Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
If someone followed you for a month, would they know you’re an artist without you ever telling them?
Not by what you said. By what they saw.
I asked myself this question before I asked anyone else. I could point to ideas. Drafts. Good intentions. The gap was larger than expected.
The Premise
Imagine if someone followed you and me for a month. They haven’t heard us talk about our goals. Never been to our websites. Watching only how we spend our days.
What would they conclude?
Your and my answers wouldn’t matter. Not even our intentions. The only measure would be what happened again and again.
The writing. Picking up your axe. The project moving forward rather than waiting another day.
Our stories belong to us.
Our actions belong to the record.
The Measure
These aren’t questions I would have asked years ago.
Back then, I was more interested in where I was headed than in what my daily life revealed.
As you move on, experience has a way of changing your perspective. Life removes explanations and leaves you with something harder to ignore.
I’m not looking for reasons to feel guilty. Guilt rarely changes anything. The search is for an honest record.
If the evidence supports the accounts we tell ourselves, that’s encouraging. If it doesn’t, isn’t it smarter to know now than to keep repeating the same tale?
When nothing changes, nothing changes.
That’s why these questions matter. I’m not looking for the right answers. The measure asks whether my life tells the same story I do.
The Evidence Questions
I don’t ask myself these things every day. That would become another routine, another box to check. They tend to show up when I feel stuck, when a project stalls, or when I catch myself talking about the work more than actually doing it.
I know. You’re expecting ten questions. So is the algorithm. Sorry to disappoint.
If someone followed me for a month, what would they see that proves creating matters to me?
Does the calendar support the identity I claim to have, or tell a different story?
If the conversation about creative goals stopped tomorrow, what evidence would remain?
What has been finished that couldn’t have existed without time and attention?
What has been willingly given up because the work deserved the space?
Looking at the way I spend my days, would someone conclude that my art shapes my life, or that I squeeze it in whenever nothing else gets in the way?
The answers aren’t always the ones I’d hoped for. That’s why the questions keep coming back.
A Few Caveats
Before anyone mistakes this for another lecture on what it takes to become an artist, a few caveats.
None of this has anything to do with expensive gear, endless hours, quitting your job, or chasing recognition. Life doesn’t hand out the same circumstances to all of us.
Some people are raising children. Some are caring for aging parents. Others are working two jobs just to keep creating. Those realities matter.
That’s why the evidence won’t look the same.
For one person, it may be thirty minutes at the piano before the rest of the house wakes up. For another, it might be finishing a chapter during a lunch break or carving out a Saturday in the studio after a sixty-hour workweek.
The point isn’t how much. The point is that the work keeps finding a place in your life.
That’s the evidence.
That, despite everything competing for our attention, creating continues to leave its mark on the way we live.
Can We Help You?
If someone followed you for a month, what evidence would they find that your art matters to you?
Because sometimes the wisest person in the studio has four paws.
Continue The Journey
The Fire of Inspiration: A Journey into Artistic Genius explores the philosophy of Mack-n-Cheeze Music in greater depth.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today.
If this post made you stop and think, I’d love to hear your answer. Share your thoughts in the comments below, share this post with another creative, and subscribe if you’d like to carry on the conversation.
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