. Be content but ready for what’s next.

Then fate steps in. Magic happens. You meet the right person at the right time in circumstances you could never have imagined.

You have to have faith and you have to be yourself. Wholly, truly, confidently.

That’s what attracts the right business decision-maker to your work, and more importantly, to you as an artist.

You decide you’re an artist.

Others respond – positively and negatively –  to your work.

You keep being an artist.

The key word is “be.”