Cultivate

When I was in my earlier twenties the idea of a career seemed foreign to me. I understood the concept I just didn’t understand how I was suppose to adapt it to my life. A great deal of the people that were around my age seemed to let the preparation of an upcoming career governed there every decision. Everything was about preparing for a career.

The problem was that despite exploratory notions of being a teacher I knew that what I wanted to do was be a storyteller, whether it be in film, TV, or novel form. (whether it be long, short, or graphic). Essentially, I wanted to become a full time dreamer. To be honest there were times that it could be more than a little discouraging. Still, I believe that the quest is noble in it’s own little way. Storytelling is important, see my LOST entry for the reason why.

Trying to be a professional artist is not easy. It is basically like telling somebody that you want to be a spaceman when you grow up. Nobody doubts your sincerity but they encourage you to get your teaching degree.

Then I began to get this idea in my head that instead of thinking about a “career” I should seek to cultivate and subdue. This was put into my head by a pastor that I really dig named Matt Chandler. His advice made sense to me and it sort of put into words what I was feeling for a little while.

Now, here is what I learned.

We are supposed to cultivate during our time on Earth. We are suppose to set goals based on desires and work really hard to achieve them. We are supposed to sweat and work and pray that the land provides a crop. I believe this is the lesson that God spent a great deal of time trying to teach me.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I think every time I put my hand to the plow it is destined to work out. There will often be seasons of famine in which I will get frustrated and angry. But, the point is to keep trying to cultivate.

Maybe, if somebody told me to cultivate a career all those years ago it would have made sense.

In the last six months I have a few conversations about this very topic with a friend who happens to be a lovely and dedicated dancer. She has a passion for dancing and performing and she refuses to compromise. It is what she is trying to cultivate and she continues to work no matter how much she sweats from her brow and how many thorns the ground produces. I walked away from those conversations feeling very inspired, to say the least.

After those conversation I became serious about finally getting out another screenplay. I started to write some sketches. I accepted an opportunity to shoot some footage of the family of a friend, as well as the continued work on Hank Frisco. Most of these things are just about sowing seeds at this point, but hey the journey of a thousand steps begins with one. By the way, I'm sure that I butchered that proverb.

It’s about cultivating and working hard at what you want to do. Sure, you might have to pay your bills doing jobs that you don’t want to do. Still, I rather pour myself in trying to cultivate something than get comfortable doing anything.

I have grown up in a generation that expects everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. We seem to think that hard work is a thing of the past. When we don’t get what we want right away we tend to give up. Or maybe that is just me.

I also spent a great deal of my life being afraid to make a mistake or even fail. That is the topic of another post for another time.

For now I’m focusing on trying to cultivate.