There’s a thing that keeps so many creatives going. It’s that excitement about the possibility at the end of a project or a pursuit. This excitement is what can burn us out and threaten our health and stability, but it is also what makes it possible for us to push and excel when things are challenging. I encourage creatives to only use this excitement as a last resort, but to turn their focus to the work.
Reminder: we love doing the work.
We can stay motivated by celebrating the work, not the reward. We remind ourselves we wanted to be actors to act, not to get Tonys. We perform to perform. And we pat ourselves on the back for doing the work.
We don’t need passion to function. This is good news. We are not frauds when we’re working without passion. We don’t have to wait for passion to strike to do great work. We can still celebrate when we don’t even know why we’re doing our stuff.