Time, Money, & Direction…oh my!
Hey Dorothy Gale, let’s talk about some woodland creatures that you might bump up against on this not-so-yellow brick road called life: time, money, and direction.
Time, money, and direction can be either your biggest stumbling blocks or your greatest assets when pursuing a career in the arts. I’m going to break down how you can use each of these to your advantage to help get your career on its way to Oz. You ready? Let’s skip.
Time
If I was paid a penny every time I’ve said the words, “I just don’t have enough time!” I could probably afford to buy a time machine. Time just keeps going and we don’t have the capacity to make it stop or even slow down, which causes a natural desire for more.
Once time has been spent, it is impossible to get that time back — even for a second. This is why many artists feel like the longer they’re waiting for their career to take off because they have to work job #3 today in order to make rent, the shorter their window of opportunity becomes.
But what if we started thinking about time, not as something that is forever decreasing, but instead we learned how to use our time well.
I’ll give you an example.
Let’s say that you wake up, it’s Monday, you’ve slept in and barely make it to your audition on time only to remember that you didn’t eat beforehand or pack your dance shoes.
Then let’s say that instead, you wake up 3 hours before your audition, you’ve already packed your bag for the call, you have a quick bite to eat, journal, stretch, take a hot shower, and then don’t even break a sweat on your way to the call.
Do you see the difference between the two scenarios? In the first one, you’ve set yourself up for failure whereas, in the second one, you’ve set yourself up for success. Time didn’t stretch on your account, you simply used the time that you had wisely.
So, if you are struggling to find the time to pursue your passion while also working 5 jobs, I need you to recognize that those 5 jobs are not serving you because they are an inefficient use of your time. Instead, can you find a way to make money that takes up less space on your calendar so that you can have that hot shower, eat breakfast, and pursue your art?
Learning how to use time to our advantage is tricky, but it can become one of our greatest tools.
Money
Similar to time is money. While money is something that we earn and generate on our own, we often think of it like time (ie, there is never enough of it). Especially when working part-time jobs, it can even feel like it’s impossible to make money at all.
I’m not a fan of the phrase “scarcity” versus “abundance” mindset because, while I agree that your mindset is a huge part of this, just wishing that you had more money isn’t going to cut it. You’re going to have to get your hands dirty.
Just like in the time example, I want you to consider how you can better use the money that you currently have. How can you make that money work for you? Money should be something that you always stretch to see how far one dollar can go. For example, did you know that if you saved $1 when you were 20 and just kept it in your savings account, you could have $88 by the time you were 65? Imagine if you had saved $100, $1,000, or more.
What corners can you cut within your current budget that you can save? Even if it’s $10 a month, that’s $120 a year and that’s a great place to start.
Outside of learning how to save and budget well, more money must be made. Instead of working crummy part-time jobs, how can you use your talents to generate a higher income with more flexibility?
This is not a get-rich-quick scheme and it might take a year or more to figure it out, but if you set an attainable financial goal (ie, “I’d like to make $2,000 a month”) and work towards that goal by charging for something that you are passionate about and gifted in (teaching private lessons, selling your paintings, making soap and selling it on Etsy, etc…) you can break the chains from the part-time jobs that are taking you away from pursuing your passion and you can make more money doing it.
Remember, every artist is an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur needs capital.
Direction
Lastly, many artists are multi-passionate. People who are not artists might even call us “flighty” or “inconsistent.” I don’t think that’s the case at all, I think that artists are simply born to create and we find inspiration from a variety of places and things and I think that’s wonderful.
However, we can’t let our dreams get ahead of themselves.
I’ve seen many artists make this mistake: they take every opportunity that comes their way and before they know it, they’ve done everything under the sun but they have not built a career for themselves.
As the CEO of your own artistic career, you’re going to need to establish clear boundaries around your career in order to call it “yours” at all. With every job that you take — artistic or otherwise — I want you to ask yourself “at what cost?”
Each and every step that you take in your career should be intentional and should be heading in the same direction. So, list out your career path for the next 20 years and then work backward from there. As an artistic entrepreneur, you’re going to need to have a business plan.
Time, money, and direction can either be your greatest setbacks or your favorite assets. Just like the Cowardly Lion had courage in his heart the whole time, you also have all of the necessary tools to take ownership of your artistic career. So my friend, get to clicking those heels and you’ll be on your way in no time.
