015: Create

Are you doing it for you or are you doing it for someone else? Are you motivated to create or are you motivated to receive praise for what you created?

It can be a thin line we walk when we are creating work and looking to share it with others. There is a need to promote our work, to share it on social networks, to tell people about it, otherwise how will anyone hear us? However there is also a need to spend time in the process of creation, to make the art that we will share with others.

How do we find a balance? Is it more important to just create, and not bother with the other stuff? Does that allow us to produce more authentic work, because we are not concerned with what others will think about it? Maybe. But if we are just creating and not sharing or engaging with others, who will see it? 

The truth is, I don’t have a definitive answer. It’s a line I’m trying to balance myself. Inevitably when your network grows and you have a large reach - there is a certain amount of engagement that will naturally come from that. On the other hand, when your following is small and only a few people are seeing your work it can seem like it’s just noise going out into the world and nobody notices it.

And therein lies the key - if you think of your work as just noise, then it will be noise. If it doesn’t have value in and of itself - if you need reassurance from others of it’s value through ‘likes’ and ‘views’ - then that’s all it will ever be, a means to more ‘likes’ and ‘views’. But if you think of your work as truly having value for what it is then that mentality starts to reflect in your work. When you value what you create, others will too. When you move past trying to make noise so people will hear you on social media, and instead put effort into creating work of value, it will cut through and people will find it.

When things go viral, it rarely has to do with what that person is doing online, but instead it is what they are doing in the real world that makes people take notice. Greta Thunberg is a current example of this - it’s the value she is putting into what she is doing that others notice, gravitate to and then amplify the message.

There is an entire other discussion around the topic of social media. I’ll save that for another day. In short though, remember what social media actually is nowadays. It’s a vehicle to turn your attention into dollars. I think we all understand this, but still act like it’s there to ‘connect’ us with others. Yes, some of that happens, but that is no longer its purpose. Can it amplify your message? Sure. But it can’t create the value your message has. Your job is to create, make that the most important part of what you do. Let go of your expectations of how your work will be received. Simply put your creation out into the world, then move on to creating something else! Produce work of value and people will notice.

~ Steve