Be Who You Are…
“Be who you are, and you will become who you want to be.”
These were my own words of encouragement to myself recently while I was journaling. I’ve thought about this quite a bit since I chose the path of becoming an “Indie Author” with my debut novel Memorial Day. The reason I’ve been thinking about it is because it sounds simple, right? Just, be who you are! Well, if you are a creative person, you know that it’s not always that simple.
One of the biggest challenges creative people struggle with is accepting that their creativity has a purpose. When I say purpose, I am not thinking about a tagline or a mission statement that announces your (current) purpose to the world. The purpose of creativity is an end in itself- and that is to bring something new into existence. Creativity can be used for many different things, to tell a story, to write a song, to paint a picture, to solve a problem, even start a business. But all of those really are outcomes of being creative, and not necessarily the purpose. The purpose of being creative is to create.
There are a lot of creative people who look to their jobs as an outlet for their creativity, some even work in creative-adjacent fields. If your job is to create purely for yourself “on your own terms,” then surely you have done something amazing! But if you are a creative person and your job is to create for someone else, well… welcome to the club. The purpose of that job is to support your life. It is not the source of, and certainly not the outlet for, your creativity. You should not vest your creativity in the idea that doing it for anyone else will produce the art that is inside you.
You might ask, “Why would you say that?”
I have done a fair amount of leadership training throughout my work life, and I have been a steady consumer of both self-help and leadership training literature over the years. One piece of career advice I had read for years was to make sure you spend quite a bit of time building relationships so that people (read: potential bosses) get to know you on a personal level. Make sure you share things about yourself that help them to know you and want to root for you.
I had resisted this for years, until one time I finally decided to put that advice into practice. At the end of one of my first meetings with a new boss, I shared with them that I had just finished a draft of my first novel, and that I was in the process of trying to get an agent of it.
Their response? “I wouldn’t tell too many people about it, or they might not think you are serious about your job.”
Right then, I knew that they did not think I was serious about my job, even though it was something I had done on my own time, starting every morning at 4:50am. I’ve wondered ever since, what would that supervisor have said if I had told them that I was training for a marathon, or a charity ride, and that I got up at 4:50am every morning to workout? They probably would have thought that I was a very disciplined, hard-working, and compassionate person. But creativity? Probably not serious about his job.
That was when I realized that I was not going to find my true creative outlet at work – ever – and that is ok! It’s equally possible to be a stellar employee who is creative as it is to be a stellar employee who is a masters swimming champ. As long as my work makes it possible for me to have a creative life, then you better believe that when I’m writing at 4:50am, I am writing for my creative life.
It’s definitely not easy to just “be who you are” when there are so many other things that you have to be during the day. A parent, sibling, spouse, friend, cousin, aunt uncle, [insert job title here]. That is why it is so critical for creative people to accept who they are, to accept that their purpose is to bring something new into the world, and to brave that chasm between everything else you have to be and who you are – a creator. That brings me to the second half of my own words of encouragement to myself.
“... and you will become who you want to be.”
If you have a novel, short story, a song, a poem, a painting, a quilt, a photograph in you, that is a part of your life that you need to share with the world. If you allow yourself to be the creative person that is inside, you will become who you want to be – a creator. If you choose not to be yourself, the thing that you need to bring into existence never will come into being. It is that simple.
Last week, I tweeted a link to Wilco performing one of my favorite songs ever on David Letterman. It’s called “What Light,” check it out here. So that I don’t infringe the copyright of one of my favorite bands of all-time, I won’t type out the lyrics here, but I will link to the music page for “What Light” on their own website. The inspiring point of the lyric is that creative people have a light inside them, and in order for it to be seen, you have to let it out. When you let it out, the world is a brighter place.
“Be who you are, and you will become who you want to be.”
If you know that you are a creative person, you do not need an agent, a publisher, a manager, a friend, or a loved one to give you permission – but you do need to give yourself permission to become who you want to be. It does not matter whether you get that great review, or a thousand likes, or more than a smattering of cheers at open mic night.
I had a mentor who once said to me, “great book, don’t quit your day job.” She was right because, let’s face it, I’m an “independent author,” not a NYTimes best-seller. But she also said to me, “you are a serious writer, who writes about serious things. You need to keep at it because your life’s work should be your writing.” It was not until I finally let Memorial Day be “everyone’s from now on” (Wilco) that I started to believe her, and myself.
So… that’s my inspiration for today. “Be who you are, and you will become who you want to be.”
I would love to hear about your journey toward becoming who you want to be. Re-post or re-share this blog entry, and hit subscribe at the bottom of the page on brendanwalshbooks.com.