How to live a full-time creative life

while working for someone else

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Just in case you skipped over the subheader completely, this is not a how-to guide for quitting your 9-5 job to write and create full-time. (In fact, I have a 9-5-j-o-b.)

During a recent bout of morning pages, I was doing the usual commiseration about how “living the full-time creative life is how I’m meant to liiiive.”

“Inspired by” is what my higher self would claim, but to be clear, there’s some absolute comparison happening of others who can support themselves financially by writing and creating full-time. I’m jealous, to be sure.

As I was commiserating and admiring those who’ve “done the thing,” I realized this was an opportunity to reframe for myself. I asked, “Self, what does it mean to live a full-time creative life?” Broken down, it comes down to creating, full-time.

Defining a full-time creative life

What do we mean by full-time?

The term “full-time,” as most people would recognize, is in a job where someone spends approximately 40 hours, as culturally accepted (at least, in the U.S.)

Once people started advocating for better working conditions after the Industrial Revolution, this led to several iterations to increase the efficiency of workers. Eventually, this led to 1940 when the 40-hour work week became U.S. law.

Our lives tend to be measured by the time committed and tasks delegated to the career we pursue. Even as an entrepreneur, it comes down to “what we do” and how often we do it (i.e. gig economy, freelance, salaried, part-time, etc.)

So, with those parameters (1. creating and 2. full-time), how could I gift myself a full-time creative life?

Is it really all about mindset?

In a recent Note, I asked others to weigh in on what it means to live a full-time creative life. Here were some thoughts shared:

“If the someone else who you’re working for is in a creative field, I can see how that can be considered ‘full-time.’ But if you’re only able to express creativity in your personal life, that’s probably more part-time… This is quite the existential topic…” — Jenn Kashiwa

“I have a ‘full-time’ creative life. But I am no longer gainfully employed (a euphemism for being ‘retired’ from paying work). So, instead, I have spent the last five years writing a novel…” — Geoffrey Gevalt

“I’ve chosen to step off the train to the extent possible and only ‘work for someone else’ as a contractor, which allows me to do the work I’m good at and leave behind the endless meetings, office politics, meaningless parties, and all the other shackles that come with a j.o.b. The rest is all me—writing, painting, (soaking in a hot spring this morning), traveling, adventuring, dressing how I want…” — Dr. Wendy Pabich

“Sometimes I wonder if creativity is more an attitude than action in that we can be creative in our approach to living life in general - so attuning to our innate creativity in the process.” — Dr. Rachel

I have a 40-hour workweek job as a Creative Manager. (The irony is not lost on me.) It challenges and regularly fulfills me. It also gives me health insurance and a regular, steady paycheck with a remote work environment that allows me some flexibility compared to other 9-5 jobs. Plus, I work with really cool people. Grateful doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about this job, and I recognize I’m fortunate.

And yet, when I’m in back-to-back meetings, my eye is drawn to my “Writing” Google tab, longing to sit and write. To read poetry and write poems after what I’ve just read. To take a long stretch of doing nothing but morning pages. (Hence the aforementioned commiserating.)

When I have an 8-hour block on my calendar between those morning pages and, well, everything else, I begin to believe I can’t support myself as a creative because I’m not doing so full-time.

As I’ve been mulling over the meaning of “full-time” and how it doesn’t have to necessarily be about the amount of time spent at a job, I realized: I live, full-time!

I am filling my life with creativity, joy, and aesthetic pleasures every day. (And if I find a day that I’m not, then it’s time to reassess.) When I’m wondering about the value of my work as a writer, I realize I downplay its importance/quality/inherent worthiness because I’m not doing it for pay, full-time.

And of course, I do live a creative life! When I’m putting outfits together, decorating for the holidays, and taking time to add frothed almond milk with a dash of cinnamon to my coffee because it feels like I’m in a cozy coffee shop, I’m creating my aesthetic. I’m creating when I imagine myself as a rockstar while driving down the highway in the Jeep. I’m creating when I pick out the various colors in the trees and plastic lawn decorations while I take my neighborhood walks. I’m creating when diving into a new interest, like learning French, blind-tasting wine, and book annotating. And, of course, I’m creative when I write poetry. Poetry is my art.

(Ooof — that was hard to type! “Poetry is my art”?! Who do I think I am??? I’m regularly learning to own writing and poetry as my art. Publishing on Substack feels like a necessary stake in the ground. Everyone has their art, regardless of how anyone measures it.)

Internal struggle aside, creating full-time is just that. Creating. While I have big dreams and goals I’m working toward with my writing (my *gulp* art), I’m also creating every single day, in my life, which I live full-time.

I have to remind myself I exist outside of the accepted 40-hour week. So, how to live a full-time creative life? Create, and live.

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If you’re new here…

Hi! I’m Jordan, and Shade Cactus is where being a homebody and always planning your next travel adventure come to meet. It’s a travel blog / poetry newsletter / attempt to understand my inner world a bit better each day.

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