NickVmusic.net 2-26-17

Pursuing your interests toward results

February 26, 2017

Recently, I wrote a post about being a creative professional and the pressure to focus on one thing or art form when the urge is to pursue multiple paths of creativity.Then I saw a video of a Rawn Shah TEDx talk where he speaks about the future of work forcing individuals to work at several different, and potentially unrelated, job tasks throughout each day (enter the Gig Economy).I just read this post from Todd Brison, author of The Creative’s Curse, in which Brison makes the point that it’s more than okay to have multiple interests and pursue them, but to work hard at your interests is only half the battle, you have to also own the results.And that brings up the question:  Do you know what results you’re after?It’s no easy feat, but being able to align the end goal – what you want to accomplish – with the work you love to do to get there will provide you far more fulfillment than anything else you'll pursue. This will be true even if the journey forces you to work on several unrelated things, if all of which you love.When the results you’re after align with your passion for the method of getting there, you’re a success.So how do you figure out the results you're after?For some this may be easy, but for others it may prove elusive.If you're not sure what result you're after you may want to ask yourself, "what does my ideal of success look like as I pursue my interest in ____?" (fill in the blank)Asked another way, "My pursuit of ____ will be successful if eventually it results in ___."Or, "I will feel accomplished if I achieve ___ from my interest in ___."Then, once you've establish the result you would like to achieve. Focus only on your passionate interest and iterating on it. Allow yourself time to simply be immersed in your interest without pressure of results.At some point in the near future, if you keep working at your craft, your subconscious will help to connect the dots toward how to achieve the goal you originally envisioned.If you keep honing your craft, eventually inspiration will hit periodically. When it does, capture it and a path toward your desired result will begin to emerge.Identify those milestones and keep iterating toward achieving those milestones. Once you achieve one milestone work toward the next one, and so on.Over time your small victories will add up to big strides of successful results.Keep working toward it, it's worth it, you're worth it!Have a great week!