I’m a Beautiful Butterfly

As a creative, I know it can often feel more about the end destination - the project, the product, whatever you have made, whatever deadline you have created it for… but what if we turned that on its end and it was actually about the journey? What if the biggest goal you set for yourself was being present throughout the entire ever-changing process?

Picture, if you will, a happy little caterpillar living its best life, eating the foods it loves, soaking up the sunshine, and finding comfort in its little home. Now, say that caterpillar has emerged as a stunning butterfly, what everyone expects it to do - the endgame. But what if it was happier learning, and growing and changing… what if the beautiful butterfly didn’t get all the glory, but the insanely intricate process, the entire world it created for itself, every other bug it met along the way and befriended, was just as celebrated?

What if the difference between a task and a goal is just that? The task is your outcome, what you’ve physically created from your imagination and presented in whatever medium you use - paint, digital art, sculpture, visual merchandising, music, etc. - but your goal is to do something you’ve never done before. Your goal was to meet someone new on your journey and be open enough to collaborate to create something you could never have preconceived alone. Your goal was to feel confident in what you have to offer this world, knowing that your point of view is different than anybody else’s.

So often, when I am asked what my goals are, I feel pressured to give the most tangible answer - I want to write and illustrate a children’s book and have it published, or I want to paint a mural outside of my own home. But, in reality, I want to try something new that I never imagined I could figure out how to do. Maybe if I focus on the different ways in which I could meet that goal and realize up front that it may take on a solution I haven’t even thought of yet, then I can better trust and enjoy the process along the way.

I won’t feel defeated if I start drawing and writing that children’s book and get stuck. I can put it down and step back and better research that process. I can step away and focus on a bold, beautiful mural in my friend’s kiddo’s playroom and see what that feels like. I can take those drawings for the children’s book I started but pitch it as a board game design instead - maybe it works better that way! And then, just maybe, my friend’s sister-in-law will see the mural in the playroom and want one for her yoga studio and commission me to do it. You can only control so much of the process; you must succumb to the experience it creates.

Who knows what possibilities are open to us when we leave things a little more open-ended (or uncomfortable creative)?

What are your goals? I’d love to hear them - send me a message and share them here!