I’m going to speak at CreativeMornings Toronto on February 27. The topic is entitled, “Redefining Creative Commitment.” Here’s the description:

Conventional creative advice suggests that you must dedicate yourself fully to your craft if you want to succeed. There seems to be no shortage of advice from people who took a leap of faith and made it to the other side. But what happens to the majority of people who leap and don’t make it? Is such a high risk gamble really the best path?

In this speech, Herbert explores his career as a first-generation creative. He shares how his own high expectations of his writing career not only didn’t help him, it nearly stopped him from writing altogether. He unpacks his experiences with going all-in on his writing, redefining what it meant to take writing seriously, and the experience of walking a new path for himself.

During this speech, you will learn how to think about crafting your own path, one where your commitments don’t require you to give more than you can, and one that accommodates the other questions that life is asking you.

You’ll notice the phrase, “first-generation creative,” which was a riff on the idea of a first generation artist. The phrase, “questions life is asking you,” was inspired by this post. I first noted the theme of commitment here. And of course, this story might find its way in there. One lesson I may share is to write about your struggle. When I say the blog is the trunk of my practice, this is what I mean.

I’m really looking forward to this! I’ve been attending CreativeMornings for a few months now to get a feel for how the event goes (while giving away free books), and learning which speeches resonated with me, so I’m energized to apply what I’ve learned.