Every February is the deadline for Adobe Creative Residency applications. The Residency is an amazing opportunity to get funding and mentorship and focus on your passion project without any distraction. Thank you, Adobe, for supporting creatives with this opportunity!
The application process alone is super helpful for getting laser-focused and specific on creative ideas swirling around in your brain. If you've got an idea you're stoked on, it's absolutely worthwhile to apply.
The past two years I've applied and didn't get in, so when the New Year arrived I knew the deadline would be following shortly. Between then and now, no ideas got me goin' until a few nights ago, when I had a brief a-ha! moment while crawling into bed.
A little something I made this week
As I began developing this idea and project pitch, something wasn’t aligning internally. The Residency still sounded like an opportunity I'd be SO grateful for, but I found resistance with my project. Rather than feeling excitement and eagerness for the chance to bring my idea to life, it felt like an obligation.
“I don’t want to regret not applying”, I told my boyfriend when mulling over whether to send in the application or not. “Might as well…”
But if there’s one thing I don’t want to do in my art and creative career, it’s half ass.. anything. I made a pact to stop doing that this year. No more under-charging. No more spreading myself too thin. No more applying for an opportunity just because it’s there.
Our society values more. But just because we might be capable of doing more at this moment doesn’t mean we should. What intrigues me most is intention, ease, and conscious choices.
So instead of making another cup (or 5) of coffee and filming, drawing, and developing this application until the wee hours, followed by a 24-hour push to relaunch a newly designed website, I am BREATHING. I am closing my laptop. I am getting out a book that’s been feeding my soul, putting on sweatpants, and making herbal tea.
Sometimes (nope, always) you're better off going the direction your intuition is leading you. You might sense it in your body or just have a knowing feeling in your gut, and it's always wise to listen.
You know what to do.