Are you an original thinker? Do you have a mindset that focuses on what’s needed or on what everyone else is doing? Those are the questions Sage aims to help you, not just answer, but give you an understanding of what original thinking really means, why you need it, and how to create an original thinking mindset from a few simple questions.
Don’t miss this essential discussion for all creatives who want to stand out and live their very best version of success.
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CREDITS:
Cover design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko
Cover photo by Sage Bray Varon
Music by Playsound
Transcript
(AI transcribed, unedited. Please excuse the copious errors.)
You don’t have to do it differently for the sake of doing it differently, but if you’re using original thinking, it’s necessarily going to be different. Your approach customized to you will necessarily be unique. Hello all my original creatives out there. Thank you for joining me on the Sage Arts podcast. This is sage. Here today, with a fuller than the normal podcast room, and I have been trying to record this for a while, but we have a lot of distractions going on right now as some of you know, last July we. Lost our sweet. Little American Eskimo, and we’ve been kind of missing that too. Dog household energy, you know. And although we weren’t really super serious about doing this. And we didn’t make this. We have a puppy in the house. We went to the shelters. We’re looking at various dogs, which we’re thinking older adult energy because Amber doesn’t really care for puppy energy. But there is this 4 month old. They think she’s Australian shepherd. And she was like, really meek and quiet. And she had her two sisters with her. But we went in to meet them because, you know, their puppies are so cute. And she just walked up to Brett and put her paw on his leg and just stared at him for, like, a full minute and then turned around and like. Called into my lap and were like, well Dang it. We weren’t. We weren’t really quite ready. We were just kind of feeling it out. But you know, when the dog chooses you, what do you do? You gotta just bring them home. So because Brett doesn’t work at home much anymore. I have her in the podcast room and I’ve been trying to get this stuff done. She she’s she’s a puppy and she’s not timid anymore. She has totally come out of her shell. I I don’t know if she had a dominant sister and then she just had to have her own space. So she does. And I think she. She has her own little original thinking over here, but she’s been chewing and whining and all this kind of stuff. You know, she’s a puppy. So if you hear weird little puppy noises in the background, actually kind of hope that we catch a few, I think that would be cute. And then Ember’s at my feet because Amber’s like, I don’t know why this other creature is getting all your attention. I mean, she’s not getting all of our attention, Amber. It’s tons and tons of attention, but I think she’s a little worried about maybe if she’s not around, then we’ll give her attention to this little creature. In any case, the four month old is named River and she’s mostly white with brown markings on her face and brown markings on her ****, so she’s kind of bookended. It’s so cute. Anyways, I’ll I’ll post pictures because you know, Puppy Mom, I gotta do that. I’ll post pictures on Instagram and I’ll put some in the newsletter. Just so you those of you are interested, you can take a look. In any case, today’s. Subject matter. I wanted to talk about original thinking. I believe when I started writing this up, I put down title like should have could have, would or something like that cause a lot of original thinking or not original thinking is when we do what we think we should what we think. Everybody else would do and it kind of keeps us from finding our own original. Math. So I’m going to talk about that today. But before we get into that, I did ask in the newsletter last time if people had any preference about when I released the podcast. Cause I’ve been having a really hard time with everything that’s going on. And of course, we added a puppy. So that really kind of threw things too. But doesn’t matter when I put the podcast out. Anyone who did write me back or a couple of the friends that I. I asked about as well that. Into it said no, it didn’t matter what day it was, they would get to when they get to it. And apparently most people don’t listen to podcasts on any kind of schedule. So I I know I don’t, but I I don’t work on much of A schedule. Sometimes I am trying to figure out what kind of schedule to. And this actually plays into what we’re gonna talk about today. I need to figure out what it is that I need and what I want out of what I’m doing and what you need out of what I’m doing and what the project itself needs. And we’re gonna talk about all of that in terms of your art and your creativity and. Rate of life. But yeah, I gotta figure. It out for myself as well. You’re not alone in this, that’s for sure. So yeah, thank you, everyone who gave me some input on when I should put in the podcast. It sounds like it doesn’t matter too much, but a special shout out to Shelly Atwood who sent me just the nicest note. And it’s funny because she ended it with, I don’t know if this feedback is particularly helpful. The feedback is totally helpful. She said that she savers the podcast so she kind of saves it for last like dessert. That was adorable and really just made me feel good that you found it that important that you want to make sure you saved it to a point when you weren’t running a poster machine motor or something. That would be too noisy so you could catch the little Nuggets that you got out of it. So I’m glad you’re getting Nuggets out of it. That’s that’s wonderful. And a couple of people made the comment that they just want to hear more of. Yet so I’m have to tell Brett he has to be on more often. I love having him here. It’s just kind of hard to pin him down when we’re both in a place mentally to do. But, but we’ll work on it. So thank you to everyone who gave me your input and if you were not one of the newsletter readers and you want to tell me what you think about when. The podcast should. Be released and how often and things of that sort, or if you want bread on it or not, put your voice in on that. You can reach me by e-mail through the sagearts.com. Go to the contact page and use that form. There you can also write to me on. Instagram or Facebook and who want to support this podcast and give back? There is a donation button for PayPal and buy me a coffee a little ways down the homepage of the sagearts.com. If you want to know when the episodes are out because I’m not sure when they’re going to get. Right now, get the newsletter, hit the news and notices button on the homepage of sagearts.com. All of these links are in the show notes or description section of the podcast player or whatever it is that you’re listening to this through. OK, that’s enough for the business stuff. Let’s talk original thinking. Let’s talk about what that means. How you can use it and how you can grow and tend to it. So now I usually give you some questions at this point is something to hold in your head as you think this through. I’m actually going to give you the questions in a moment and they’re kind of integral and they’re kind of what this whole thing is about. Let’s first talk about what original thinking is. Yes, it’s somewhat about your unique voice, but it that’s not what it is. It factors in to the development of that, but it’s more about the ways you look at the world and the things that you do. It’s about looking at your actions and your choices in terms of what you need specifically for yourself and not what. Is expected or commonly done, or any predetermined rules. Even it’s about seeing the world from a perspective of. And here’s your questions. What do I need or what does this circumstance need or what does? This piece need. Need and when I. Say need I’m talking about your vision for yourself, your market, your work, the way you live your creative life. It’s all about, like, end goals. But it’s not always goals such as I want to accomplish XY or Z, but we’re talking about the more subtle things as well, or things we often think of as a given, like in a. Given objective like being fulfilled and being happy and what you’re doing and feeling like your work is doing the kind of sharing you want to be doing or communicating the kind of message you want out. There, those kinds of goals or objectives or whatever you want to call them. It’s not something we always think of consciously. It’s things like making good money at it or being acknowledged. We think those things will come along when we accomplish certain goals. There are things that we think will just be there, like if we get enough followers on social media, we’ll have recognition, right. Or if we sell out at a show. Maybe will be making a livable income, neither of which are actually a gig. And but this is part of adopting A conscious practice of original thinking. You dig down, you figure out your needs, and you can start by listening to the last episode about the find your new version of Success Cause that will really help you identify what your needs are, and then you use that as a basis of this practice of original thinking. So. Original thinking is really making decisions from a point of like pinpoint. Focus on yourself and your work and your audience. If you have a market to consider but not to the structure and expectation and understanding that everyone else has, but to yourself and the kind of work that you’re doing and what you need out of it. With original thinking, you don’t look around and say let me see what everyone else is doing or do things because this is how I was told it should be done or this is supposed to be. The best way. To do it, you look at what decisions you have to make and what outcome you want and say what is needed here to fulfill the end purpose. In other words, you start at the beginning. With the why? Of what you’re doing, what you’re making. You know the purpose behind the action. And that’s why I use the word original thinking rather than creative thinking or out-of-the-box thinking or unique or anything like that, because original, it doesn’t mean unique. Unique means one-of-a-kind that it doesn’t exist anywhere else. And yes, something unique. Well at its essence, the original, but something original doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unique. The word original is rooted in the word originate, right. Original means to be of or related to the origin or beginning of something, not to be imitative. But to be independent in thought. For action. So when I speak of original thinking, I am simply talking about starting from the beginning, kind of like starting with a blank page when you are determining what to do, what decisions to make, and what advice to listen to. Not a page filled with a lot of other people’s ideas and the ways they did things. And the examples you see from other people, you start with yourself first. So just keep that in mind. Original thinking means to start from the beginning and figure things out according to what they need to be, not what other people are doing or what other people are saying needs to be done. This is not to say that you shouldn’t end up doing what other people are doing, but in original thinking you start with the why and the purpose and the end goal, and you build from that originating point and you may end up doing what other people do, but you’ll be doing it because it is right for you or the project or whatever. Not simply and blindly being done because that’s the way everyone else is doing it. For instance, let’s say you’ve just started creating art and these wonderful masterpieces are piling up. So you ask yourself, what do I do with all the? Stuff. Well, the most common thing is to sell your work, right? So that’s what you think you need to do, because that’s what artists do, right? They make work and. They sell it. Well, here’s a crazy thought. You don’t have to sell your artwork if you have no particular need to make the money from the sales. If you’re not looking to make income off your art. And don’t assume. You need to be selling your art to give your work purpose or to justify the time and money. Spend on it. There are a lot of other things you can do besides sell that will make the process of creating fulfilling and give you more time to create. So the originating thought of this example is why do you create art and what do you need to get out of it? And that’s a good question to keep in mind as we continue this right. If it’s not money. Then you don’t need to sell. Once you’ve realized that, then you can take the next step. You need to ask the next question, which is if you’re not going to sell, what do you do with all this work? Well, first of all. Do you have to do anything with the work? You could, for one, just keep the work yourself, put it up on your walls, or put in storage if you have too much of it, and then you can rotate the work throughout the house at various times. You can also think of your work as temporal and paint over those canvases, or take apart those mixed media pieces and start again. And I know that sounds kind of sacrilegious for a lot of us. But if you’re mostly in love with the process, and that’s the reason you do what you do, you can take a picture of the work for posterity and recycle the. Art materials whenever. Possible. I mean, why not? If your originating purpose is the experience of creating and not the end result, then there’s really no reason to be precious about the outcome. Now, most of us will feel a little too attached to our work that we put our blood, sweat and tears into, so recycling in them might be a little tough to do. But one of the most common alternatives to selling your artwork is just to give it away. This could be the way to go for you if one of your originating purposes in creating art includes sharing your work and giving other people joy through what you do. This actually dovetails in the conversation about success that I had with Brett on the last. 3rd, your definition of success could be simply sharing your passion with other people, and it could also be to help pay the bills. Or it could be to get recognition. Just use original thinking to determine what your version of success looks like and make your decisions. About what you. Do with your art, rightfully rooted in your definition of success. Yes, that’s just one example of rethinking what you do by finding the originating purpose, figuring out what you need first so that your decisions are based on and originating the specific needs of the situation and goals. Focusing on original thinking can also help you free up your creative exploration. So like when I’m running. Something new. I’m not looking to replicate how other people do whatever it is I’m trying to do and trying to learn from them. This is not to say that I don’t want to learn from people with prior experience because I do. I do want to know the basics. I do want to know the tips and tricks and I’m interested in how someone else does. That, but I’m only gathering knowledge so that I can understand it enough to jump in feet first and play around with this new information. This does mean that I have a hard. Time in classes. And some teachers don’t like me so much because I don’t always follow instruction, which maybe that’s bad, but it’s it’s how I think and it is. Was something that originates in what I consider original thinking, and it’s not to say that I don’t want to try the project or exercise to, say offer, but in my mind I’m constantly asking what else can be done with this that might interest me specific. So sometimes I need to pay attention to the teacher and just take it all in and go explore later. But but I do really value my need to explore my own Ave. in that area and so I never allow the learning to squelch that. You know, I always as I’m taking in whatever it is in the cloth, I’m always thinking about what do I need from this. What can I take from? This that will. Be useful for the kind of work that I want to be doing, or things that I’ve been thinking about lately, and I leave the classroom knowing I’m not going to do what they did in the classroom. I’m going to do what I learned that can inform the kind of work that I want to be doing for myself that I need. To be doing. It’s basically that adage of understanding the rules so you can break them with an underlying knowledge of the materials, the circumstances, the reasons why things are done, the way they’re done. You can do that. So I don’t look at how I’ve been taught something and assume that is the only way to do a particular thing, which I unfortunately see that a lot. And let me give you an example of that. But maybe before that, let me just say that I’m not saying you don’t listen to experts. I’m saying you learn from them and then you take from what you’ve learned, the things that you need and work it into something that is useful for your. Self, because sometimes what they experience and what they tell you will be the right thing for you and your circumstances. And This is why I like to say that it’s not about being different in your art, because sometimes the way things have been done is the way that you need to do them. You don’t have to do it differently for the sake of doing it differently, you need to determine what it. Is that you need to do what is going to work for you. But if you’re using original thinking, it’s necessarily going to be different because you’re going to be customizing the approach and the type of skills and the type of materials and the way you combine all that for yourself. You’re a unique person, so you’re approach customized to you will necessarily be unique, some parts. Of what you do, some parts of that combination may be taken from what other people are doing, and that’s fine as long as it’s the thing that you need and fulfills what it is that you. After well, and if it’s something that you’re borrowing in terms of design or imagery from another artist that is filtered through you and changed to fulfill what you need and your vision and your aesthetic, so you’re not just copying somebody else, right? Because that’s definitely not original thinking right now. Let me give you an example. If I learn a technique that is shown to me through. The process of. Say making a. That I’m not going to use that technique only for pendants. I might use the technique to make components for music work or mixed media or approach or whatever. I might replicate the concept in that technique in a different material. Even I determine what it is about the technique that I like, you know, dig it down to the essence of what it. Is that attracts you to it and what it gauges your curiosity and and your need for exploration. So if it’s like the shimmering surface that resulted from the technique for the pendant that I’m really. To I can take that make something in a flat component of some sort, cut it up and use it in mosaics or make a a focal piece for the mosaic. With it I determine what I need from what I learned. I don’t just blindly follow the instruction I was given and then think ohh this is for pendants. Now when you first do. Something you would. Normally, unless you’re me. Follow the instructions word for word. To learn it, but you don’t want. To continue to do it. That way, but I know for a lot of people, especially if you’re self-taught, the amount of information you can get in a really good quality class can kind of be an overload and it can be kind of. Hard to dig. Down through all of it to find what it is that you need, and honestly, that’s like just an issue with life in general these days with how much information we get. I think we just get lost in the plethora of information that is constantly being thrown at us, not to mention the information that’s at our fingertips that we go in and just find with the touch of a button any question we have any idea that we come up with, we can look and see if someone else has done it before us and see what they’ve done and copy them or follow a similar step. But we have to remember, listening to other people’s experiences, their conclusions or their wisdom is really a shortcut for our own learning now. They may have this knowledge because they learned it the hard way through the experience of trial and error. Or they may have been educated on the various aspects of the subject without having. Have to figure it out on their own. But for you, it’s not going to matter. It’s still second or third hand information at best and because you didn’t learn by your own experience, there’s going to be something missing in your understanding. And it’s great to get an understanding of things from other people because it does open our eyes to the possibilities of what can be done in a quicker and more efficient way. Way, but just because you have a bit of information doesn’t mean you understand the information from an experienced level, and I bring this up because original thinking often needs your personal experience to be able to consider how best to do something for yourself and your circumstances. So for instance, right now my niece is staying with us while. She gets her bearings in a new job and she just went through four years of college and nursing school. And yet when she got this first nursing job, she had to spend 5 weeks training. And then another four or five weeks just shadowing another nurse and still just recently she was put on her own. She’ll tell you, even after all the schooling and training she’s had, she doesn’t feel like she knows what she’s doing, because in truth, she doesn’t. She has an understanding, but she doesn’t know all those. Classes, all those books. Practicing on dummies and even following. Nurse. It’s just not the same as working with the real human being with your own hands to be able to complete procedures on someone who is in pain or scared or embarrassed and makes procedures that she might be very familiar with education wise seem brand new because it really is. She learned all this great and necessary information, but the application of it. The actual experience of it is a whole different kind of learning. When you learn something from someone else, just remember the basically like Cliff notes, you have theories and you have steps and you have stories and you have ideas, but you don’t have. So many of us getting to a point where we’re doing our own original thinking may take a lot of experience before we understand the basic processes like the way to work with our materials or the way to get into a show or how to run and market an online business. You might have to do it the way that you’ve learned from. Others 1st until you gain your own personal experience and that’s fine. Once you have that experience, you can look for what you need out of it because you’ll understand it more thoroughly and so then you can start changing it the way you do things based on what you’ve learned through your. Experiences now let’s look at original thinking from a kind of different example that doesn’t have to do with art, but I think it’s just a really clear concept of starting at the beginning. So in my early freelance writing career, I was primarily writing training manuals and materials for restaurants, and these places would bring me in and show me what they had and they would ask me to update or to streamline it or write new sections. But all of them would hand me something they already had and assumed I would use those materials to create their training program. But what I learned early on was that it was harder to take what they had and then try to make it fit what they needed. Then it was to start from scratch, at least if I was going to do what was needed and not just what would work. Do you understand the difference? Like in any given scenario, there are usually a few if not dozens or hundreds of ways to do something and. Make it work. But making it work. Just means having it operate on a basic level. What we usually really need is very specific and there are degrees to which anyone way to do it will fulfill. That need so. It’s a spectrum, like everything is a spectrum at one end. It’s a this solution doesn’t work or it’s disastrous. In the middle. There it works OK. And then on the far end is the ideal of what one needs now. The world rarely operates in a fashion that makes doing things in an ideal way possible, but you can get close and that’s. What you’re after, what you don’t want to do, is start with materials or ideas or designs or advice that is mediocre or cookie cutter, or basically just OK for you. You want to move towards the ideal, right. I think we all do, but how often? Do we get close? I think all our shortcuts in learning how other people did it and succeeded kind of muddies the waters. For many of us. I think, granted, once you have the experience, you need to understand what it is that you need. You want to back up. You want to start from scratch and you want to build from there. Like with these training programs I started to tell you about the first thing I would always do is sit down having none of their previous materials at hand. Just my notes basically. And I would create an. Outline for the program and then with that outline approved by my client. Of course I could go to the materials they already had and pull out the parts that could sufficiently fill in parts of this outline. So you see, I went from an outline of what they needed and then went to existing materials and pulled what they needed from it. And you can do the same thing. You can determine what you need, make a plan based on your needs. As ideally as possible, and then you go out and you pull from what exists and you use those to fill your plan and not go look at someone else’s plan and use their plan. And I hope that doesn’t sound contradictory to what I was just saying about you might need. Since first because. You always want to figure things out from a position of what do I need now? You’re not always going to know specifically what you need. The experience will teach you that or will help you refine your ideas. But even when you don’t have the experience, you take what you do know and what experience you do have and try to figure out what it is you need. And sometimes it’s a guess. I mean, this is life. This is art. I mean, it’s there’s no. Black and white here. But you don’t want to just follow someone else’s because that’s what they did, and that’s what worked for them. You want to start from your place of need and your works place of need. And it’s not easy, I know, but in businesses and just individuals, including artists, of course they do this thing where they there’s a line of thinking that this is how it’s done and it’s always been done this way. So that’s how we’ll continue to do it. And that’s what I saw in these training program jobs. And I see it. In art, a lot as well. Like I was saying, if someone teaches you a particular technique in a particular form, then you may continue to do that only in that form because you think this technique is for that form instead of saying, well, I don’t work in pendants, I want to work in. You know, tongue rings. I don’t know. Whatever. It’s simply not original thinking. When you were doing what someone else is doing, because that seems to be the way to do things. As if there’s something out there that says there’s just this way. This is the only way you’re going to be successful at what you’re doing. And it’s not. It’s also not productive or efficient. Because instead of coming from a position of, what you need for your creative pursuits or a particular piece, you basically try to take a short. Cut and not. In a lazy way, that’s not what. I’m saying people. Just figure that the work has been done by others to come up with this specific knowledge, so why not work with what’s already been done, what’s already available, and you can it’s just not original thinking and often it’s not going to work as well as it could. So how does this? Work for you as an artist. Let’s try an art specific example. Let’s say you create wall pieces, maybe mixed media, maybe paintings, maybe paper craft. Whatever your work’s gonna be hung on a wall, right? So how is that going to be done? I think the default answer is either to put it in A-frame or you. Put a little wall hanger on the back of the piece. But why are those pretty much the only two options? Why do we not ask what method of hanging this work will benefit the design? As well as the functionality, the functionality being it needs to be hung on a wall because the way it’s hung will affect the overall design, visually speaking. If you go back to the position of what the work needs in order to be what you want it to be to say what you wanted to say to be presented in a way that makes the impact you’re after, then you can think through all your options and probably even come up with some new options you had never seen before because you’re thinking about what the work needs. And not how other people do it. And that’s the essence of original thinking. As I said, it’s not really about doing something that no one else is doing. You could end up doing work that is not unlike other work already out there, but you ask yourself, why am I doing what I’m doing? And within that answer is a starting point for you to decide what kind of work you’re going to create. How, where and when you create? If you’re going to share and sell your work and through what avenues you would be doing those things and even what your creative life would. Like so, even if your work is similar to other peoples and there’s really honestly no reason to compare your work to other people’s work unless you are in a specific field where people want you to do that. If that’s the case, fine. But otherwise, knowing why you’re doing this kind of work will allow you to make decisions based on your needs, and that’s where you’ll find the kind of originality that can make your work distinctive. As well as hopefully fulfills. For you, I know I’m talking a lot about what you need, but for those of you who sell or otherwise monetize your art, maybe you’re kind of murky about how your market plays into this. And there is definitely a consideration about your market and what your customers need or what your. Audience needs, so let’s. Talk about what that looks like. So once you’ve clarified. Your vision for yourself as an artist. What you need to get out of the work you also determine. And what your market needs and hopefully you’ve started with finding a market that fits your work, but once you have, you’ll need to figure out what your market is after from you. Then there should be an overlap that helps to direct what your work needs to be. So it’s kind of a three parter question thing. What do you need? What does your market, your audience, your customer need? And what does work need? I think you answer what you need first and foremost, and that may sound selfish or whatever. It’s such a weird world where I think a lot of stuff is very contradictory, where we’re not supposed to be selfish. We’re supposed to be giving and charitable and selfless. But then we’re supposed to be go getters, and we’re supposed to, you know, make our dreams come true. And I don’t know. I just if you if you watch the the Barbie movie and America, Ferrer had that great speech. I was in the theater just waiting in my arms going Oh my God. Yes. That’s what I’m always seeing. It’s ridiculous. But anyways, total side note, I’m just saying it’s OK to be thinking about yourself. First, especially in this case. If you are thinking about what you need, then you’re going to be able to put work out there. That is something that someone else out there really needs, and it’s true and it’s authentic, it’s personal and it’s going to be that much more special, not to mention how good it can be for your artistic career. But that’s another subject. So yes, you ask what you need, then you ask what your market needs and then. You ask what your. Work needs, which should be a combination of what you need and what your market needs. If you are selling artist in particular. I know it’s really hard as selling artists to not think of your market 1st, but instead of thinking that you have to make work for your market or make work for yourself, that they’re two separate things. There should be, and I can’t imagine a scenario where this isn’t true. There should be an overlap between what you believe the market needs and what you personally need for your life. Or what you need to be expressing or any of those kinds of things. So for instance mine it’s a little bit more unusual. It’s not the everyday Rd. that people. Go down. But when I worked, say for the magazine, much of what I made would actually be for articles. And there were times where I wondered if I wasn’t giving up my own creative needs for the publication. But when I dug down, I realized for the most part, I only created work for articles that allowed me to talk about the things that I wanted to talk about. Because one of my needs is to interact with others and teach on some level about these things I’m passionate about, and so I was able to do that through what the audience needed, which was to gain information and understanding that wasn’t otherwise available to. And I got to create things with that very specific focus of helping illustrate those concepts, techniques and oftentimes very personal philosophies of mine. So they did that actually work. I did find that overlap and for 10 years it was pretty fulfilling, if a tad busy. And that brings up another point that what you need is never going to be static. So for 10 years into the magazine for the majority of those 10 years, that was what I needed, that really fulfilled the majority of the things that made my life as close to ideal as I could make it in that particular aspect. But eventually it came to I started having this intense craving to be doing my own work in slightly different work, and it wasn’t going to. Be all polymer so. What was I going to do? And then I ended up hurting my arm and that kind of was like one of those nudges. You’re like, hey, you know, you gotta you gotta think about this too. And and I moved on from there, and now I need something where I’m not going to be hurting my arm or I can still be creative or I can try other things and explore. And so that’s what I’m doing. I’m still getting to share and teach by doing this podcast. And it does allow me to explore. Some new avenues of work I wanted to do while I make money. Back at freelancing, basically is what has been going on as well as selling the publications that I did over the. Last 10 years. Which, by the way, if you want to buy and and help support this podcast, it’s www.tenthnewsarts.com TEN TH arts.com to go buy publications, mostly polymer centric stuff. But in any case so I changed what I needed. Where my needs change, let’s just say, and therefore I changed what I was doing in order to meet those new. But let’s circle back to if you are selling and you need to produce income through your work. If that’s important, you can absolutely do work that fulfills what you need and what you want to be doing, as well as what your market needs. If you look at where they coincide and then that tells you what the work needs to be right. And so now you have. An answer for all three of those. Questions. What do I need? What does the market need? What does my work need? And for some people, what they do for the market may not be exactly what they want to do for themselves. But you can do that separately like I’m doing now. But the key is focusing on your vision for what it is you want out of your life and out of your work, not trying to figure out how to replicate what other people are doing because what they’re doing hopefully is what they need to be doing and what you want and what you want out of your life is going to be as different and unique as you are. So maybe during this next week or two or month or whatever. You need to pay attention to that kind of inner voice that self talk that we have and catch yourself up when you’re saying things like ohh I should be doing this or this is the way it’s done or you find you’re kind of blindly following instructions or advice. You don’t need to think outside the box I. Think that’s a really. Great expression because you need not to be. In the box. In the first. Place you need to be in your own space, which is a broad open plane of possibilities, and maybe that’s the best way to think of original thinking that is not bounded by the usual and the traditional. And the way that everyone else is doing it. It’s about you and your space. And what your space has and. Needs just step back from all that other noise. Put yourself and your work and the things that you need from your creative life in the forefront, and ask what decisions feed your purpose as a creative and supports the purpose of your art. And if you want to take a step further, I would kindly suggest maybe sitting down and writing this out. Like, why do you do what? You do? What is the purpose of your creative work? Where do you want to see it go and why? And the why is really, really important. It’s really the key. So once you have that down, you can make a list of like a half dozen or a dozen different ways you can accomplish what it is you need, and then another list if you’re selling. What your market needs and then maybe a list separately for what your work actually needs or if you’re working on a particular piece and you want to be answering this question for a very specific item, what do I need out of this piece? Was this piece need? To be even functionality. What is it? Has it need to function all those kinds of things and then try to make that list that you put together like half of it be something that other people aren’t really doing or that is not a suggestion that you heard from an expert or some sort. Get creative. I mean, we’re creatives, right? We can get creative about what we’re doing. Not just the artwork. And if any of you want to get creative and share that creative ideas and those inspirations that you get from working through what it is that you want, please do share it with me. Write me and let me know and let me know if you’d like me to share it if you’re OK with that because I would like to Share your story. As always, you can reach me on the sagearts.com on the contact page if you get the newsletter which you can get by hitting the news and notices button on the homepage of the sagearts.com you create reply directly to the newsletter and it comes directly to me. You can touch base with me on Instagram or Facebook. I get the messages there even when I’m not super active. So reach out to me there. And if you want to support this podcast, you can do so by going to the donation buttons on home page of the sagearts.com. So the ways down the page, you’ll see PayPal and buy me a copy. The buttons all of these links are also available in your show notes or descriptions section of wherever you’re listening to the podcast from. And if you haven’t done it already, do yourself a favor and hit that follow button on your podcast player and that will tell you when these podcasts are coming out, cause you might have noticed it’s been off with the. Timing for a little. While I’m gonna try to get back on track. I’m not sure if I’m coming out on Fridays like I was mentioning earlier, or if I’m going to be coming out like early in the week. I’ve gotta really get that figured out. But in any case, if you hit that follow button, you will. Know through the notifications from. Your podcast player and I really have some fantastic. Left coming up. Don’t miss out on an episode. Hit that follow button, get the newsletter. Whatever you gotta do.
And in the.
Meantime, get out there and figure out what it is that you need. What does your work need? What does your? What does your market need and how does that work with what you need? Because if you want to stand out, if you want to be in original. Thinker with a unique voice that is recognizable. It’s going to start with understanding what’s in you that needs to be put out there in the world, and that starts with having a vision of what it is that you want, what it is that you need, what is that’s gonna fulfill you, what it is, that’s. For you, so shove aside those shifts in those woods and I think it’ll be easier and clearer for you to find your unique voice and do really original work that is satisfying and fulfilling and successful, and then, you know, gotten future news as usual because that helps feed that original thinking be true to your weirdness and then join me next time on the. Sage Arts podcast.
