{photo by Lumaahh. Painting the sky? Priceless.}
There's a definite romanticism attached to people who are able to make a living off their creative talents. I hear all the time how jealous people are of my being able to stay home all day and make my schedule as I please and just write and design and follow wherever my little creative muse takes me. Oh how glorious! Oh how wonderful it must be! Right?
Well, wrong. Although there are many incredible things about being able make money by pursuing your passions, it's definitely not as idealistic as it seems. When you start to make a living off your creative endeavors, when you start to literally sell your talents in art or writing or design, inevitably, there will be some days when doing the thing that you love to do so much just feels like another J.O.B.
The jewelry making that used to be your escape is a lot different when you get a big wholesale order and have to crank out 150 pieces. That painting that you made available as a print may be selling like hotcakes, but having to print it over and over again is a far cry from the feeling that inspired you to create the piece in the first place.
Selling your work is an awesome business to be in and an amazing way to be able to make some money, either on the side or as a full time gig. But when you mix your creative passion with marketing and promotion, money, deadlines and the constant feeling of needing to produce, it truly becomes a business.
So, how do you reconcile a creative hobby that has now become a source of income for you?
You need to make sure you have a creative outlet that stays purely that: a creative outlet. You need to find a way for you to release, to have fun, to feel free, to escape time without any pressure whatsoever of having to figure out how to make money off of it.
When money is involved, stress of somesort will always come into play. And even though you're super awesome and multi-talented and surely could sell your art and handbags and jewelry and anything else you're good at, why do so? Why try to monetize all of your talents? When a favorite hobby becomes a job, I think it's important to make sure you keep some hobbies around just for creative sake!
Take some time out to remember why you started creating and making in the first place. Re-connect with the joy it brings you, with what inspires your creativity. Take pictures just to take pictures. Paint just to paint. Make a necklace for a friend to brighten her day. Make something for yourself that no one else will ever even see.
Find the balance between making and selling what you make so that you're sure not to sell all of your creative inspiration away.
I'd love to hear from you all, who currently sell your creative work- which hobby/talent of yours do you make money from? And which ones do you do purely as hobbies? Do you think it's important to have both? Do you ever use a creative hobby as an escape from the business side of your creative business?
