Trying To Find Your Feet

I am fascinated by the parallel of my and my family’s move from New York City to Northern California and the feelings so many creative business owners deal with every day.  A story my friend and amazing interior designer Danielle Colding told me recently comes to mind.

Danielle and a friend were vacationing in the Caribbean and decided to take a day trip to a neighboring island by small boat.  On the way, in the middle of the sea, there was a puppy swimming.  All alone and just swimming.  Not panicking, swimming.  Land was not visible where the dog was found.  And yet there he was in the boat’s path.  The owner of the boat picked up the dog and decided to keep him.  A sign of great fortune he said.  The dog was happy to be out of the water, sure, but he did not go crazy according to Danielle.  Quiet gratitude was closer.

Were that I could be the dog.  Were that we all could be the dog.  Swim just to swim because there is nothing else you can do.  Faith that what will be will be.  Not that it will all work out in the end.  Better chance the dog found its way as an appetizer for a shark as it did the boat.  No, lose the notion that the future can be controlled and just do the work.

Creative business owners convince themselves that they can manifest the future.  New website, social media efforts.  Thinking about how they can stand apart; how they can appeal to the widest possible audience.  It is all about being desperate to see the shore and to say “Aha, there it is, we have to go that way.”  Who cares if there is fifty miles away and you will never make it.  Mostly, the panic and unwillingness to just swim means you, your art and your creative business become in service instead of service.  The conversation bases around “What can I do for you?” instead of “Here is what I do.”  Question instead of a statement.  Chameleon instead of champion.  Of course, you need input from your clients, but they came to you to be guided, not the other way around.

I suppose the question is – is swimming enough?  When there is nothing else to do but swim, the answer is easy.  Swim or die.  Except the reality (illusion?) is that there are always places to go, plans to be made, strategies to implement.  We convince ourselves that swimming with the goal in mind will get us out of the water faster.  It will not and, thankfully, cannot.

Swimming purposefully, with integrity, doing what only you, you art and your creative business can do is truly the only option.  Empowerment is in the intention.  The determination not to so much find joy as to live it.  Yes, you have to delight your clients.  You do it with commitment, quiet gratitude, confidence that you have some incredible to offer.  Just by swimming.