When navigating the current of the creative career, strategic planning is intrinsic to the successful realization of artistic and commercial goals. Although time is a necessary component in the execution and actualization of each career goal point, there will inevitably be personal or professional challenges that confront even the most fortified strategy, requiring decisive action in the form of patient perseverance, acknowledgment and acceptance of unexpected detours, or a wild-card leap forward to sync with opportunities ahead. In a career path and marketplace anchored in and defined by change and trends, how can artists and creatives embrace and adapt to the decisions that are necessary to the successful evolution of their careers without settling for a lower version of their creative vision or jeopardizing their career strategy?
Regardless of profession or industry, a marriage of faith and action are key to weathering and overcoming career challenges—per the oft-quoted proverb: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding.” For artists, more specifically, a cognitive faith is key in navigating the inevitable re-org of strategic plans—and is marked by the ability to not only have faith and hope towards the realization of artistic and commercial success, but to remain objective in the midst of challenges, in recognizing that all change—whether good, bad, or ugly—is actively working together toward realizing the Creator’s purpose for an artist’s gifts, per the following popular passage of scripture, excerpted from the letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church of Rome:
“We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.”
A cognitive faith, steered by an intuition voiced through relationship and mentorship under the Creator, as the origin and author of an artist’s creativity, provides direction in embracing the decision to continue knocking on closed doors or in the adherence to resulting detours, or a definitive leap of action from a place of trust. Such faith allows for synchronicity of purpose to take form and is preventive against career stagnation and spectatorship.
When artists and creatives execute from a cognitive faith, there are no fear-based gambles—but benefits, in the knowledge and insights gained from wins and losses. As the centerpiece of creation—created in the image of God, with the power to create—artists can work in confidence and expectancy of career opportunities that will provide the highest expression of their creativity, according to the Creator’s creative intent and purpose--as evidenced by the space provided for the whole of creation to give voice to his creative glory and artistic intelligence, as paralleled in the following Psalm:
“How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!
How plainly it shows what he has done!
Each day announces it to the following day;
Each night repeats it to the next.
No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;
Yet their message goes out to all the world
And is heard to the ends of the earth.
God made a home in the sky for the sun;
It comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom,
Like an athlete eager to run a race.
It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other.
Nothing can hide from its heat.”
The Creator provides a space for all of his creation to perform according to his purpose—In the case of artists and creatives, a cognitive faith, rooted in relationship with the Creator, can provide the mentorship which successfully informs the course of action that will ultimately evolve individual gifts and talents towards effective creativity and career sustainability.