Don’t Quit Your Day Job
This is something people usually say when someone tries to step outside the pretty little box that society has built for us, reminding us that art, music and pretty much anything creative is a dream for suckers. That we can “dabble” in these fields as hobbyists but that we should “stay realistic” and do what needs to be done to “pay the bills”.
Yet, I see many successful people who have quit their day job and go on to obtain a successful career doing what they love. So if they can do it, why can’t I? Perhaps it is a lack of faith, which leads me to my next thought.
“Take a leap of faith”, “Let go and let God”, “When God closes a door, he opens a window” are the sayings that pop in my head whenever someone throws me the painful, “Don’t quit your day job”. So which is it? Do we stay planted in “reality” and “do what must be done” as we sludge through 40+ hours a week of mindless work that literally tears at the very fabric of our souls, killing us slowly one uncreative second at a time?
Or do we take the leap of faith, quit the cube, and go after what we know deep down in our hearts is the driving force behind our every breath…even if it means possible starvation while en route to success? I guess it all comes down to something I wrote about a while back, in one of my first blogs. The question of, “Is this a hill you want to die on?”
Is this driving force, this passion, and this stronghold of creativity that is bursting at the seams and restless to get out, worth giving up everything for? Is it worth it at the end, and if so, what are you really giving up? Money? Time? Family?
When something inside of you is pushing so hard to get out, denying it, is denying the very essence of you. If you’re a square peg, the round hole will never feel right. In the end, isn’t it just creative starvation versus torturous suffocation?
Do you want to die a slow torturous death that rips your soul and spirit into shreds just so you can look back and say, “I was financially stable”? Or do you want to slave away, day after day, unappreciated for your endless amounts of talent in the hopes that one day someone will see the wonder that is you? I guess if we all die a little everyday, we should at least have the choice in how we go. I say, if you can’t ignore it, it will never go away- so you might as well embrace it and die knowing that you lived.
