The Day I Tried to Sell My Art Was the Day I Started to Hate It

How to avoid running your passion when turning it into a career.

I think we’ve all heard that to be happy you should do what you love as a job. However, it’s usually ruined when you realise that if you do that, you’ll no longer find enjoyment in doing it.

This has stopped me from turning many of my hobbies into careers.

But why does this happen, and how do you make sure it doesn’t?

I’ll get into that.

First, let me tell you about my experience in trying to sell my art and eventually turning it into a career.

My art, and why I could not do it as a job

The art I find myself rather good at is a technique called ‘stippling’, where you draw thousands or even millions of tiny dots that later create an image.

I like to draw a lot of trees in this way.

It takes patience. A lot of it.

I think in order to complete a drawing like this, I have to make sure that the time I spend on it, I won’t waste or rush into it and then dislike it.

It really is a game of patience.

Once my focus is lost, or I get ahead of myself: I’ve already gone too far and can’t go back (I draw only in pen).

So now imagine how focused I have to be when I want to create a piece that someone will look at and want to buy.

This is where stress tries to get involved.

Stress is the reason I cannot do art as a career

I’m not usually the person to get stressed about anything. In fact, I'm usually the last person to get stressed.

Unless I’m under a lot of pressure, which is exactly what happens when I try and draw to sell.

That piece of paper has to be immaculate, and I'm simply too messy.

It always ends up having fingerprints on it from where I’ve held the paper down with my hand and then pressed the ink down somewhere else.

That’s it.

Game over.

When drawing like this, stress really gets to me. If I didn’t have to worry about ruining my piece, I wouldn’t care. But when you have to constantly think about whether it’s good enough, or whether you’ve just ruined it by adding something, or whether you just put a fingerprint on it by accident and now can’t get rid of it. Stress really begins to flood your entire body and it becomes too much.

I want to stop and start again

Once I get flooded with stress. I don’t even want to look at the picture anymore.

I have the urge to move on to something new. This is the point where it really stops being something I enjoy and becomes a job.

That’s what it’s like for many, many people. They begin their dream job. Something they truly love and have a passion for, and a couple of months later they no longer find enjoyment in doing it.

It’s then that it simply becomes a job.

So how do you make sure that you still love what you do?

First of all. Take some deep breathes.

You can do what you love as a job and still love every second of it. It’s possible. But most people ruin it by pressuring themselves into it.

Before you turn your passion into a career think about whether you will love doing it day in and day out.

Personally, I can’t draw every day. I can’t sit all day and draw either. I need to do something in between or I lose my sh*t.

I think a lot of people will relate to that.

But…

Maybe the thing you want to do doesn’t require you to do it day in and day out?

Then pursue it!

Go ahead and do what you can to make that passion your driving income, because you can’t be happier than when you do what makes you the happiest you can be as a job.

If it’s already your career: stop thinking of it as a job

This is the thing that leads most people off the track of happiness in their jobs.

If you make yourself think that what you’re doing is your job then you’ll forget about the enjoyment and excitement it brings you.

Re-ignite the fire that drove you to once having that incredible burning passion. Fall in love with it all over again and you’ll find happiness in it once again.

If you have tried and cannot do it, then maybe making your passion-fueled hobby into a career wasn’t the right thing to do at the time.

I suggest changing this before you completely get lost and find yourself on the path to complete unhappiness.

So what happened to me selling my art?

Well, I think that the best thing to do is keep it as a secondary source of income. Making a little bit more on the side can never hurt me after all.

If you’re in a position similar to mine then remember: don’t give up. Simply try again but remember: it’s your passion, not your job.

Maybe now you too will find the spark to re-ignite your passion.