A different kind of Sabbatical

“He who is doing his true will is assisted by the momentum of the universe.” – Peter J. Carroll

If you had asked me two months ago where I would be professionally in two months, I don’t know if I would have been able to give you a positive answer.

Being a designer, I imagine that none of us really know what lies ahead for us business-wise. We can never really predict what the future will bring.

I have been doing what I do for a very long time. Most of my life, actually. I have always felt that my purpose in this life was to ‘make things’. I have always found my greatest joy in that. However, I feel my greater purpose is to share what I have learned along the way to help others find the joy that I feel when I am creating. To me, that is the best reward I can reap.

Being a creator does have its challenges. So much of our success depends on our emotional well-being. While many creators thrive on anguish or despair, others (such as myself) require the absence of apathy and chaos to do their best. It is all a balance. Unlike having a job where you come in, punch a time clock, and do “x” amount of this or that, creativity is a far more abstract line of work and can be difficult to control. It isn’t something you can typically do well ‘on demand.’ It comes in its own time.

I used to wonder why certain professors or creators needed to take ‘sabbaticals.’ In fact, I never really understand the necessity of a sabbatical in the first place. After all – wasn’t the person doing what they loved to do every day anyway? Why would they need a rest or break from something that they had chosen as their way of life?

But as the years passed, I came to a better understanding of the meaning and need for sabbaticals, and why they were so important.

When we are committed to doing something creative – even something we love – it changes the dynamic of how we view things. We are no longer creating for the pleasure of creating, but we have attached the pressure of making doing what we love sustain us financially and that certainly can impact the entire process.

Don’t get me wrong: I would still rather do something I love – even under pressure – than do something that didn’t fulfill me. But I do think as a creator we need to stay aware of the potential impact that creating on demand can have and do what we can to mitigate any negative consequences regarding it. We need to still find joy in what we do to keep our minds and souls fed properly. And sometimes that may require taking a little break from things.

Long ago, I used to wonder why teachers that I followed still took classes. After all – they were the teachers. They were the ones guiding us through our own creative journeys. But as I learned more and improved my skills, I also learned that there was a much broader horizon of knowledge to be gained. There were endless techniques and skills to be gained. and pursuing this knowledge kept me excited and fresh. It came with being a creator. It was part of my creative process and always would be.

It was when I realized this that I also fully began to understand the meaning and need for the sabbatical. Whatever form it took, it was something that most teachers and creators needed to reset and refresh.

Perhaps the past several months have been my own form of sabbatical. In a way, I am more fortunate than many of my fellow teachers and creators because there are two distinct sides to my business: the creative side and the production side.

The creative side is pretty much self-explanatory. When I create projects and patterns for my followers, so they can learn and create.

The production side relates more to my woodworking and scroll sawing. For the most part, it is comprised of cutting out pieces, sanding them, packing them, and shipping them to customers. It doesn’t require much creativity at all. I just follow the lines and the saw does the rest. It is a wonderful way to rest my brain while still feeling like I am making something.

I am grateful for having both sides of my business. Often when I am cutting, I am thinking and planning my next designs or projects. Many times when I am cutting, I am not. I am listening to an audiobook and solving a murder mystery or off to some far-away place. It is both relaxing and refreshing. And I believe it benefits me tremendously regarding my ‘other work’ – the creative side.

I feel that because I have these two very different sides of my job I feel less of a need to get away from things than most. I am often excited about what is to come, and if I find myself getting a bit overwhelmed, I find myself feeling grounded when I am once again in the shop. It allows the creative side of my brain to rest.

I have spent little time in my shop these last few weeks and months. Actually, as I mentioned in previous posts, it has been a little slow so far this year. But instead of worrying about not being busy, as many probably would do, I allowed things to fall as they may and took the time to think, plan, and create. That has been a real benefit to me.

As my last couple of posts have mentioned, I have been developing a new project series and fine-tuning a formula that I think will work well for myself as well as my customers. As time passes and things come closer to the finish line regarding the development of things, I have gained momentum and have become more excited each day. What a thrill it is to see the result of so many months of thinking come to be! I can’t wait until my customers can share in my excitement.

This past week has been filled with accomplishments. The weeks and months of planning have been paying off for me, and everything is falling into place. I wrote 16 (SIXTEEN!) patterns this week and accomplished so much more than I had anticipated. I am just a step away from heading up to the shop to cut all the pre-orders for my Treasure Boxes and send out the first shipment. I am so excited!

I am so grateful for my customers who have pre-ordered the project, mostly sight unseen. It gives me a great moral boost to know that people have faith in me. And it makes me want to work even harder to meet and exceed their expectations. And I think that I will.

The momentum has definitely shifted.

With 90% of the thinking for this project under my belt, I feel that I can take a deep breath and emotional break. I have one more day of writing and after that, I will just be making the physical packages to ship out to everyone. To me, the hard work is done and now it is time for us all to enjoy the result of those labors. It is really going to be fun.

I feel that I want to keep this momentum going. As I spend the next several days in the shop cutting orders, I am planning the next treasure box. I haven’t even really promoted the first one fully yet, but it has already exceeded my expectations. I am so grateful!

After weeks of quiet, I feel a change in the air for me. I am happy that I had the sense to respect the lull that I was going through and that I gave it the time it required without panic or despair. Not only was it functional, but it was necessary for me to reset myself. And now I can reap the benefits it brings. The momentum is definitely in the right direction.

Until next time…