HAVING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK IS WHAT MAKES THE WORK RICHER

Does making your work your entire identity always the right answer when building a project, or projecting toward a specific era or arc in your creative life? While some might argue that it is, the reality runs much deeper than that. Everything is influenced by something; so even if we claim that the work is our life, that statement falls apart under its own weight. Because if that were truly the case, it would mean we are inspired by nothing outside ourselves, that we feed only on what we already create. And we all have a starting point. A reference point, to be exact - and that might be one of the most important ingredients in the creative soup we bring to the table every single time. It might live in our relationship to rest, and where rest catches us, because rest is not the same experience for everyone. So why does a rich life outside of work lead us to create richer work? That’s what we’re here to explore.

When we fail to execute on life outside the creative sphere, we limit our output to only what we already know. Leaving behind references and nuances we never picked up; which in turn never make it into the work, or at least never shape the way we see the world and move through it. Maybe it’s a habit you used to have before or after the work. Something you quietly discarded in favor of “I need to finish this” or “I don’t have time for that right now.” We’ve all been there. But the moment you realize that your work won’t survive if you don’t live outside of it - if you don’t nourish yourself with art, with other interests, with other worlds entirely, it becomes only a matter of time before the work starts falling short. Collapsing, like the Roman Empire. Gradually. Experiences outside the studio are almost the creative vitamin that keeps us functioning inside it. Think of how an athlete takes supplements to sustain performance? what is the equivalent for a creative? Maybe it’s a ritual Sunday brunch. Maybe it’s shooting hoops, going to the movies, fishing? biking? it can be almost anything, as long as it exists outside the studio walls. Now that we’ve established the importance of it, we can start acting on it; and truly understand that work is not everything. In fact, it lives as a byproduct of everything else we love in our lives. Inspiration lies everywhere, if we choose to look wide enough. If we decide not to abandon the activities we loved before the work consumed us, before the deadlines and the outputs and the pressure to constantly produce; sooner than later, something shifts. Now would you look at that? The work has substance again. What a great magic trick… Take this weekend to recharge. Revisit the parts of your life that quietly faded while you were heads down in the work - and ask yourself honestly why they aren’t as present anymore. Whether bringing them back might make the work better.