Though the path from a dream to a goal to a plan to an accomplishment is tougher than Frodo trying to get rid of that damn ring, it is an inevitable part of the process of gettin’ poppin’. Yes, some lessons must be learned by trial and error, but others can be received by learning from the experiences of others and using them as tips and directions to your bigger picture. Think of “the bigger picture” not as a portrait, but as a giant GPS for your life. When you step back, you’ll see where you’ve been and hopefully a path to help get you where you’re going.
SIDE EFFECTS OF
Being a Creative
Nothing from something is our way
When left with no other options, CREATE.
STAMINA
To choose a creative field takes courage. To advance in a creative field takes talent. To survive in a creative field takes stamina. Pace your energy. Take care of your brain. Protect your heart. You will need all three to handle the rejection, the self-doubt, the deadlines, the critiques, the haters, along with the wins, triumphs, and accolades.
TRUST THE PROCESS
The true struggle of the struggling artist is knowing your greatness long before the people you want to know it do. During that time, somehow, you’ve gotta find a way to keep going. It’s been said before, and I will reiterate it: Trust the process. That doesn’t mean sit around and wait for things to happen or that when shit goes left, you shouldn’t attempt to make it right. What it means is, there are ups and downs. There are feasts and famine. There are moments when you realize you have outgrown your prior taste and the work you were doing before now seems juvenile in its development. It’s all a part of the process. “But Amanda, what exactly is ‘THE PROCESS.’” The process is the journey to you defining your style.
STYLE
In the case of the creative, your style is your biggest asset. It is what makes your work identifiable and uniquely yours. It’s kind of like a figurative barcode. In a sea of creatives gifting their art to the Universe, your style is the constellation by which you spot yours in the night sky. Over time and growth of life experiences and maturity your style will inevitably change. LET IT. When you feel it happening, molt out of your style like an anaconda shedding its skin and breathe into fresher, more fitting, flavas. Be fearless about this. Make sure, however, that it is your inner voice evolving and not the marketplace driving you. The fact is, for every creative, your style, once truly developed, should be an extension of the truest pieces of you. Come up with ten words to define your style. Then knock it down to three. Then see if you can get it to one. Let that be the north star that guides you on your exploration.
DEFINE YOUR ART BEFORE THE INDUSTRY DEFINES IT FOR YOU.
LEARN YOUR CRAFT
Sure, you may have natural talent, but it is still important to learn the fundamentals of whatever craft(s) you’re pursuing because they serve as the template upon which you build your own vision.
DETAILS
The dopeness is in the details. The same way mathematicians show their work and can tell you how they got from a formula to a solution is the in-the-weeds level with which you should become familiar with your work. I say this because when you can do this, you are confident in your work and you can call on that knowledge at any time. They say luck is when opportunity meets preparation. When you know your work, what makes it tick, what makes it glow, and what makes it win, you’re already prepared for whatever opportunity comes at you.
MOTIVATION
When you’re building stamina, trusting the process, and developing your style it can be hard to stay motivated.
• DON’T FALL OFF. If you’re unable to support yourself with your art and have to work a main job in the interim, it can be difficult to balance. The reality is, it is almost impossible to balance something you need for money with something you hope to eventually make money from. That said, it doesn’t mean you completely sideline your passion. The key is to keep growing. Even when you are given minimal time, do SOME-THING. So often, we get off track from our creative development because our focus is diverted elsewhere. Challenge yourself to still find a way to fit it in.
• GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD. When you find yourself stuck and unsure of what to do next, go watch somebody else do their thang. Whether it’s checking out a medium that you work in, or going completely left, put yourself in another’s artistic space. When you do this, it takes you out of your creative bubble and, like shaking an Etch-a-Sketch, cleanses your palate so you can see new ideas, make new connections, and expand your imagination.
• KEEP BELIEVERS AROUND. The number one piece of advice I can give anyone pursuing a creative career is to always keep people around you who believe in you as much, if not more, than you believe in yourself. You may know in your mind that you’re dope, but sometimes believing that in your heart is tougher to do. Make sure there are folks in your world that truly believe in your abilities so that when those times of doubt, slowed motivation, and weakened stamina arise (and they will arise) they are there to put the new battery back in to keep you going!
CREATE YOUR LIFE
Right now some of you are sitting somewhere frustrated that you’re not getting the opportunity to spread your creative wings and use your creative gifts and it’s killing you inside. But I want to remind you that, as a creative, you have the ability to do something that a lot of people don’t. To make something from nothing, including your own path and your own outlets. Take it from someone who has done it time and time again. When you find yourself stunted and feel like you’re unable to express yourself creatively, create your own creative space. That can mean a number of things, but what it really means is take control of defining your creative outlets for yourself and don’t wait for someone to make them available to you. NOW GO MAKE SOME SHIT!
PLATFORM BUILDING
Black women creatives must be the builders of our own platforms. It just is what it is! We must not only make our own art but also our own spaces for that art to live and thrive! Being a creative is not just about artistry. Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist, if you’re in finance, production, nonprofit work, education, etc., your creativity can be finding ways to amplify black female voices.
MONEY TALKS
You take their money, you take their shit. This is the real truth of patronage and working with entities that have input into the work you’re creating. Taking notes can be annoying and irritating, especially when they are less about the work and more about someone else’s ego or attempt to justify their job. Nonetheless, take it in stride. Rigidity is the creative’s downfall. Learn when to adjust (when it’s your own ego rejecting a good idea or suggestion), when to find a consensus (when it’s BS but you can find a work-around that makes everyone happy), and when to walk away (when what they want you to do is compromising the work).
KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS
You may love to sing. You be killin’ it in the shower! That doesn’t mean that is your gift. Sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves, that something we love to do may not be what we are meant to do. The creative space is not for the weary, and in order to thrive in it as a career you need to not only be doing your passion but also something that you’re talented at. Often, the route we think is our road to success has unexpected turns that lead us into fields and spaces that we didn’t foresee. Go with it. Take the twists and turns as they come. In 2006, you couldn’t tell me that I wasn’t going to be the next soul-singing superstar. But I got real with myself that music wasn’t my ministry and made room for other paths to reveal themselves. I never for a second planned on comedy leading me down a road to being a “somewhat” self-help author, and yet, here we are—live and in full effect!
GEM DROPPIN’
The Hustle vs. The Grind
FOLKS BE OUT HERE BULLSHITTIN’. Let’s keep it 8 more than 92 (100!). There are a lot of people you know who talk all day about what they’re going to do and what they want to do but don’t make the moves. They’re always busy but not really making p
rogress. You ask yourself, “What’s really holding them back?” Oftentimes it’s themselves and where they’re channeling their energy. For some folks, they get caught up in the cycle of the hustle and don’t ever commit to the grind. Now, don’t get me wrong, the two words have been used interchangeably forever. Especially if you listen to hip-hop, i.e., “I stay on my hustle, I stay on my grind . . .” But I’m gonna apply some more specific definitions to hopefully foster more realistic outcomes! Bottom line, the hustle is what you do to stay afloat. The grind is how you work toward solidifying a career.
There is no blueprint or clear-cut path to going after your dreams. People love to share their stories, and people love to hear other people’s stories, but no matter how much advice you get, or how much research you’ve done, it’s a trial-and-error process at best. You gotta figure out yo’ shit yo’ self. That’s what the hustle is—exploring and applying how to sustain and maintain until the momentum is in motion on its own. Keeping busy and keeping funded to keep on moving. The idea of the struggle is very enticing for some, and yes, it is a necessary part of the process, but willfully planting your flag in it is more of an exercise in self-hate than self-motivation. The hustle is not about owning struggle. It’s about respecting the process. Within the hustle you get experiences that at the time may seem like more of a nuisance than an applicable lesson. You know what I mean—you have some bullshit go down and you’re like, “Why?! WHY is this even necessary!?!? I don’t need this right now. I got rent to pay!” (That phone bill is a bitch, too!) It seems completely out of pocket and undeserved. These setbacks seem to you like they’re without merit or value. Little do you know, it’s all a necessary part of the hustle. Because that irritating instance will eventually be a skeleton key to a new issue. You’ll look back like, “OH SHIT! I dealt with something JUST. LIKE. THIS.” When you know that the twists and turns and obstacles before you are really just lessons for you to use later, it changes how you manage them and gives you added gumption to continue carrying on. As one of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies goes, “We have two lives, Roy, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that.”* When folks say, “Getcho hustle on” they don’t just mean work hard and try hard. They also mean dig your heels in and be a part of the energy moving toward attainment.
Someone once asked me, “How do you get so much work? I’ve been waiting for a call from my agent for a week.” Operative word? WAITING. Do not confuse patience with waiting. Patience is the active decision to allow for something to materialize in a natural and organic way. Waiting is the act of putting the onus on someone or something else to activate you. Bump that. IT’S MOVE TIME. The hustle is you doing what you have to do to discover the goal and plan that extends from your dream. It is the groundwork that determines how you’re going to pursue your goal once it’s designated. Even if you don’t know your purpose. Even if you have yet to identify your passion. The hustle is when you show the Universe how you move. Ask yourself:
Do you electric slide toward things?
or
Do you kick your Timbs up and wait for things to happen?
Do you seek to identify modes of upliftment and point ’em out?
or
Do you let ’em keep passin’ you by (like The Pharcyde)?
Do you maximize opportunities?
or
Do you self-sabotage?
I could go on and on because the hustle is really all about finding these things out about yourself and nipping the bullshit in the bud, QUICK! For some, the hustle lasts for decades, for others it may last a couple years. In contrast, the grind is about working smarter, not harder, and refining your tools toward the specific goal(s) at hand. We all have a purpose, and it is not always clear when that will be revealed to us. However, when it is, you want to be in the best possible position to pursue it. And that, my friends, is where the grind comes in.
Like I said, the hustle is the prep for the purpose. The grind is the road to fulfilling it. It can feel like the hustle. It may LOOK like the hustle. But it is not the hustle. The grind is driven by a defined end goal. That’s why they say the grind never stops. Because purpose begets more purpose. You have an idea that comes to fruition and it bears the fruit of more ideas. Don’t get me wrong though, the grind ain’t no joke. In some ways it’s even harder than the hustle. Remember what I mentioned about waiting and patience. It’s really easy to wait, but patience is a whole virtue. The grind is built on knowing what you have within you but having to go through the necessary steps to deliver it. You cannot skip steps. You can speed them up, but you cannot skip them. I taught myself a back handspring instead of learning it the proper way, and it was the bane of my existence throughout my entire gymnastics career. You cannot skip steps. But I repeat, you can speed them up. You speed steps up by simply showing up.
I started doing stand-up, and even though I wasn’t afraid of the mic and I knew how to work a stage, I did the open mics. I hung out to try to get spots. I did free shows. Those steps, for many reasons, were necessary to my growth as a comic, and because of them I came to know and respect the fortuitousness of being granted stage time and being paid for it, which in turn taught me to cherish and respect that time rather than take it for granted. The grind is a series of actions and modes designed to move you forward to mastery. When you successfully advance, you’re on to the next and must then spread out in that new space and learn it, too, before you can advance to the next level. I always say, the grind grinds you up. Because the grind checks you. It humbles you. It teaches you that although you think you know what you’re doing and why you’re here, there is so much more that you have yet to consider. It is a beautiful struggle. At its best, it is not a stress but a challenge. It is tiring but exhilarating. At its worst, it is not a burden but a responsibility. It is not a chore but an exercise. When you’re feeling empty on your grind, get replenished by talking to or witnessing someone immersed in theirs:
• Go see a live performance.
• Watch a film about a grind that is prosperous in spite of obstacles.
• Check out a museum (painters’ grinds be the realest!).
Whatever you do, don’t stop. If you made it from the hustle to the grind, you’re on your way.
I remember feeling like a hamster on a wheel. I was doing and doing and nothing substantial was really materializing. I was staying afloat, and I would get little offerings of encouragement from the Universe, but for the most part it felt like I was just “doing.” I realized I was trapped in the hustle. See that’s the doozy. Though the hustle is a necessary part of any process, it has an end. It’s so tiring because when you’re in it, it feels like there is no end to you giving your all in the hopes of eventually being able to glow up. That’s why at some point, you gotta self-check and ask, “What’s my hustle really about?” Getting trapped in the hustle is the problem with so many folks who have lowered expectations for what they deserve and are too modest about what they possess. It can be the product of oppression and suppression—an insidious brainwashing that says your only purpose is to survive, not to thrive. Fuck that. Eyes up and stay woke to your purpose so you can get out of hustle mode and into grind mode. The hustle is the cobblestones you hop on so you don’t get your stilettos stuck in between the cracks, but eventually you gotta get to the other side of the street and hit the pavement for your grind, baby! The hustle gets you a job. The grind gets you a career. A job gets you a check. A career gets you a lifestyle.
Artists Are Weird
THAT ONE TIME
Here and now, I want anyone who is reading this and considers themselves to be a creative to CUT THE CRAP. YOU’RE “WEIRD.” Acknowledge it. Own it. Deal with it. This is important, because, and trust me on this, until you do, you will ALWAYS feel misunderstood, underwhelmed, and annoyed by your interactions with the non “weird” world. The world is big and full of people who are, for the most part, not creatives. Especially when it comes to art in commerce. No diss
to noncreatives, but y’all think differently. You operate differently. You move differently. Which is fine. Unless you’re a creative who has not come to grips with said differences. Your lack of realization of the nature of your artsy idiosyncrasies will have you steady bent outta shape. For instance, being confused as to why the nonweirdos are confused that you didn’t turn that piece in on time. You’ve explained to them that just as you were about to finish it, you stepped back, realized it was trash, and simply couldn’t bring yourself to turn it in, but they just don’t get it. Your fellow creatives get it! We may not be cool with it, but we understand. However, to someone who is not a creative or is not accustomed to working with creatives, this is some off-beat bullshit. Because business, for the most part, lacks the fluidity of “weird.” It works within a grid. It relies on numbers and linear thinking that plans from A to B, often using trends and blueprints. As artists, we innately operate outside of these confines. Again, it is important to know that about yourself, because if you are choosing a creative path as a career you will have to figure out how to work within these specifics without it killing your drive, or even worse, your creative spirit.
Small Doses Page 10
