You may not know it yet. You have an Art. Any lack of awareness or practice is at a huge cost.
So consider for a moment: what’s your Art? Everyone has one.
Art is the expression of creative skill and imagination, a product of your emotional connection, sense of beauty, and idea of significance. It occurs when time blinks in hours at a time while you are in a state of creation and focus. Art is produced when you’re expressing yourself in a natural yet continuously evolving way, desiring to explore further, experiment and contribute to the world.
Some people find their Art in sculpting, painting, dance, or theater, the more common ideas that come to mind. Some find it in writing, biking, running, public speaking, or researching a certain topic. Others may be in fishing, comedy, or helping people with a certain area. Often, your Art is a custom blend of an area and skills specific to you. You know it’s your Art because you feel a gravitational pull towards it. Your Art brings you joy and it’s worthwhile to continue doing and improving – even with the required effort and struggle. If you fully embrace and let yourself believe, there is no doubt you’d want to share your Art with the world.
If you’re not aware of your Art, it’s not necessarily missing for you. Perhaps you already have one and you’ve never thought about it that way. On the other hand, you may not have given yourself the time to discover or develop it. If you rarely block out any time for yourself, it’s unlikely you have the time to spend exploring or, much less, dedicating to an Art. Even if you’re aware, you may not be engaging with and producing your Art to your full capacity.
Whatever Art situation you’re in, you may think it’s not a big deal. If your thought is it’s not important, it’s just something else to do, you’re wrong.
There are costs to downplaying your Art.
You lose out, big time.
When you’re either unaware of or not spending time on your Art, you’re likely going to feel like something’s missing. Perhaps you feel stagnant, like you’re not making any progress towards something meaningful. You’re probably spending the majority of your time doing something you really don’t care about (break out of the mediocre majority). You may be holding yourself back, thinking your Art is not something “practical” to be spending your time doing now and it can wait until later. If you are, beware of the perils of practicality.
What really ends up happening is you’re shortchanging yourself. You’re limiting your potential for true success (as defined by you, not others), growth, meaning, inner confidence, significance, happiness, and overall greater enjoyment of life. Your Art is more than just something to do. This is your life, and you only get one.
Everyone else loses out.
When you’re not contributing your voice in the world, you’re doing everyone else a disservice. There is an audience for every voice if you only dare to share it. After all, everyone is on his or her own journey. We cross paths with others at the times when it’s meant to be. Your failure to show up and share in the area of your Art results in a missing piece in what could be. We build things faster when we build together. Contribute your part. Make your imprint. Help others in the way you know best.
Everyone has an art. What’s yours? It’s in your best interest and to our society’s benefit for you to spend time on your Art. Each of us is an Artist in our own unique way. It is your responsibility to uncover and share it with the world.