July Retrospective: Back in July 2014, I wrote a daily series exploring the realities of navigating the creative economy. Twelve years later, looking back at these entries (and my original awful hand-drawn illustrations!), I’m struck by how the core truths of a creative career remain completely timeless. Each day this month, I’m opening up the archive to share these foundational lessons—with a few modern reflections layered in. 

If you’re a new creative graduate looking to find your footing in the creative economy, a Gen X looking to pivot into a creative business, a side-hustler or someone who just wants to up their creative business game, there’s something for you in this series. Just don’t judge my drawings 😉

Enjoy Your Career

Over the last month we’ve covered a lot of information and best practices. It can be overwhelming. That’s not my intention. It takes time to build up a solid foundation. So be patient with yourself. A thriving creative business takes time.

At the same time enjoy your career. There is no point in doing this if it doesn’t bring you joy. Focus on what you enjoy. Find a way to enjoy the parts you don’t enjoy so much! If you are going to be spending many many hours a week managing a creative career, then you owe it to yourself to enjoy the process – or find something else to do that you enjoy even more.

It’s your career. Enjoy it.

At the same time, it’s your life, so enjoy that too.

A creative career is demanding. We experience the highs of creation and the joys of success. But this is often interspersed with dry periods, creative blocks and deafening silence. Being creative is challenging enough before you add the additional challenges of trying to run a business at the same time. It’s easy for a work/life balance to be non-existent. It’s easy to be an artist who works every waking hour.

Don’t let those demands rob you of a life. Don’t deny yourself a life in order to have a creative career. The payoff isn’t worth it.

I see too many creative colleagues forgo relationships, children, homes, holidays and happiness for the sake of their creative career.

I think having a wonderful, creative, fulfilling career is necessary.

But I also think having a wonderful, fulfilling life feeds your creativity.

Don’t choose one over the other. It’s possible to have both. A Thriving Creative is one who has an exciting engaging creative business AND a full satisfying personal life. That’s a sustainable mix. One without the other is not a sustainable mix.

There are so many romantic myths of amazing artists with tempestuous lives. We believe that one is a requirement for the other. But just as we use creative entrepreneurship can help smooth out the sharp edges of a creative career, we can manage our relationships so they don’t suffer the slings and arrows of our creative path. The tools are similar.

Carve out time to have a life. Pursue things that make you happy and recognise that what makes you happy might shift. At times, in the past, I have passed on holidays and family events in order to take acting jobs. At other times I have turned down acting jobs because they clashed with holidays or family occasions. Both were correct at various times.

In all things, listen to your heart.

A happy and fulfilled home life makes for happy and fulfilled studio life.

The idea that you have to ‘suffer for your art’ is nothing short of bullshit.

You have to thrive for your art!

I hope this month long series has shown you a path that can help you thrive as an artist.

Action – take a good look around you. Give thanks for the things that make you happy. Recognise where you could still make progress. Do you feel you have a decent work/life balance? What would need to change to get a better mix? Take steps to make this happen.

Longevity in a creative career isn’t accidental—it’s built on strategy.

While the landscape shifts, the core principles of thriving as a creative freelancer haven’t changed. For deeper, modern frameworks on building a sustainable creative practice:

• Read the Book: Looking for a step-by-step field guide to building a resilient career in the creative economy? Pick up my recent book The Thriving Creative: Successful Freelancing in the Creative Economy available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and from my publisher Routledge.
• Stay Connected: Join my community and to receive the complete 31-day hand-drawn playbook as a single PDF at the end of the month. Sign up below.