Starving Artist – we all know the old phase and what it implies.  If you do what you love, the best you can hope for is unending struggle.  And what about – Do what you love and the money will follow.  We all know that is wishful thinking!

We also know that a few people can do what they love because we see them – but not us.  They are the lucky, the talented, the athletic, the connected and we might as well not even try because we have none of those precious gifts.

The only thing that seems open to us is it to do what we love as a hobby.  That is what sane people do – work full time doing something else and do what we love in our free time on nights and weekends.  We have to be practical!  Our hobby might eventually grow into a business but don’t jinx it by thinking about that!

If for some crazy reason you try to do what you love full time, you  might be able to get away with it for a while, but you will ultimately fail.  The timing won’t be right, the market won’t be ready, you’ll be too early, too late, in the wrong place…   And to think you saved money for years to have this short but exhilarating experience!

The ‘gig economy’ is also a possibility.  I just read that 46% of American participate.  We can all have 3 part time jobs, drive for Uber and rent our homes on Airbnb.  We won’t be doing what we love but at least we will have some freedom and not be doing what we hate!

The best we can hope for is to do what we love as a ‘side hustle’.  We keep our full time job and make some extra money offering our best and most precious gift to the world – our baking, our painting, our sewing, our photography, our graphic design, our web design, our farming, our storytelling – all of the things that make the world unique and beautiful – on the side.

We are all familiar with these scenarios.  They are conventional wisdom (that I would call cultural wisdom).  We’ve all heard each of them and many of us have lived each of them!   Now let’s look at them from a broader perspective.  When we step back and look at all of them together, we see an arc – a slowly ascending spiral of possibility.  Each scenario – while bleak if doing what you love is a burning passion in your heart as it is in mine – each is a whole evolution better than the one before.  And look at what comes next!!!  The next turn of the spiral is to do what we love as our real life, full time gig!  Could it be true?

Could doing what we love be coming into the world as the next evolution of cultural wisdom?  Who is the culture after all?  We are!  The deep desires and fears of humanity rise up as our culture.  And our culture has been deeply dissatisfied for a while now.  Some parts of our collective nature are hard to look at in this moment, but it is only by bringing them into daylight where we can see them that we can address them.  While the events in the world right now are painful to see, it is only by seeing them that we can participate in creating a new culture, a new consciousness in the world.

So what does doing what we love and creating a new consciousness in the world have in common?  Satisfied people create a satisfied world.  Balanced people create a balanced world.  Loving people create a loving world.  Creating a loving world seems like a tall order right now.  So how do we even begin?  We begin by – each one of us – creating a life that we love.  We begin by living a life that offers our deepest gifts to the world.  It is by loving ourselves enough to honor and offer our truest selves to the world all day, every day that we create a loving world.

The world is clearly ready, people are clearly longing to feel a new sense of inclusion.  No one can stand to be dissatisfied in their life anymore – not offering their most unique and joyful gifts.  No one can stand to feel marginalized anymore – not given the opportunity to contribute or not honored for their contribution.  And I am not talking about the third world or some minority/majority of Americans, I am talking about you and me.  We have all been marginalized by not being called upon to offer our greatest gifts to the world.  It is our culture that has marginalized us.  It is we who have marginalized ourselves.  It was all we knew to do at the time.  It was how we thought the system worked.  And now we’ve created this huge upswelling of discontent to give us the opportunity to see a new way.

People want to be deeply honored and fully accepted for who they are.  This creates a culture of social justice which brings environmental sustainability and economic prosperity.  Feel for the truth in this – connection and loving acceptance is the entry point that starts the  domino effect of environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. And not the old economic prosperity, the new living economy made up of people like you and me sharing our most unique and precious gifts with the world – global right-livelihood.  A world of satisfied and loving people creates a satisfied and loving world.

And loving acceptance starts with ourselves.  It starts with us fully accepting who we are and what we love to do as our greatest gifts to the world.  Lead with these things, these deep truths about ourselves and our unique offering, and we align with love in the world. Our offer is complete before it even leaves our lips because our heart is full of the joy of giving and the joy of being heard and seen as our true selves.  We are fulfilled.

You worry there is no market for a full time juggler?  I know a full time juggler!  There is a new version of supply and demand in the world based on our unique self expression. When we are aligned with our heart, we will be supported by humanity.  Humanity is the new economy.  Personal fulfillment creates cultural fulfillment creates global fulfillment.  And it all starts with doing what we love.