Many people today believe their job ought to meet all their needs for creative fulfillment. I think that’s an unrealistic expectation for a job.
You’re hired to fill your employer’s needs, not necessarily your needs or desires. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, a job is just a job.
In today’s featured quote, Todd Henry writes, “It is unrealistic to expect your job to contain the sum total of your creative engagement. It’s unlikely to happen.” Daily Creative. I agree.
It’s Dangerous to “Pursue Passion” by Quitting a Job For Creative Fulfillment
There’s a real danger in the popular idea of pursuing your passion to seek a job with creative fulfillment. After considerable research, Cal Newport concluded, “…the conventional wisdom on career success-follow your passion— is seriously flawed. It not only fails to describe how most people actually end up with compelling careers, but for many people it can actually make things worse: leading to chronic job shifting and unrelenting angst when…one’s reality inevitably falls short of the dream.” So Good They Can’t Ignore You.
I’ve known people who have jumped from job to job because they’re unsatisfied with the creative fulfillment they feel they’re receiving from each job. Or worse, people will decide to pursue their passion, leave a good job, invest all their savings into a new business, and then crash and burn.
I had some good friends who financially destroyed themselves by “following their passion.” They emotionally bought into a business opportunity that would allow them both to be “more creative” and appealed to their desire to travel to Europe. They ignored the fact that the business had a long history of losing money and agreed to pay much more than it was worth. They both quit good jobs to devote full time to the business. They lost their substantial home equity and savings as the company lost money.
Those advocating the “pursue your passion” approach don’t discuss the many failures. Instead, they describe only those few who took the leap and succeeded spectacularly.
A Perfectly Acceptable Option: Pursue Creative Interests While Making a Living
A perfectly acceptable option is to pursue your creative interest while simultaneously making a living at a job. Work pays the bills, and it makes other things possible.
“It might be okay to do a survival job simply to sponsor one’s other work, the work that one believes will make a bigger impact.”
You Can Find Creative Fulfillment in Any Job, by Nathaniel Sullivan.
When I was working in a medical administrative office in the Air Force, that was not my creative outlet. Instead, my job supported my creative pursuits off-duty. I lived to play soccer, be with my wife and children, play historical games, and take night classes. I had a rich and fulfilling life outside of work hours, and that’s okay.
How to Convert a Support Job Into a Creative Job
• A job can be creatively fulfilling. Often, one can turn an existing job into an avenue for creative fulfillment.
“Creative fulfillment comes from aligning our work with our values, skills, and sense of purpose, which can be achieved in various roles beyond traditionally “creative” professions. Over time you can find fulfillment in a job, do create creative work in that job.” Don’t Quit Your Job Until You Read This: Finding Fulfillment and Meaning in Career, by Valery Zyuz.
You can find meaning and purpose in a job by focusing on how that job serves and benefits others and doing the best you can in performing the job. You can find ways to be creative even in jobs that seem mundane on the surface.
• Often, the best thing you can do is continue doing your work to maintain a livelihood and explore your creative interests outside of work. Pursuing both simultaneously can bring joy and eventually lead to making a living from your passions.
As Haemin Sunim advises, “Continue doing your work to maintain a livelihood, but also explore your interests outside of work. Pursuing both simultaneously can bring a sense of joy and eventually lead to making a living from your passions.” When Things Don’t Go Your Way, by Haemin Sunim and Charles La Shure.
• Sometimes, converting your outside creative interests to a full-time job is possible. But it often takes years to do so.
A great example of this process is podcaster and creator David Sparks of MacSparky fame. He didn’t jump overnight from being a full-time lawyer to a full-time MacSparky; it happened over many years.
Initially, he worked on MacSparky in his free time while working full-time for a law firm. He blogged regularly, wrote several books, and eventually produced field guides.
When MacSparky grew, he quit his law firm job and opened a part-time solo firm. This allowed him to work part-time on MacSparky and keep a steady income flow by working part-time on his legal work. Eventually, over the years, he built up his MacSparky business and interest to the point where he could become a full-time MacSparky.
He didn’t initially quit his law firm job to pursue his MacSparky passion. Instead, he took the time needed to grow and develop his business while maintaining a source of income to support himself and his family.
I’ve seen other creative people who have failed to do that and have been forced to return to a regular full-time job. I’m thinking of one person who tried being a full-time creative and found he didn’t have enough income to support his family, then went back to working a full-time job. A year or two later, he returned to trying to be a full-time creator. From what I’ve heard, he’s not doing well. His approach is problematic, attempting to do too much too soon.
Nurturing Creativity Outside Your Career
While it’s natural to desire creative fulfillment in our work, our jobs don’t always need to be the primary source of our creative satisfaction. We can find ways to nurture our creative passions alongside our careers, potentially even transforming our creative interests into jobs over time.
Take a moment to reflect on your situation. Are you expecting too much creative fulfillment from your job? How can you cultivate your creative interests outside of work? Can you find creative fulfillment in at least some of your work activities?
Consider starting a side project, joining a creative community, or dedicating specific time each week to your passions.