The Art of Going Pro: living professionally II

Last week I took our frame­work to a dif­fer­ent level in order to refine the con­cept of being pro­fes­sional and begin paint­ing an image of what a pro­fes­sional looks like.Describ­ing each char­ac­ter­is­tic of a pro­fes­sional in behav­ioral terms helps form the palette for cre­at­ing a visual foun­da­tion of what makes a pro­fes­sional artist.

Remember…the point of this exer­cise is to give us as artists, espe­cially visual artists, a code made up of behav­ioral and visual ele­ments to build our own artis­tic iden­tity on. If we can develop a solidly built iden­tity that frames what we do we will be lay­ing the foot­ings for chang­ing the way we are seen by soci­ety. In the process we become our own change agents, our own sieves because our iden­tity will be so clear that only those who iden­tify with us in gen­eral and our respec­tive visions will remain.

My hope is that the more we clar­ify our iden­ti­ties the more our value will increase because we value our­selves more and in turn our abil­ity  to sup­port our­selves by doing what we love.

The pro focuses on being heard

The pro knows from hard learned expe­ri­ence the mythic nature of think­ing he can do all and be all. He knows, even though he can do what­ever he wants, there are some­things that are not in his best inter­est, he pays atten­tion to his inten­tions, watch­ful of any mis-steps that would lead him away from those he has cho­sen to serve.

He knows the dis­ser­vice he does to both him­self and the stew­ards of his work by dilut­ing the qual­ity and vision his work rep­re­sents, if he tries to meet all the needs of any­one who might be inter­ested in what he makes. He rec­og­nizes that such actions will lead even­tu­ally to deval­u­a­tion of his voice and his work.

So, after exten­sive research of his mar­ket, he pri­or­i­tizes, plac­ing his focus on those who would most relate to his work and his voice. His pri­or­i­ties reflect a focus to become and remain vis­i­ble to just those peo­ple who hear his voice. He spares no effort to seek out and know his peo­ple. Their need for solu­tions are para­mount to him.

The pro accepts reality

A true pro has the wis­dom to know that life is life, some­times it is hard other times it is easy. She accepts that ease is not the cri­te­ria for mea­sur­ing value, she knows that some parts of her work will be easy and is thank­ful for the ease while other parts may be hard, she is grate­ful for the learn­ing and wis­dom she gains from the hard times. She knows that the rich­ness of life is con­tained in its’ ups and downs, she doesn’t spend much time try­ing to avoid the downs or judg­ing her per­for­mance instead she spends her time in the present and learns from her suc­cesses because they are the key to growth.

She is like the marathoner who knows the hard­est part is towards the end and the best way to make it through the pain is her intu­itive knowl­edge that every­thing ends, noth­ing is per­ma­nent. So, when a cri­sis hits, she gets through it with the knowl­edge that this to will end. Armed with that mind­set she doesn’t try to spend time on neg­a­tive what if’s instead she lets go of out­comes and pays atten­tion to what is in front of her .

The pro is not attached to every­one lik­ing her work because she knows only those with the cor­rectly tuned hear­ing will hear  and under­stand her voice. She nur­tures those who under­stand her as if they were kin,  they don’t need to be sold and because of the kin­ship they are more than will­ing to help bring oth­ers like them­selves. She is firmly planted in the notion that her role is to ensure those who under­stand her work, have the best oppor­tu­nity to become stew­ards of it.

She knows, deep inside, that more often than not things take time, and while she may expe­ri­ence emo­tions that could drive her to give up she hangs in there with the self knowl­edge and trust that she will know if and when to change course.

A pro is ded­i­cated to mastery

The pro doesn’t believe in sacred gifts granted from on high, he knows his “gift” comes from hours and years devoted to learn­ing because that is what ignites his tal­ents. He is a dis­owns pop­u­lar con­cepts of “overnight suc­cess”. Instead he wel­comes  chal­lenge with a deep know­ing that a dip as another chance to grow and learn. He rejoices in oth­ers’ suc­cess and shares the fruits of his growth because suc­cess doesn’t require another’s fail­ure. He sees his role as a men­tor, helper and is not afraid to share his wis­dom when asked. He knows that mas­tery does not equal superiority.

He shares with­out ego, his shar­ing is not moti­vated to estab­lish his supe­ri­or­ity, instead it is moti­vated out of grat­i­tude. He shares not to con­tinue his legacy but to con­tinue the legacy of his work and it’s growth. He shares because he knows his  work’s  life depends on it to sur­vive, he shares to ensure a strong line of replacements.

For him mas­tery is the jour­ney of  his life­time, his growth,  and the des­ti­na­tion is not  per­fec­tion but rather the jour­ney itself. He knows his path will often be unknown, unseen, inde­scrib­able and lead to mis­taken choices, but he is none the less ded­i­cated to pur­su­ing it. His faith in the path keeps him mov­ing and gives him strength when he feels defeated.

The pro chooses growth, seek­ing out chal­lenges, always “play­ing up” because he knows mas­tery is not the result of tak­ing the easy path, but rather the unknown, risky one. He does not fear the pos­si­bil­ity of fail­ure, instead he embraces it, because he would rather learn and grow than stag­nate in safety. Most impor­tantly, he does not let fear define him, instead he sheds the attach­ments to pre­de­ter­mined out­comes that drive fear. He knows in let­ting go he takes power away from fear by elim­i­nat­ing judg­ment, he knows his own self insight is his best tool for keep­ing fear in its’ place.

On the prac­ti­cal side he does not hes­i­tate to acquire the skills needed to mas­ter his work, and in doing so he knows mas­tery is only a point on a con­tin­uum of learn­ing and not a final des­ti­na­tion. In order to acquire the needed skills he does not hes­i­tate to self invest, he knows that side step­ping this impor­tant part of mas­tery is only a dis­trac­tion dri­ven by fear. He also knows that mas­tery is the block of cred­i­bil­ity, that brings trust from those who need him.

Com­ing next…the final pieces of liv­ing professionally.