Motivation

I just got back from my month at Interlude Residency in Hudson, NY. I made art, I met incredible people, and I was fed seasonal produce. What more could a girl ask for? See more here.

Now that I'm back, my creative breakthrough hours are picking up speed. I've been talking to many of you about your creative work and roadblocks. I wanted to share a theme I've been noticing.

Usually in these 1-hour session, the question of motivation comes up. I ask artists, Why do you make art?

Here are some of the answers I get:

Because it feels good when I sell something.
Because I love getting responses from my work.
Because I like the status of being invited to participate in a show.

These are really common answers. But here's the thing...


These are results, not motivation. And it's super easy to confuse them.


So, what's the difference between results and motivation?


Results are the product of your creative effort.
Motivation is why you create to begin with.


Again, it's easy to confuse them. Because honestly, getting great results, (like a sale, a show, a promotion) feels awesome! It can be the little spark that keeps us going. But what happens if we don't get those results? What happens if we depend on immediate results as a sign that we should keep going? That our work is important? A few things can happen:

We might quit too soon.
We might get burned out by tunneling.
We might lose sight of what we actually want (i.e. "chasing the likes" vs. following our creative compass).


Here's an example of how my results and motivation works:

I coach artists and (warning: CG horn toot coming) I get them results. I love that. It's meaningful to me. Coaching also pays my bills. But these results are not my motivation for coaching. I'm motivated to coach because I find coaching interesting. It's fulfilling for me to be in conversation with other artists, learn about their problems, and articulate ideas and tools. 

Let's say I was getting awesome results at something, but my motivation wasn't there. I'd be pretty miserable and eventually, the work would suffer. Those awesome results wouldn't last.


So, make two columns:

1. What is your motivation? Why do you do the work you do?
(Remember: it has to be for you, first)

2. What are your results? What are the outcomes of your creative effort?

If you're getting exciting results, and that sparks your existing motivation - great! But your motivation has to have a foundation all it's own. Make sense?