How Monday to Friday Jobs Starve Creativity

I recently left my automotive career as a service advisor. A career that I never anticipated having, which I simply stumbled upon. After 9 years, I was slow to fully learn the weight a job like this can take on your creative edge. There is always that dream of becoming a full-time artist, which arguably is not always sustainable. But when a job ultimately just pays the bills and exhausts so much energy, it is hard not to wonder if the money is worth the sacrifice of passion that it takes away from you.

Artists sometimes end up where we don't belong because the arts are infamous for not being valued enough. We sacrifice what we are passionate about for stability and certainty. But in a way, you end up with one foot out the door, as you are not following your heart and purpose. What the Japanese call Ikigai is a principle that I seem to always come back to — what you love, what you're good at, what makes money, and what brings joy. It is your purpose for living. So when you actively choose comfort and convenience over what ultimately gives us purpose and happiness, we lose a part of ourselves. And we lose what we love.

That is why I am walking away from my career in automotive. After a month of not working, I find myself closer to home and closer to what I love — my writing, my art, and my creative edge that had been lost. Of course it was always there, but it was not fully present or realized. This is not to say art is my only direction. I will continue back to university and finish the last year I never completed. Toward a direction that leads to helping people and giving back. Because sometimes even what is easy becomes hard and leads you back to that harder path — the path of self-fulfillment and service to others.

I hope I can create more art and have more energy to put that part of myself into something worth creating, not something that just pays the bills.