Do you believe your work is valuable?
A lot of creatives find it hard to promote and sell their work (trust me, I know how this feels too). Those who do it well deeply believe in the value that their work brings to other people. It may seem obvious, but why don’t you think people charge for their creative skills or output (writing, music etc.)? It has to do with the inherent value they see in themselves and their creations. Prices are derived from value, or perceived value. If earned income was based off of skill or even creativity, then why are there 12 year olds making millions of dollars through art?
It’s because they believe in the value of their work.
I’m bringing this up because I didn’t really believe my art was valuable until recently.
The message I received my entire life was that art is a frivolous, privileged activity. Either you were rich and had the extra time to make art, or you were poor trying to make a living creating art. And if you DID happen to make a living with something involving creativity, you should feel extremely grateful. After all, a select few get to make it in a creative field and what you’re doing for work is barely even work at all, it’s just fun and play.
This is the sort of mentality that traps creatives into devaluing themselves and their work, and ultimately getting overworked and burned out. Since the “creative act” is seen as play and not labor, I’ve observed a lot of artists with an underlying sense of guilt when it comes to selling and valuing their work. And if you don’t know the value of your own work, you’ll never be able to convey that to other people.
I recently had a profound experience of people thanking me for creating my art. And while it happened in the past too, it wasn’t to the same extent and I also wasn’t able to receive it as fully as I do now. This made me realize that people need my voice. My art. My creation. And it gives me a completely different drive than before.
People NEED your work, even if they don’t really realize it. Every smile, every emotion and every sensation you bring in your work is a life force to others, and every choice you make against the status quo is courage for another. And it’s up do you to embody that and share it with them.
The more we ground our value and the service we do into our own being, the more we can bring more prosperity into our lives and liberate others. The only way we can shift the paradigm of devaluing creativity is shifting that belief in ourselves first.
All my love,
Ai
This week’s journal prompts: