One of the biggest questions of life is, who am I?

Questions of “why am I here”, “where am I going?” and “what am I supposed to do?” are functions of that larger question, but important in identifying YOU as both an individual and a global citizen of the world.

Do a quick Google search and you’ll find that everyone has tried to answer the question, from religious and spiritual leaders like the Pope and the Dalai Lama, to business leaders like Oprah, Forbes, and Tony Robbins. And while I agree that when it comes to the larger picture, each leader has something to contribute to the conversation, I’m going to ask you to ignore all of that for a moment.

Think about yourself and your goals.

What kind of creative type are you? A dancer? A photographer? A fashion designer? A sculptor?

The reason why I want you to think to focus on your creative interests first and foremost, is that no matter what your cultural identity has been labelled as and what your life experience has led up to this point, you came to this website because of your creative passions. That is what is unique to you – your driving motivation. And timotheories is all about digital curating at heart. The arts drive the engine of timotheories, so that is what connects us together.

A wise person once told me that you have to separate the chicken shit from the chicken salad, you can only accomplish that by looking inward and paring down the outside world to what you want at personal level.

We at timotheories understand that it is difficult to reconcile all the various personal and political considerations of life, but if making art is what drives you and what you always come back to, you need to build your identity outward starting with that which gives you motivation. Now let’s consideration motivation.

Think about yourself and your motivations.

I’ve heard numerous theories about motivation but my favourite one is about the levels of motivation. I’m paraphrasing quite heavily from the original source (which I cannot for the life of me find) but I’ll break it down for you anyway, as the concept is very accessible.

You will need to satisfy all of these conditions in order to stay on purpose.

1. When you don’t want to at all. You need to have a reason to create from a very selfish standpoint when you are in your lowest moments. The instant gratification of being better. Whether it’s to be more attractive to potential partners, to look cool around your peers, or to get recognition from people you want to be. That day-to-day motivation is key.
2. When you do want to. This is the time when everything lines up perfectly in your week and you have energy to be creative. You know that paying the bills and being a functioning member of society are important – You want to contribute because it feels good to make the work. Use that motivation to be disciplined in your approach. Fit in as much as you can with your routine.
3. When you feel inspired. The average person would call this true motivation, but it is fleeting. This is when you pour every spare moment into your craft. The natural high comes in and your spirit, moral compass, heart or whatever you want to call it, are driving you. You need to encourage this and align your creativity with your belief system. Focus on how you feel about your ideals and fuse your creative energy (different from regular energy) with it.

Once you begin this process for yourself and commit to the foundational steps of defining your creative motivations, you can also separate the chicken shit from the chicken salad.

And that my friends is the tip of the identity iceberg, which we will dig into over the coming months. Otherwise, I am out of theories for the day! I hope you’ve had an excellent weekend and I’m looking forward to this weeks Melodic Monday, Theatrical Tuesday, Wisdom Wednesday, and Timely Thursday posts. You won’t want to miss’em! I promise.

Tim!