How this is shaping my future

Author: Timothy Bachman, ArtistCorps

I have gone through several instances of wanting to leave my art as a profession. I have always thought that pursuing a purely performance-based career was more selfish than selfless. I understand that the world needs art - that is not what I'm arguing. But I don't think that only pursuing that would satisfy me. Despite that, I love performing and have felt a need to pursue a performance career full-time. However, this year in service has lifted my desire to pursue other fields within and outside of music. But it has also increased my love for my art. The anticipated effect would have been that I would have to strain and figure out how to pick which would be more important. The actual realization, however, has been that I can and need to do both. And I think I will be more successful because of it. 

I started reading more in response to my service, and finding out how other people have been successful in different fields. In Adam Grant's Originals, he details how some of the more original success stories have been people hedging their bets in several domains, rather than jumping head-first into a risky field. People who have jumped into risky fields often fail to be fully successful within a year or two and give up. People who hedge their bets can afford to stay in risky pursuits for much longer to build success. I feel that that is how I must treat my performance career. I may not be able to live solely off of performances for years while making ends meet with other jobs. Or I can fully pursue both a career and a performance career, and take my time building the performance career.

Something about my service this year has cleared my head. I know better how to pursue my aspirations.