The Hustle: How to Honor Your Creative Journey
With so much focus on creative careers, it’s easy to have the broader creative journey get lost in the business and busy-ness. But the career? It’s nothing without the journey. As you hone and use your voice in this noisy industry and world, we invited Kt McBratney of Own Trail, to share advice on how to re-center and honor your creative journey regardless of where you are at the moment!
Kt McBratney is a storyteller at heart. With a career path including roles at a world-recognized zoo, higher education, indie film and all kinds of tech, they co-founded OwnTrail in 2020 to help everyone have the tools and connection to build a more fulfilling life. Formerly CMO at Seed&Spark, Kt is also a writer, visual artist and strategist obsessed with disrupting “the status bro.”
1. Recognize where you are
Where you are today is worthy on its own. It’s also a reflection of your accomplishments, choices and the obstacles you’ve overcome thus far both professionally and personally. Break out of those siloes and look holistically at your journey. (OwnTrail is a great tool for this that you can continue use as your journey unfolds!)
Not only will this help you see that the journey is ongoing, it creates a mental shift away from the capitlistic go-go-go produce-produce-produce that creates pressure and focuses us only on what’s next. It might very well surface some things you’re quite proud of but haven’t honored in a while. Some of these might be external, like your first script or an award, and other might be internal or less visible like meeting your collaborator or starting to call yourself an artist.
Take the time to honor these experiences.
2. Separate aspirations from goals
Okay, semantics first: goals are one type of aspiration but not all aspirations are goals. Goals are more concrete. They’re measurable, specific and once named out loud, something we often feel obligated to take all the way to the finish line. Aspirations can be broader, more nebulous. They’re a naming of a possibility instead of a commitment. Your goal may be to get your film into 5 festivals this year (go you!), but your aspiration could be to continue to make bigger and higher budget projects. It could be to feel more confident, to build your creative community, to establish your voice.
Recognize the difference between goals and aspirations, and don’t hold back from letting your aspirations run wild. Remember, they’re simply naming some of the endless possibilities ahead of you. If you need help getting those aspirations out of your head and into words, get inspired by those of others! Explore trails on OwnTrail is a great way to see what you never knew might be possible for you…and those possibilities are endless.
3. Find the through line
Credit: https://unsplash.com/@girlwithredhat
Whether you dream of nabbing a big festival premiere, building an audience or making your creative work your fulltime career, you’ll have to answer three big questions at some point: why you, why this and why now.
They seem simple at surface level. But when you spend your creative energies telling other stories and even creating entire worlds, articulating your story can feel like a challenge. But if you’ve spent the time to reflect on where you’ve been, where you are and where you might go from here, the answers are at your fingertips.
Take a step back and look at what connects those experiences. Perhaps it’s a desire to express yourself or a passion to shine a spotlight on others. Maybe it’s an early formative experience. It could be a personality trait or personal value. Whatever the why, it’s unique to you and precisely the reason that you are the one. If you have the authentic narrative of your journey, you can spot the throughline and make it shine in its full glory.
4. Keep going
Remember, the journey is ongoing. Your creative journey, just like the trail you’re blazing across your full life, will only continue to unfold over time. Your destinations, direction and methods will likely change as you go — embrace it!
In an industry rife with comparison, build and sustain your momentum by remembering there’s no single one right path. Success is what you define it as for yourself. What matters is that you keep going, staying connected to and authentic in your journey. And know that we’re 100% here for that over at OwnTrail.