Not feeling very accomplished or successful as an artist? Here's a non exhaustive list of different flavours of success, and I bet you my house money fund you have tasted at least one:

The catharsis of transporting a nebulous thought, image or idea from the wild noodle soup of your brain and out into the physical world - in a world that tells us to incessantly and mindlessly consume, you have MADE something.

Allowing yourself to truly revel in the sheer joy of the creative process itself - in this you are receving a bounty of luxuries: time, ability, permission (self administed or otherwise!) sensory pleasure, playfulness, adventure. Fuck me, what a win.

The respect and admiration of your peers.

The respect and admiration of critics.

The respect and admiration of that rando person with the anime avatar who inexplicably likes everything you post. And so what if they're a bot?? That bot is your NUMBER ONE FAN.

The knowledge that you have moved someone (even if that person is your mum) offered them solace, release, beauty, challenge, a brief pocket of delight in what a certain arrangement of words or colours or notes can do.

The knowledge that you have moved tens, hundreds, thousands or maybe even millions of people (tho this is not necessarily any more profound a feeling than having moved just one or a handful of people - your feelings don't give a fuck about the exponential graphs in your brain)

The satisfaction and validation of financial compensation for your craft.

The cultivation of persistence and discipline. The act of doing it even when you didn’t feel like it. A quick sketch. A hasty free write. A ten minute noodle on the piano. Mate, you didn't even wanna brush your teeth that day, but you still did a lil baby create!

The refining of your taste, a sharpened sense of awe at work you enjoy when you know the time and energy it takes to create something stellar. The brute honour of feeling ruinously jealous and hopefully using that to spur you on to keep making.

Teaching. It's assumed that one's art suffers when you give up time to facilitate others, but this too is its own well of inspiration and, crucially, humility. Someone somewhere believed in you, once. What bigger honour than being that for others?

So many ways to measure success! You will experience one, some, maybe even most, and the luckiest may get a taste of all, but not all at once. Each come with their costs, too. So embrace each for what it is whilst you have it, not in the rearview mirror of hindsight.

Glad to see you guys are enjoying cos this is my official pivot to motivational speaking and my rates will start at 10k per engagement. I repeat: there are many flavours of success and I am taking a double scoop of this one, amen.