How to Sustain a Creative Career
Cultivating Practices That Sustain a Creative Career
The invisible habits, rituals, and ways of working that shape a creative career and life.
By Chris Mitchell, Life, Career and Professional Development Coach for Artists and Creatives
As artists and creatives we spend years developing our practices. We refine our techniques, experiment with materials and genres, discover our voice, and learn the creative processes that bring our work to life.
Beyond our artistic practice lies another body of work. One that's rarely talked about but one that through coaching, I support many artists and creatives to develop. The habits, rituals,and ways of working that shape our creative lives day-to-day and in the longer term, our careers. I’ve come to think of these and talk to my clients about them as the practices within our practice.
Through my own creative career and over the past decade, coaching other artists and creative professionals, I've noticed that no two artists arrive with the same type of practice, yet the conversations often circle around the same questions:
How do I sustain my creativity?
How do I tackle all of the other pieces of my practice on top of creating my art? How do I access creative flow more regularly? How do I navigate uncertainty? How do I build a career that feels sustainable?
The answers are unique to each of us and are found by intentionally developing the practices that support our practice. The personalized ways of working and practices we develop around our creative work and our professional development play an important role in shaping our daily experience, sustaining our creativity, productivity, and how we show up and evolve as creative professionals.
Over four decades, my own career has taken many forms—designer, brand builder, arts leader, writer, and coach. Looking back, I realize that I have a set of practices that I've gradually developed and carried forward that have shaped my own creative life and career. The eleven practices that follow aren't a blueprint. My hope is that they prompt you to notice and cultivate the practices that underpin your creative life and career.
Taking Risks
Some of the most rewarding opportunities in my career have come from saying yes before I knew exactly how I would get there. My parents took lots of risks in starting and building successful creative businesses of their own and because of their example I came to understand early in my career that taking risks is just part of realizing any creative project or business idea. In my own life and work as a creative, taking calculated risks has often been the bridge between where I was and where I wanted to go.
Practicing Trust
Trust is something I've valued and incorporated in practice throughout my career. I've learned to trust my ability to make more out of an idea or opportunity than what first appears on the surface. Trusting my own instincts, taking the first step (in some cases a leap) before I knew exactly where it would lead, and believing that I can figure things out along the way has empowered me to transform my career across different sectors of creative work.
Some of the most meaningful work of my career has come from collaborations built on mutual trust. Trusting the perspectives, creativity, and expertise of others has been important. I've found that the best creative outcomes emerge when we trust both ourselves and one another enough to let an idea grow.
Stepping Out to Move Forward
Sometimes moving forward has meant stepping back or stepping sideways into something I didn't yet know. I've returned to formal education, taken on less senior roles in new areas, and deliberately put myself in situations where I had to learn from the ground up. These choices weren't always the obvious career move, but they always opened up new possibilities. A creative career doesn't always move in a straight line, and sometimes the most valuable growth comes from being willing to step out of what you know.
Showing Up Professionally
Being reliable, prepared, respectful, and delivering on commitments has been one of my most valuable skills and commitments in practice as a creative.
Leaving Doors Open
I've found that treating people well, maintaining connections, and understanding how today's interactions may shape tomorrow's opportunities in the bigger picture always pays. Creative careers are built on relationships. It’s a small and increasingly connected world after all. The way I leave something is just as important as how I begin it.
Knowing My Numbers
I've always been drawn to numbers as much as ideas. In virtually every chapter of my creative career, paying attention to the numbers has been part of the work, not separate from it. Whether I’ve been building and managing budgets, shaping pricing, or tracking results I've made it a practice to look at the numbers regularly, even when they're uncomfortable or don't reflect what I hoped. They don't define my work, but they do help me keep it real and ultimately make stronger decisions.
Protecting Work/Life Balance
Growing up and starting off my creative career in my family’s business taught me a lot about the value and necessity of having boundaries around work. Sometimes the hard way. Setting clear boundaries around my working hours has helped me protect my energy, avoid burnout, and show up more fully when it matters in my personal and professional life. It’s served me especially well over the past 10 years of building a coaching practice in alignment with the life I want to live as a creative.
Creating Rituals
Rituals weren’t something that were on my radar or part of my work in my early career as a creative. But they are something that I’ve come to be more aware of and value as a self-employed creative working from home. The little rituals I’ve developed over time around certain tasks and routines are tied to things that are meaningful to me and reflect my personality. I view them as practices within my practice. They ground me, keep me on track and give me joy.
Making Time for Reflection
Early in my creative career, I was focused on planning, problem-solving, and execution, and I rarely paused to reflect. Over the past decade as a solo creative practitioner and coach, reflection has become a more intentional and valued part of my practice and something I invite my clients to put into practice for themselves. I have weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual reflective practices. I often return to Michelle Lucas’ description of reflection as “an iterative, open-ended creative process that helps us examine and evolve”. I love this positioning of reflection.
Bringing Creativity to All Aspects of My Work
Whether solving problems, building relationships, staying on top of admin, or developing new opportunities, I've tried to bring a creative mindset and approach to everything I do. It just helps me have a deeper sense of enjoyment and fulfillment. And it reinforces my sense of autonomy and self-empowerment when I find even the smallest ways to tap into my creativity.
Listening Deeply
As an introvert by nature, I've always been more of a listener than a talker. Listening deeply to clients, collaborators, organizations, and myself has helped me connect the dots, uncover insights, and recognize opportunities I might otherwise have missed. I've come to see listening as a creative practice in its own right. The more deeply I listen, the more thoughtful, responsive, and meaningful my work becomes. In many ways, this practice led me to coaching and creating the space for people to think, reflect, and discover their own way forward. Looking back, I can see that this practice has shaped not only the way I coach, but also the way I create, collaborate, and lead.
These practices have been a set of evolving ways of working that have shaped how I navigate a creative work and life. Some I learned early, others only make sense as I define them in hindsight, and many I’m still working on.
Looking back, I can see that none of these practices existed in isolation. They have shaped one another, strengthened over time, and helped me build a creative life that feels both meaningful and sustainable.
What are the invisible habits, rituals, and ways of working that underpin your creative life and work?
About Chris Mitchell
Chris Mitchell (BFA, PCC, CPCC) is a professional coach with more than 30 years of experience in the arts and creative industries, dedicated to supporting artists and creatives at pivotal moments in their lives and careers. Drawing on a deep understanding of creative career development and the creative mindset, she partners with creatives to gain clarity, build confidence, and move their practice, career, or business forward. Chris offers customized individual coaching, group programs, and workshops that support sustainable, fulfilling creative careers.
Website: https://www.chrismitchell-lifecoach.com/
Ways To Be A Creative Newsletter: https://chrismitchellcoachforcreatives.substack.com/
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