Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Ken Robert from Mildly Creative.
Have you ever followed a foolproof formula into a big, brick wall? Have you ever rode a sizzling hot trend right into a drainage ditch?
The next time your best laid plans meet a dead end, ask yourself this: were you chasing one in the first place?
Usually, when people talk about dead ends, they’re referring to external obstacles that would be impossible for anyone to overcome. In this instance, however, I’m talking about the obstacles within.
Interests That Leave You Disinterested
After all, it can be tempting to pursue interests that really aren’t all that interesting to you. You might try to follow the hottest trends, even though they leave you cold. Or you might opt for the tried and true and pre-approved, even though you have no passion for doing so.
This is a problem, for no matter how trendy or popular or proven a path may be, it will eventually become a dead end to you if your heart’s not in it. Your energy will wane, your level of commitment will level off, and your drive will dry up.
The Wisest Investment Could Be the Riskiest
More often than you might think, your safest bet can be to take some risks. Acting sane can drain you, while devoting your time and energy to a crazy project that engages your heart and mind can sustain you to the end.
A Novel Dilemma
For a long time, I thought I needed to write novels in order to be a real writer, but, to tell you the truth, I was never that excited by the idea. It’s one thing to spend a weekend reading a novel; it’s another to spend a year or more of your life writing one.
I wanted to tell stories, but my attempts at writing novels never went very far. My heart wasn’t in it and every run I took at it turned into a dead end. “Huh,” I said to myself, “I guess I’m not a writer.”
And yet I wrote anyway, because writing is something I can’t not do.
At first I wrote only in a journal, then I started blogging, and, after a while, I rediscovered the joy I’d experienced as a boy writing poems.
And it may seem unrelated, but I also started drawing. More on that in a moment.
Despite all of this, I still had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t a real writer. No novels? No writer’s badge for me.
I’m With Sam
But one day I saw an interview with the acclaimed playwright Sam Shepard. He was asked why he doesn’t write novels. His answer can be summed up like this: novels aren’t his thing.
I immediately felt the weight of decades being lifted off my shoulders. If novels weren’t the thing of a great writer like Shepard, I realized they didn’t have to be mine either.
I also realized there are many ways to be a writer and even more ways to tell a story. Writing a novel is just one of them.
Poems can tell stories. Blog posts, like this one, can tell stories. Pictures, songs, dances, and even businesses can tell a story.
And that’s where the drawing comes in. One of my crazy dreams, one that engages my heart and mind, is to find a way to merge drawing and writing in order to create odd little books of pictures, poems, and pieces that inspire people to free up their creativity.
And guess what? It’s really not all that crazy after all. Danny Gregory does it. Hugh McLeod does it. So does Lynda Barry. And each one does it in their own unique way. And even if they didn’t, it would still be a great dream because it has the full attention of my heart and mind.
Now, What’s Your Crazy Dream?
What’s your crazy dream? Are you pursuing it? Or are you going after something safer, surer, more reliable? Are you finding it hard to continue?
What would happen if you didn’t have to manufacture your energy each and every day in order to keep a project moving forward? What if the energy was inherent in the projects you pick?
Sure things that have no soul are never as sure as they seem. Invoke your passion and endure some uncertainty. It’s bound to be take you somewhere.
Great post Ken. I agree that we shouldn’t do something just to follow the trend. For example, I have a friend who thinks I should write a book. He keeps asking me about when my book will be published and it gives me unnecessary pressure to do something that I might not want to do even though I’m labeled as an English major. I like to write about people and personal development. It’s just a passion that I have and I go through each day taking it one step at a time. Whatever happens, happens.
One step at a time is the only way to go, Hulbert. Otherwise, you end up tripping over yourself.
In the words of REO Speedwagon, keep pushin’ on.
What I enjoyed most about this post is its emphasis on the uniqueness of “crazy dreams.” Our minds are infested with these notions of a “real” writer, “real” musician, or “real” creative person does. In all likelihood, though, that “real” stuff isn’t you.
Thank you for delineating the distinction between taking a good and heartfelt risk, and a bad, empty risk.
Crazy dreams are the best kind to have, in my humble opinion. Go crazy, Travis, go crazy.
Ken,
Thanks to Charlie for inviting you to guest post, once again, and we are better off for it.
Yeah: truth be told, I had succumbed to peer pressure when I was a wee bit of a boy.
People told me, “you will never be cultured unless you learn how to play a musical instrument.” And so I joined a class.
My heart was not in the violin lessons.
I was the only kid out of sync and boy were people annoyed. Their faces turned red.
You could hear my rusty violin croaking like a frog from a mile away.
And yet I played with passion because it cracked me up to find how badly I sucked at it. Man, I played the clown to the hilt.
Such is the price you pay for conformity. And I still can’t play the violin, but I love to listen to others play the violin.
That is, professionals, competent people.
Hi, Archan.
I think one of the things that can suck the joy out of something is the belief that we HAVE to master it.
I took up playing guitar this past year. I have no intentions to become a professional. I just love playing around and discovering new things I can do with it.
I sometimes wonder how we got so serious about everything.
I think it’s so amazing that sometimes something so simple (like hearing Sam Shepard explain that novels aren’t his thing) can help us really *get* it. Deep down. And bless us with the freedom and permission to go do our thing.
I can really relate. Happy drawing + writing!
You’re right, Briana.
You can tell yourself something over and over, and even know it on some level, but it often takes a triggering event to make it truly sink in.
That interview was mine.
In my opinion, one of the greatest writers in the world was the political cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He didn’t actually write a ton of words, yet his commentary was spot on, enough so that he won a Pulitzer for it.
As for the rest, I still have no idea what I’m shooting or dreaming for in my life. And truthfully, I feel like I don’t have a lot more time to think about it before I start really doing something about it. But I do keep trying things here and there, realizing that’s not quite my passion each time. That’s disappointing, but at least I keep trying.
Hi, Mitch.
I think it’s helpful in the beginning to not push it, to not try and MAKE it be anything in particular.
I like the path of curiosity. My whole thing started with a question: What would happen if I just showed up and posted at least one sentence to a blog everyday?
That’s all I had to do at first. From there, I just allowed myself to follow it wherever it took me. I’m still following that trail and it’s been an interesting journey thus far.
That’s why I ask people to please be curious, not serious.
Maybe your passion will not be a certain thing you do, but a question that takes hold of you. Who knows?
Thank you for dispelling the notion that the novel is a rite of passage for writers.
Growing up, I was convinced (for awhile) that I was destined to write a novel. That it was what I was meant to do. Trouble is, I couldn’t keep one going after three or four pages.
People kept telling me good things about my writing but the novel just never got written. I wrote poetry instead. A writing friend of mine kept telling me I need to get into newspapers, but it’s a fast-paced business–not for me.
The pressure to do something big was intense near the age of 30–“make it or break it” pressure. Instead of writing the novel, though…I filled a journal. Then another. (I have so many pages they could become a novel…) And yet I haven’t felt any right to call myself a “writer”.
Thanks again for sharing your story. It is very hard to live with the weight of failed expectations. You found the courage to let them go.
Hi, Carrie.
One night an old friend of mine who’d been following the blog paid me a few compliments regarding it and then asked, “So when do you plan to work on something substantial?”
I really had to think about that question. In the end, I decided that what I was currently doing was substantial to me, even if it wasn’t to him.
Our friends may mean well, but they don’t live inside our skin. I think you and I have to determine what’s substantial to us and create our own rites of passage.
Yes, there is a tremendous energy in my work. I sometimes have to keep it from washing me away! Sharing science with kids is messy, noisy, unexpected, and (every now and then) a flop. “My mom would NEVER let me do this at home” is a high compliment.
I don’t think this was a crazy dream . . . it evolved from a job I loved and lost and recreated in a new way.
By the way, march forth today. JSC
I love that line:
“My mom would NEVER let me do this at home” is a high compliment.
Maybe we should all be trying things our moms would never let us do. They love us so they want to protect us, but risk is the doorway to leading our own lives, something we all have to do to grow up.
Ken,
Thanks so much for this post. I guess I was feeling I need “permission” (hmmm…maybe I should cogitate on why I have that need) to NOT write a book.
I’m a wedding officiant and have owned a wedding officiating business for nearly 10 years. Absolutely EVERYONE says I must write a humorous novel based on my experiences. And while I do posses some writing talent and there is certainly no shortage of material–it’s just not a project that jazzes me. I’d rather lend my writing talents to other endeavors and mediums.
Thanks for giving me the push I need to cross that novel off my to do list once and for all!
Now that that’s off your list, Maureen, maybe you can put some really cool stuff in its place.
Excellent Idea!!!
I think a lot of people undersestimate themselves, or overestimate people who become very successful.
There’s no “magic formula”, although a lot of people try to make money selling it.
Actually I take that back- there is a magic formula, but it goes like this:
Passion + Persistence + THINKING (often left out) = Success!
I would add adapting. I have this little thing I say.
Creative people make things. They make commitments. They make attempts. They make mistakes. They make adjustments. They make meaning.
This was awesome. This especially..”Sure things that have no soul are never as sure as they seem. Invoke your passion and endure some uncertainty. It’s bound to be take you somewhere.”
I immediately stopped to write it down in my little book of wisdom and inspiration.
I am way honored to be in that book, Jeanette. Thanks.
I have found the reason we tend not to follow dreams or to pursue interests that don’t really interest us is because we ask ourselves the wrong questions, the most common tending to be “What do you want?” and “What are you good at?” I find there are only four questions you need to ask to pursue the right path.
Two of the questions are “What’s important to you?” and “What are your limitations?” So when you were trying to write novels, for example, you might have noted by answering these questions that it was important to you to write but that a limitation was you couldn’t write novels–“not your thing,” just like Sam. The combined answers would have gotten you pointed to looking at other writing avenues–copywriting, short stories, poetry, white papers, etc.
In my own case, I wanted to entertain people and loved playing trumpet, but wasn’t good enough to be a professional trumpet player. Doh! So entertaining was important but playing trumpet was a limitation. The answers steered me into a successful career in standup comedy.
However you get there, finding your passion and skill set is so much better than living the “daily grind!”
Another thing I would add to that, Ian, is to look at what your strengths are when it comes to a particular activity.
For a short while, I stopped drawing pictures for my blog because I was frustrated with my level of skill and progress.
Then I realized that no one gave a damn if I could draw well or not. They liked the pictures because they were imaginative or funny or they communicated an idea well. I realized those were my strengths. I stopped worrying so much and started drawing again.
And guess what? My skills began to improve too.
Bob Dylan is kind of a lousy singer, but a terrific song writer, and that’s why so many people love him. Thank goodness he didn’t let the weakness keep him from using his strength.
I keep making the same mistake of going back to something safer. And I hate myself for doing so. There I am, following my dreams, doing things that I love. Then bam! I let that part of me (that’s filled with obligations determined by society) dictate my actions. I apply for job with killer hours. And I sit, miserable and wishing I fought harder for my passions and dreams.
I have a lot of dreams which I think are reachable. I have made a decision, though. I will get out and follow my passions.
Hi, Denise.
I think one way we get stuck is by putting our passion on hold until it’s profitable. If you have a passion, an interest, or a gift you want to put to use, I’d suggest you start doing so immediately and worry about whether or not to turn it into a business further down the road.
Everyday, I work on my passions Ken! It gets so frustrating at times because there’s so much to do but some corporation owns my time so I can’t work on my passions as much as I want to……