I saw this on Amy Tangerine this morning (re-posted from this original source) and it really spoke to me.
Day to day I work in the insurance industry, and sometimes I forget that my passion for creativity and communication can overflow everywhere if I want it to. I just have to let it. I think sometimes, as creative folks, we can let our passions get a little stifled in the day to day. I thought this was a good reminder that creativity isn’t sitting down completing a project. Creativity is something you can express in your every day life — whether it is through what you wear, how you interact with others, the projects you scheme for the future. It’s an overarching lifestyle, not a singular expression.
I feel like chewing on that this week. YUM!
Also this post on Long Work vs. Hard Work from Lemon and Raspberry. An excerpt:
Long work is working in a call center. Being there *in case* the calls come through. LONG work is the data entry, the cleaning every night after the store closes, the weekly grocery shopping for your boss. The mindless tediousness.
Hard work is writing a blog, every day, for weeks on end, building the audience that can little by little by very little help build your income. HARD work is solving your clients’ problems, working on the prototype of a new product, photographing that wedding with your own unique vision. The draining but still invigorating creativity.
I started some exciting freelance work last week. Garrett and I also fleshed out an idea we have long had for a business together. Both of those things have my brain all atwitter! But all of that plus my day job, plus blogging, plus working out, plus being (somewhat) social, plus cooking and eating and sleeping and grocery shopping and BREATHING. Oh my god, the breathing! So time consuming! 🙂 It has felt like A LOT over the past few weeks. But also? It has felt AWESOME! Because despite the generalized fear of it, Hard Work Feels Good. Reading that came at the perfect time.
I love this, especially the second part. It’s why I’ve put up with living in a construction zone for the past year and a half–so that my incredibly talented, artistic, and capable contractor-husband can live out his dream: to do houses himself, design work and all, from top to bottom rather than dealing with snobby, demanding clients who don’t realize they’re treating him like crap even as he’s giving them original pieces of art in their bathrooms/kitchens/homes in general–and at a decent price. And I’ll reap the benefits here soon, in the form of a kick-a** house that’s already sold to clients who DO have a vision, and a new property already on the books as the next project–which we WILL stay in (if he ever wants babies!), and will not take nearly as long to complete. And is on the same street as 4 different friends, with a giant yard for my garden (and chickens?!).
It is hard work, but it’s good. It’s the hard that makes it good.
Love this 🙂
Thanks for the link
xo
Cheers, Holly!
To Hard Work!
I LOVE this! You could not have posted it at a better time for me. I know you totally posted it just for me, right? :p I’m crazy busy right now, but it’s all leading me to where I want to go. Hard work with excellent payoff- yes, please!