I Want To Be A...
Okay, I can see how this soap-box-y bit is kind of a good thing for creative folk (via wilw on Twitter), but I don't think it's of much help to me, personally, because I don't know how to complete the title sentence.
I have all kinds of hobbies that I want to be good at, but I really always imagine them as exactly that: hobbies. Something I do on my own time, and not to pay the bills (even if I might have aspirations of making and selling craft items--that's still a hobby, I don't expect to eke out a living with it even if I'd love to find recognition through crafts or writing or drawing etc.). I'd say I want to be a software developer, except... I already am one. Not necessarily a good one (which is not what is addressed in the aforementioned blog), but I certainly AM one for better or worse.
This is interesting, because I seem to have some friends who are in grad school or varying stages of their careers where they have something they still want to be that they do not consider themselves to be, so perhaps the advice therein will be useful to them. I do like the essence of the message--if you want it badly enough, you have to live it and be it and if you've got excuses as to why you aren't that yet... I dunno. I'd say maybe you don't want it badly enough, but that seems like such a harsh judgment.
It's just puzzling how it came to be that I... either still don't know how to complete the title sentence or have nothing left in the original plan to reach for. Perhaps it's time to try and live the hobbies, too? o_0 (Was I flat out aiming too low with my life?) It just seems that there is more a list of things which I wish to accomplish than a thing/person/occupation I actually want to be. No burning passion to be one something in particular, just a general want to be better at making the things I want to make and doing the things I want to do. This can't really be confused with being happy with myself--totally still despise myself--but... it's gotta mean something, right?
I have all kinds of hobbies that I want to be good at, but I really always imagine them as exactly that: hobbies. Something I do on my own time, and not to pay the bills (even if I might have aspirations of making and selling craft items--that's still a hobby, I don't expect to eke out a living with it even if I'd love to find recognition through crafts or writing or drawing etc.). I'd say I want to be a software developer, except... I already am one. Not necessarily a good one (which is not what is addressed in the aforementioned blog), but I certainly AM one for better or worse.
This is interesting, because I seem to have some friends who are in grad school or varying stages of their careers where they have something they still want to be that they do not consider themselves to be, so perhaps the advice therein will be useful to them. I do like the essence of the message--if you want it badly enough, you have to live it and be it and if you've got excuses as to why you aren't that yet... I dunno. I'd say maybe you don't want it badly enough, but that seems like such a harsh judgment.
It's just puzzling how it came to be that I... either still don't know how to complete the title sentence or have nothing left in the original plan to reach for. Perhaps it's time to try and live the hobbies, too? o_0 (Was I flat out aiming too low with my life?) It just seems that there is more a list of things which I wish to accomplish than a thing/person/occupation I actually want to be. No burning passion to be one something in particular, just a general want to be better at making the things I want to make and doing the things I want to do. This can't really be confused with being happy with myself--totally still despise myself--but... it's gotta mean something, right?