Conscious Career – Day 15
However, for many of us, we hold out hope that there is a way to marry our unique talents with our career. After all, there are many who have done so successfully. Pablo Picasso was able to earn a great living from his art. Robert DeNiro can certainly pick and choose the films he wants to make.
If you are a creative type who wants to use your talent in your job, check out the book by Carol Lloyd, Creating A Life Worth Living: A practical course in career design for artists, innovators, and others aspiring to a creative life. In it, Lloyd makes the observation that “Some individuals seduced by the illusion of security and comfort, become slaves to their day jobs and lose track of their original creative intention. Others live with intolerable, low-wage day jobs – sacrificing so much for their art that they cease to have lives.” She says that if you are stuck in a day job that’s preventing your creative growth, try cashing in on “your compulsions, your obsessions and your plan bad habits.” She gives the example of a performance artist who loved to do research on bizarre topics for his art. When he should have been at work or looking for a job, he would spend hours in the library. He finally figured out that his talent and passion for researching translated to something he could use for an “art-friendly day job” – designing and teaching seminars on grant writing for artists, grant writing for nonprofits and how to get scholarships for college.
