Finding Direction in Your Artistic or Creative Career (Part 2)
In part 1, we began to talk about how to find more satisfaction in your career. We talked about how you can figure out where to channel your energy to get the best career for YOU. We discussed the importance of normalizing feelings of doubt, assessing the causes of our feelings, and finally, addressing what our needs really are. Let’s finish off the rest of the list!
4) Identify your top values
The process you did with needs, then should be applied to your values. If you had to put your values in order, what would be at the top? Examples of some values are family, money, career, health, friendships, spirituality, and mental health. We already know creative fulfillment is part of our list. This part is about priorities. Priorities/values and needs are not the same. For instance, everyone needs money. Not everyone values it. Some would sacrifice money quite a bit to serve other values, while for some it is the reverse. If we act in contrast to our values, we begin to experience dissatisfaction.
5) Examine the patterns and identify meaning
You may notice some of these values align with your needs, and some seem to contradict. In addition, values and needs give context and meaning. For instance, I going back to the example of not valuing money, perhaps I value family instead. Pulling from the prior question, perhaps I also need to provide for my family. At first, it seems clear that I can pursue careers and life choices without considering money flow, because it is not important to me. With further assessment, we see that one of the best ways I can prioritize family, is by being conscious of money flow. What does that mean? It could mean many things! It could mean I will have to be very responsible with money in order to provide for family, it might mean I may need to be conscious of money when planning my career, or it may mean I take a day job that leaves time for my creative outlets without making money an issue.
6) Identify new career goals
Looking at the options above from our example, we see there are various different career routes we could take. I could take a steady writing job that perhaps does not fulfill all creative needs, I could meet with a financial advisor, or I could get a day job in real estate so I have room for passion projects. None of these options may sound exciting, but the reality is, we make these decisions all the time without thinking much about it. We tell ourselves we will just “somehow make it work” financially, but we do not do anything to be responsible about it. We take the job in an embarrassing project because “it pays well” or we get a tolerable day job to pay the bills, but we do not think of it as a conscious work choice. If it is not conscious, it is not really a career decision. It is us just holding on for dear life. If I make a conscious decision to get a day job, I can do research to find the best fit. I can start looking for community theater opportunities to feel fulfilled. Suddenly, it is not just a mishap that happened in my career, but a route I chose. As one can imagine, this is not a one time exploration, it is a question that gets visited at least every 6 months!
