I can’t be the only one who felt like their creative dreams and career aspirations were mutually exclusive. You only get to choose one, and your career wins every time, right? After all, it’s accomplishing the important task of funding your livelihood. Those big passion projects will have to wait until retirement!
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized this notion was just a little backward, and very much unsustainable. Career is important, but our creativity is too! After much thought and time spent trying to balance the two, I have a new theory:
There is a reciprocal relationship between creativity and career.
Meaning, it might actually be beneficial to your career to have a creative practice, and that creative practice may support you in your career in turn! So let’s not keep our creativity on ice until retirement. In this post we’ll explore how creativity can help support your career, AND how engaging in your career can help your creative pursuits after-hours.
Let’s go!
Creativity as the Foundation for an Engaging Career
I think a lot of us can buy into this one: your creativity can absolutely help to support your career. It might just take some creativity to see it! 😉 We are all creative, of course, but I’m talking about really engaging your creativity by actively pursuing creative hobbies that you enjoy after hours.
Authenticity
My last post was all about embracing authenticity in your daily life, and I think authenticity and creativity are inextricably linked! Within your creative practice you develop a keen sense of self-awareness and engage in consistent, authentic self-expression, which sticks with you outside of that practice as well.
As we touched on in that post, it’s not always easy to be authentic in the workplace. You have corporate culture, job descriptions, and interoffice relationships to contend with, after all. I don’t think many of us intend to be inauthentic at work, but it’s natural to try to maintain a certain persona or a perceived level of competence and work ethic. The issue is that it’s easy to fall down a “fake it ’til you make it” rabbit hole, and in doing so we sometimes innocently diverge from our core values. In turn, we start experiencing frustration, disengagement, and burnout.
To bring authenticity to the workplace is to create a sense of ease and harmony, however subtle, to your work. If you can cultivate a cohesive voice inside and outside of work, then you can bring more meaning and (dare I say) enjoyment into your workday! How? By enforcing healthy boundaries, leaning into your strengths and interests, and creating a sense of belonging, to name a few.
I think this is where really impactful work begins: finding the cross-section of what you care about and leaning into what you enjoy doing allows you to bring a unique skillset to the table, rather than constantly trying to shape yourself using the “ideal candidate” cookie cutter.
Problem-Solving
A classic! Workplace tasks and problem-solving procedures can become repetitive and prescriptive if we don’t shake things up with some outside-the-box thinking. Engaging in creative activities outside of work, especially if they’re very different from what you do in your day job, helps you stretch the mind and develop a new lens from which you can approach workplace problems.
Giving yourself exposure to different ideas, possibilities and outcomes can be expansive, but it’s not just “doing something different” that helps! It’s also all the processes behind the doing that support the development of creative solutions. For example:
- You may discover how you learn best, and apply it to your job in ways that traditional training may not.
- When you’re motivated by your creative outlet you’ll naturally engage in the process of curiosity, learning, and discovery. That process translates well to the workplace (where perhaps you weren’t quite as curious, but the same process still applies).
- You may find yourself being more open to the unconventional when it arises at work, making more space for innovation.
- With creative freedom comes adaptability, resilience, and experimentation, and with enough practice after hours, suddenly complicated workplace projects (you know, the “make something out of nothing” and “find order in the chaos” kind), suddenly seem a bit less daunting.
All of these “hidden benefits” can help to support an agile, solution-focused mindset at work.
Finally, there are those more literal transferable skills that can help you out at work. I’ll use my own experience as an example: Blogging has recently become a fun hobby of mine, and with it comes a ton of writing practice. That skill transfers directly to the documentation, correspondence and business reports that fill my workdays! If I’m stuck on how to communicate something, my blogging experience can (or will, eventually) provide yet another lens through which I can see the issue and apply what I’ve learned, resulting in what I hope would be more effective communication.
Confidence and Self-Esteem
Sometimes work is just a grind. Promotions and raises can take a long time to earn, projects can take a long time to finish, and no matter how long you’ve been in the game, you never feel like you’ve really “mastered” your craft; after all, there’s no such thing as an objectively “perfect” product. Too-frequent encounters with all of the things that you have yet to learn and improve upon cause a bit of tunnel vision, akin to focusing on the one crooked brick in an otherwise incredible brick wall.
The same can be said for creative work, but the autonomy inherent in your own creative practice and your genuine intrinsic motivation to make the stuff you want to make can give you a real boost in confidence and self-esteem, and that translates extremely well into the workplace!
Whether you’ve just finished learning a new skill, or you’ve just finished a piece you’re really proud of, you’ll carry that feeling of accomplishment with you into the following work day. Accomplishing something meaningful to you (and having fun in the process) quiets the drama of a job well done (or not) at the office, making it comparatively less pivotal to your day, so you can focus on what you really need to at work.
Possibly most impactful is that the simple act of engaging in a creative hobby that you really care about serves as a reminder that you are so much more than your job title! You’re a writer, a cook, a photographer, a choreographer, a colourful and multi-talented individual. Take that with you the next time you step into the office!
Boundaries
Healthy boundaries between work life and home life have been a hot topic over the last few years as many of us struggled to implement those boundaries while working from home. It’s especially difficult to implement boundaries if we don’t have other things demanding our attention! Fortunately, our creative practices does.
We’ve talked before about the importance of creating time and space for your creativity, but sometimes to do that we need to reclaim them from work. It’s really helpful to have a creative practice that is near and dear to your heart for this, one that you’re willing to prioritize because it won’t leave you alone until you do.
This is why I like to make appointments with myself for at least a bit of creative time every week. That’s a commitment that you’ve made to yourself, so don’t let yourself down!
Having healthy boundaries supported by your creative practice helps you to recharge when you need it so that when you do show up to work, you’re coming with a calm, refreshed mind, rather than one that is distracted, stretched and overworked.
Speaking of which, do some of us feel like we need to look a little stressed and stretched to give the impression of how seriously we take our jobs, or how in-demand we are, or how hard we’re working (or is it just George Costanza)? Do we need to come off as yes-people? We don’t even need to fake it – I’m sure many of us just take on more work than we should and work more hours than we intend, but after over a decade in public practice accounting, I can tell you that there’s a better approach.
Set your boundaries and get balanced, whatever that means to you. Mind those appointments with yourself, and become confident in saying “no” sometimes. Combine this sense of calm and ease with good quality output and reliability, and you’re practically unstoppable!
Thank goodness for your hobby, right?
Stress Relief
Exuding that calm confidence we just talked about and maintaining a clear and capable mindset at work probably requires you to engage in some form of stress relief after hours. That stress relief could be enjoying some calming music, a hot bath, or physical exercise, but a creative hobby can be effective as well!
This is especially true if you’ve been ignoring your creative energy. I suspect this is a common hidden stressor for you creative souls out there (read more about this idea here). If you’ve got this creative energy with nowhere else to go but your office, it can become just a touch destructive to your work day. So, clear that energy out with a great after-hours passion project.
Being “in flow” is another great way that being creative can help relieve stress. Simply put, it’s a state in which you get completely absorbed in doing something. (Ever blink and suddenly two hours have passed? You were in flow!) The effect can be quite calming.
Here’s a question for you: is being “in flow” a practiced skill? I wonder if it’s true that the more often you can get in flow, the easier it is to return to that state. I think a lot of people talk about being “in flow” while working on a passion project, but you can certainly be “in flow” doing your regular work as well. So if this is true, then there’s a bonus benefit to a creative practice for your career – more time “in flow”! 🙂
Finally, the simple act of giving your mind a break from your day-to-day stressors, work or otherwise, by giving you something fun and low-stakes to think about for a change can really turn a stressful day around and serve as a mental reset so that you can tackle the next day effectively.
How Your Career Can Support Your Creativity
All I want to do is make stuff. How is being at my day job, not making stuff, supposed to help me in my creative pursuits? Well, I have some ideas.
I do think it’s important that we take some time to consider how our careers (or day jobs) help to support our creativity, especially if we’re not in a position to leave our jobs and “chase our dreams”, as they say. It’s a widely shared dream, but it’s just not practical for all of us, so I say, chase your dreams anyways!
In order to feel content in balancing creativity and career, it’s helpful to be able to reframe our work lives in a positive light. Rather than seeing your career as the thing taking you away from your creative pursuits, let’s acknowledge the ways in which it adds to them.
Without further ado, the ideas:
Creative Fodder
Okay, admittedly this one depends on your job and your creative pursuit, but I invite you to give it some thought: In what ways can your day job inspire your creative projects?
Three examples from my life:
- This blog basically documents my own attempt to balance creativity and career, and is inspired by others trying to do the same. Of course, I need to engage in my career for this blog to make sense, and in turn, that career engagement gives me ideas I can write about.
- I get some painting ideas inspired by office life too, whether it’s from the emotional landscape, the music I listen to for focus, the people I work with or the stories I hear. (Disclaimer: To be clear, I do not and will not write specifically about my office or the people in or around it!)
- Perhaps a lesser-known hobby of mine is caring for my houseplants! Office life inspired my research into low-light office-friendly plants, and my love for houseplants blossomed from there.
How about you? Can you identify some ways that your career can serve as creative fodder?
- Does your work inspire movement?
- Can you translate the mood from work today into your creative projects?
- Are there parts of work you love that you can integrate into your creative practice?
- If you left your job, what would you miss and how could you recreate it in your creative life?
- What would you change about your day job, and how could you express that through your chosen creative medium?
Change of Pace
Just like too much work can be taxing (literally 😀 ), so too can an all-encompassing focus on your creative projects.
Okay, admittedly work feels like an impediment to our creative time; after all, we dream about spending all day every day just making the stuff we want to make. However, the reality is if we didn’t have anything else but creative time available, we’d probably risk stagnation and burnout in this area too. I have to imagine that even full-time creators end up having a change of pace, at least to take care of the business-end of things.
It’s important to change up your routines and environment, to have new experiences, and to give your mind and body a rest from whichever task it’s most involved in, so why not view your day job in that light? Just because you have limited creative time doesn’t mean you won’t encounter creative blocks, after all. A solid day at work may just help you come gratefully back to your creative project with a fresh perspective or new determination (depending how your work day went)!
Another benefit of this “change of pace” is the difference in the way you use your mind at work versus in your creative practice. There are two particularly beneficial versions of this: the stretch and the mundane.
Engaging in the mundane tends to open your mind up to great creative ideas. Shower thoughts or brilliant ideas while doing the dishes come to mind, and how about the story of Einstein working at the patent office? So if you have some really dull tasks that fall under your job description, that’s perfect – just make sure you have a notebook handy!
On the opposite end of spectrum are those tasks or projects that really stretch your brain in ways that you might not otherwise encounter (or allow) in your creative venture of choice. After all, the workplace is often a hub for problem-solving, conflict resolution, and learning, and those skills are transferable to your creative practice! More on transferrable skills in a moment, but in general, the workplace is notorious for pushing us out of our comfort zones, and that exposure to discomfort can make taking a step out of your comfort zone for the sake of your creative projects just a bit easier.
Transferable Skills
Let’s talk about some of the transferable skills from your day job that might help to support your creative practice. Similar to finding creative fodder, these are really unique to you as they depend on what your job and hobby are, but here are some ideas to get you thinking:
- Communication: What sort of communicating you do at work? Is it written reports? Meetings? Phone calls? Graphics? How might that be useful to you in your creative practice? This could be literal (eg. if you’re a writer, a public speaker, a performer after hours), but it could also support you in networking within your creative niche or even just in sharing what you’re creating, if you choose to do so.
- Systems and processes: Personally, I am a bit of an abstract, divergent thinker. Fortunately I’m also an accountant, so I live and breathe systems and processes at work. This exposure helps me inject some structure to my creative practice, and developing my own systems and processes at home is what helps me be even remotely productive in my creative life!
- Other special areas: What other things do you do at work that could support your hobbies? Do you do a lot of research? Do you train people? Is your job analytical? Could those special areas of your job help support your creative practice behind the scenes, perhaps by researching new approaches, connecting with others and showing them how to do what you do, or evaluating where to invest your time and energy most effectively?
Alternative Perspectives
The workplace is a cumulation of different perspectives: on the work itself, on how best to get something done, on world events… You name it! Exposure to alternative perspectives can really help to expand our own horizons, and that expansion comes through in our creative practices in some way. That’s not to say you must agree with those perspectives, but it’s sure helpful to know that they’re out there.
As a bonus, you’re getting practice in taking a step back and looking at things with a 10,000 foot view. I don’t know about you, but a little perspective can be really helpful when I’m stuck in a creative rut, or I’m frustrated by my progress, or I’m a bit too “in the weeds” to continue with a project.
Since we’re on the topic, I’ll offer an alternative perspective on our limited creative time: restriction leads to innovation, and I think that having relatively little time to devote to a creative practice is a worthwhile challenge to work within. Think of all the ways in which we manage to be productive despite our limited time and energy! Things like learning how to work in small chunks, or being firm in our boundaries, or learning to prioritize our most impactful projects. The limited time also discourages perfectionism (in theory), because there’s just no time for perfect.
Once we do eventually find more time fill with creating, all this practice, innovation and focus will come in handy!
Funding
Another gem from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert is to avoid demanding that your creativity pay your bills. Of course this isn’t applicable to everyone, but I’m talking to all of you out there trying to balance creativity and your 9-to-5. Let this idea be of some comfort! Where would your creative projects be if they had to be successfully monetized, because you need that income to live? I have to imagine that the pressure to create would be stifling.
Fortunately, your day job is there, just funding your livelihood including your creative endeavours, giving you the benefit of some true creative freedom! Yes, the job eats up creative time (and that’s why it’s important to find some balance and prioritize the creative time that you do have), but it’s also helping you acquire supplies, take courses, and participate in events. Thank you, day job, for not forcing me into a creative corner.
Parting Words
It’s not easy to balance the push-pull of trying to maintain both your career and your creative practice, but they need not be in constant conflict! I like to think about career and creativity as having a reciprocal relationship with the goal to appreciate both and to know that whether you’re spending your time working or creating, it’s time well spent.
I hope this post gave you some ideas as to how you can reframe and recognize the mutual benefit of balancing your books and creative life.
Until next time!
