Kill Hope

Hope this works.  Hope you have a great day.  Hope you are right.  Hope you know what you are doing.

When you think about it, the statement “I hope…” is almost always about something external happening that may or may not directly affect you, but is certainly in your universe.  You have no control over “I hope”.  The results of “I hope” are as random as a flip of the coin.  In the context of your art and your creative business, please, pretty please, kill hope and find your faith.

Faith knows that you have a gift you intend to honor.  You are an artist asked to see the world the way most of us simply do not and to share your vision with us.  The truer you are to your gift, the better off we will all be.  Ignore what works for someone else if it does not work for you.

When was the last time you actually said thank you to someone who you know is devouring your art, especially if it was paid for by someone else?  The guest at a party dancing their face off as you play.  The person who sits in your lobby just because of the way it makes them feel.  The viewer who cannot stop coming back to your site to see your images.  The diner who is literally licking the plate.  Thank you without an agenda.  No hope (since it is dead anyway) that they will one day be a client or tell your client how cool you are so your client will recommend you.  Just an expression of gratefulness to those who got the story you wanted to tell.  What would that do for you?

My suspicion is that it would give you confidence.  You would know why you and your creative business are here and would want to have the opportunity to do it again.  And again.  From that place, you will know what it takes to get there.  You will charge what you need to feel good about sharing your vision (and yourself).  You will dare to be outrageous in what things you need (money and otherwise) to create.  You will not compromise your integrity not so much because you are any better than the rest of us, but because the ability to be grateful, to be able to see another’s joy, will be lost without it.  Being blind to another’s joy is a price you will never be willing to pay once you have embodied it.  You would know that if you could be blind, you should probably find another profession.

No one knows if it will all work out.  All any of us can do is to live in our own effort today.  It is the way of the world that some things are just not meant to be, no matter how much you wish otherwise.  Yes, that completely sucks.  However, the effort is its own reward if you can see what it offers you, your art, your creative business and anyone and everything they touch.  When you judge the value of the endeavor by the ultimate success or failure (financial or otherwise) you give your power to hope.  Why not instead define it with gratefulness for and from those who have received your work?  What exactly were they grateful for?  What were you?  Can you get what you need just by doing what creates gratefulness on both sides?  If you can, go do that.  If you cannot, then let it be and move on until you can.