Identity Crisis.

Identity Crisis.

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Hey B! Do you still do art and stuff?

I get asked this questions everytime I run into someone from my past. And my response after a short pause is, sure man, I still do art. I used to get mad at this questions because I never saw myself as an artist and most times I still don’t. But it took me a while to realize that back in the day, I did art enough for most of the people I grew up with to identify me as an artist.

Over the years, I became many things, a gymnast, a diver, a simmer, a capoeirista, a father. So it’s safe to say that whatever I’m doing right now is based on the things I’m interested in right now. Even my life as a creative has always been associated with me being a graphic designer and never separate. In fact, most of my career I’ve only identified myself as a designer and I’m only creative because I’m a designer.

No matter how many times I’ve changed, no matter how many times I discovered that I was becoming something more, the story I told myself was to the contrary. All I am is a designer. Let me tell you how debilitating this has been for me up until now. I have turned down so many opportunities because of my stubbornness of letting go of how I saw myself.

If you really want to see growth in your life, if you really want to see what you are made of, let go of the labels you have allowed yourself and others to identify you as, let go and watch as you become the person you already are right now.

What’s Your Super Power?

What’s Your Super Power?

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What’s your superpower? I spent the better part of last year struggling to answer this question. I say I struggled with it because I had so many mixed emotions behind how I identified myself as a creative. I’ve been a designer since I could remember, though it’s been recently that I’ve been questioning, is that it?

Am I only this person who has become very skilled at organizing art and copy on a page to sell products that I really could less than a fuck about? I mean, is the reason, I’m good at being a designer it’s really my god given talent and that’s all there is and I should be happy with that and work harder at making it big as a designer?

I struggled with the question because I could not help but think, there is more to this. There’s got to be a bigger reason I’m blessed with a creative mind and being a designer may only be a tool I have at my disposal to call on. The idea of having a superpower and figuring out what mine is. That thought holds the key to a bigger world of possibilities. Possibilities I can go after and serve others by being nothing more than what I’ve been my whole life. Myself!

Understanding my ability to take complicated issues and get down to its true purpose. Then turn around and walk others through a process they can use to move forward with their own dreams. I’ll work with them until they understand and have full confidence that they are ready to turn their dreams into goals and work to achieve them. So my power is to live my life. Big or small. Rich or with little means.

Then take all of the experiences and skills collected along the way and use them to help others build their futures. Now!

What’s your superpower? What’s that one trait you have that pulls you to act, without being asked to? Prioritize your life around that, then use the skills you pick up along the way as tools in your belt on your way to achieving awesomeness.

 

Photo by: Leon Robinson