Just Do The Thing and Let Everybody Else Sort it Out

I spent the first 20 years of my career in an internal battle with what I should call myself.

Artist, Illustrator, Game Maker?

The labels were killing me because all I’ve ever craved is to exist in this world and be myself. No masking.

The experts said I needed to narrow down and focus on one idea.

I couldn’t do it.

My life was way too divergent for that.

I spent some days doing storyboards for advertising; other days, I made animations for E-Learning, then I’d design a video game. Then I‘d be illustrating for a magazine. Then I’d end up laying out a magazine. 

I learned how to invest in the stock market.

I’ve taught courses at colleges and Universities.

I doodled like crazy. Always the same thing. Dolls.

Then I took up coding.

I got a lot of puttering hobbies to boot. Gardening, weight lifting, hiking.

My spare time has been spent doing home improvement projects.

My FOMO has always been,  “Can I play there too?”

I’m not interested in outsourcing. I want to do it myself. I like to play the business game. (except marketing, I hate marketing).

For some of you reading, this may sound exhausting, but for me, it’s the only way. I have an inexplicable need to try everything. EVERYTHING.

I used to fight against it and try to take the advice of those overly confident experts. But, I realized that trying to focus was the only thing causing me burnout. 

And some of those things I get genuinely obsessed with improving at.

I wouldn’t classify what the fuck I was, and yet every article I read about being a successful business said to solve one and only one problem.

The illustration business told me to sell only one style, but I was hawking five. Feeling bad about myself for not focusing on just one and being unable to get a rep (remember, I hate marketing) because their sales teams didn’t know what to do with me.

I started painting because it was on my original bucket list.

I thought aha, this will be my thing. But alas…. It wasn’t “the thing.” It was just another thing that I loved.

So what have I learned?

In this life, you can do anything you want, and you don’t have to put it on display to be successful. Success is in the doing. Happiness is in the deed.

Don’t label it.

Don’t label yourself.

Just do the thing and let everybody else sort it out.