Hi friends. Today I want to chat about how overwhelming it can be to be a creative with a ton of ideas and not enough time or resources to execute all of them. It can be confusing to make sense of how all your creative passions fit together. And when you try to do, be, and offer All Of The Creative Things You’re Good At you run the risk of confusing your customers, diffusing your expertise, and worst of all becoming burnt out, spread thin, and/or paralyzed by potential.
You all know we preach narrowing in on your niche and embracing your pointy point-of-view. But today I want to chat a little bit about how to diversify and expand your creative business without detracting from your core genius or diffusing your income-drawing focus.
Kathleen here. You see, I’m the kind of creative who is always chasing the high of trying, doing, becoming, transforming, and creating something new. It would be really easy for me to get scattered if I didn’t constantly ask myself one very important question:
Why am I doing this?
This question always allows me to examine my purpose. When I ask “why” I’m able to get clear about my intentions. So with that, I’ve found that my answer to “why?” should fit into three categories:
Why am I doing this? When my answers fit into one of these three categories, I know I’m doing it for the right reasons:
1. To better serve my dream customer
For example, one time I decided to put on a workshop and while it was successful it didn’t make my soul sing. If I had asked myself “why” beforehand I would’ve discovered that I wasn’t doing it to better serve my dream customer, but instead I was doing it because that’s what all the other cool kids were doing.
2. To deepen my expertise with a new skill or tool
When I decided to get life coach training with Martha Beck I knew it would contribute to my purpose in helping creatives live what they love. But let’s say you’re a web developer interested in learning photography – don’t quit coding to become a photographer. Instead try to find a way to use photography to supplement your existing offerings.
3. Because I really want to
Sometimes just really wanting to do something, without regard for business vision or even life purpose is enough. Do what you want and if it finds a way into income-generation, great. If it doesn’t put food on your table but feeds your soul, that’s cool too.
So before you decide to say yes to one of your many creative ideas, or even yes to someone else’s request of your creative time and energy, ask yourself “why am I doing this?”
It’s hard to pause and remember this when it’s all go-go-go. Usually we only consider this question after we are neck-deep in, and those creative ideas, energy and time seems to be quickly drying up. So think of it as creative self-preservation. I challenge you (and me) to ask “why” of ourselves earlier and more often.
How often do you really stop, as a creative-doing-it-all, and ask “why” of yourself, before you say “yes” to someone else? Tell us on Facebook.