Taking Yourself Seriously

Required: an accessible place to work that makes realizing dreams Convenient

So, I've half-decided & half-it's happening involuntarily to change by life by way of Taking Myself Seriously. My work, my art, my talents - viewing it all as a real thing, a real responsibility (to myself & the world), a real life purpose which is meaningful & important.

I know up to this point, Lbs has been a fashion/style/architecture blog, but now I'm branching out into self-improvement for the sake of evolution & to share stories along the strange road of the human condition in this modern life.

I googled "take yourself seriously" today & pared down/rewrote a couple of other peoples' good ideas that are already having a positive effect. This post will is about the importance of actively viewing our passion as possible, valuable & Serious!

Guiette House designed by Le Corbusier in 1926 

Here’s the thing: We all start small & sloppy, using our bedrooms & kitchens as makeshift studios, using whatever sparse, spare hours we can on the thing we really enjoy – our passion.

We all start as hobbyists, enthusiasts, etc. We give away our work as gifts or sell it at garage sales, or if we’re really ambitious, tiny craft fairs like little kids at a lemonade stand.

But guess what, You are NOT that anymore!

If you keep thinking of yourself as a hobbyist it will hold you back big time.

You are a professional, an artisan, and a guru.  You know SO much about your craft.  You are bursting with talent. You have a skill unlike most people.

So why aren’t you shouting it from the rooftops & blasting it on a website?

Can you not take a compliment with a straight face? Are you not claiming your worth?

Berndnaut Smilde's self-made cloud, Nimbus II, 2012

Get sick of disrespecting yourself. Diminishing & belittling your talent & desire.

You would not disrespect anyone else this much, so why yourself?

Below chunk is based on statements taken from:

http://www.rookiemag.com/2012/03/on-taking-yourself-seriously/

Your ambitions and desires are what give you a sense of self. If you don’t know what you want from life, it’s easy not try, or to define yourself based on your friends or lovers & what they’re doing. Seeking their approval or love can be in an effort to form your identity. You might tell yourself helping others or being a good listener is all the identity you require. But you can’t rely on others for that sense of self, because relationships are often impermanent. People can take away their approval, interest, or support at any time.

To form your sense of self separate from others’ views of you, think about what you enjoy, no matter how simple or ‘average’ you think it is. If money and time were no object, how would you like to spend your time? What was your favourite activity as a child? Think of your favourite memories? Where were you & What was happening?

Barbara Kruger's lithograph & serigraph on paper, Untitled (Be), 1985

When you know how you want to spend your time, which activity makes you feel accomplished, you are learning what you want. Knowing what you want & believing you have what it takes to get it—building your self-approval—helps you feel good about yourself despite what is going on with other people in your life.  

These are your interests & passions, unique to you. The difference between you and a ‘successful’ person – a person who is doing what you’d like to be doing – is that they took themselves seriously! Start taking yourself seriously as someone who can potentially do the thing you want to do. See yourself as a person who is making daily choices that direct your life towards your passion – the activity you want to spend your time doing. Regret & low self-esteem happen when we start to believe that the life or career we want will never happen. Why won’t they happen? Because we aren’t trying. And why aren’t we trying? Because We Aren’t Taking Ourselves Seriously!

This life is not a dress rehearsal. This is The Life, right Now!

Form a vision of what you really want to happen in your life. Envision it in your mind, clear as day, as though it’s your reality.

You are not a puppet that has someone else pulling the strings! You call the shots. You control your life. If there is Anyone doing what you wish you could do, then it is Possible to do it. And if there is no one doing it, then you can be the trailblazer & lead the way.

Coustilleres' hat factory, Septfonds, France 

Excerpt from a NY Times Magazine article published this past Sunday entitled: 

"What Hollywood Can Teach Us About the Future of Work" by Adam Davidson

"This approach to business is sometimes called the “Hollywood model.” A project is identified; a team is assembled; it works together for precisely as long as is needed to complete the task; then the team disbands. This short-­term, project-­based business structure is an alternative to the corporate model, in which capital is spent up front to build a business, which then hires workers for long-­term, open-­ended jobs that can last for years, even a lifetime.

With the Hollywood model, ad hoc teams carry out projects that are large and complex, requiring many different people with complementary skills. The Hollywood model is now used to build bridges, design apps or start restaurants. 

Our economy is in the midst of a grand shift toward the Hollywood model. More of us will see our working lives structured around short-­term, project-­based teams rather than long-­term, open­-ended jobs."

Below is some good (edited) advice from: 

http://indieinkpublishing.com/are-you-taking-yourself-seriously-as-a-writer/

I altered & condensed it so that it isn't just for writers !

Take yourself seriously. If you don’t take yourself and your craft seriously, why should anybody else? Work on your passion like it’s your job. Still, you’re only human, so don’t beat yourself up for the days life gets in the way.

Lady Gaga & Lady Starlight around 2007 --which means she was taking her self seriously at 21

Go to events. People are scary, yes, but If you want people to recognize you, you’ll have to put a face to a name eventually. Go anywhere someone is doing something even remotely related to your passion. Don’t just go out with the intention of networking—people can tell, and it’s gross. Go out with the intention of having fun and meeting like-minded people. And don’t just go to events you know you’ll love. Try something new. Just go.

Be active on social media. Accept that social media is existentially questionable, and move on. Use the absurdity of the medium to your advantage: follow and befriend your role models or people in the industry. And then, after you’ve followed them, interact with them! Do something that shows you’re worth following back. Be interactive. Don’t just post or tweet about your own events. Always be conscious of your agenda, but don’t draw attention to it. Get involved in the conversation.

school tried to show us we need a workspace in order to work on things.

Submit your work, Enter contests etc. Regardless of your end goal, you shouldn’t just be submitting your work to the top of food chain companies/galleries etc you should also be submitting your work to small places, other artists for potential group shows, and contests as well. You’re going to be rejected – don’t take it personally. Submitting your work is the only way to ever make a name for yourself, though, and they’re never going to publish you if you don’t send them your work. So submit.

Barbara Kruger's "Will"

The best way to maximize your chances of getting noticed is to research what they’ve recently done, their style, so that you can submit only your relevant work - don’t waste your time or theirs. When a person is being paid minimally (or perhaps not at all!) to slog through thousands of submissions a year, they will not spend time on your piece if it doesn’t adhere to the guidelines on their submissions page. With a bit of preparation and a lot of perseverance, a bit of common sense and luck, the quality of your work will eventually speak for itself.