Purpose – Catacombe

photo (outtake) “Halloween Concert” by Katrina Cooper-Hinton https://somerandomchick.picfair.com/

Try not to yawn – if you do, this post is definitely for you! – but today I made my terms and conditions.
After having been in business officially for a month, and unofficially for multiple months already, I finally sat my ass down and not only did it pan out okay;
It absolutely rocked.

My terms and conditions went from something I had sought legal advice and insurance advice over, and that had been on my to-do list pretty much ever since I knew I would start a business again, only to then have it holding me back like a ball and chain-
to something I put my heart and soul in, the moment I decided to do it my way!

After months of not making any headway with them – and expensive months too because I did not grow my audience, and didn’t actively sell because not having my legal stuff in place made me insecure –
my terms and conditions flowed out of me without any of the micromanagement and bitterness of small print;
But with the urgency of a manifesto!

And it made me realize the importance of knowing you are an artist and the impact it has on your life, cannot be overstated.
You can never know too much about this, in particular because so little is common knowledge.

The artist is an archetype barely present and poorly understood, in our society today.

Athletes, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs.
We have role models in many areas, and we have ideas, experiences and have given thought to many of the roles that we play in our lives such as being a partner, a parent, an employee or a leader.
We have ideas, about what it means to be “good” at them.

Yet do we know what it means to be an artist?

No.
Or at least I didn’t.
Not until I discovered that similarly to with the Terms and Conditions, I simply block when I encounter an area of life where society has a lot of “shoulds” around.
Whenever I encounter a situation where there is a lot of built-in expectations, mandatory requirements, and a distinctive smell of unfreeness?
I know exactly, what it means to be an artist.

Because being an artist means way more than just the areas that are your craft, skill or profession.
It means that EVERYTHING, needs to be done with the same surrender as what is officially your art or work. Everything bears the same significance, as what it is you are known for.

And maybe you do not totally block, like I did.
Maybe you don’t waste months, underachieving and coasting in your business.
But even then; You know where you are investing, and giving and losing way more than you receive or get back.
And more than you logically should.

Finance, relationships, legal shit, more relationships, complaints from people, housekeeping, taking care of your loved ones (I know that’s a risky one to put out!), taking care of yourself (better?);
The list of things that feel pointless and frustrating and the enormous pull they have, swallowing your whole life into quicksand, that list?
Is endless.

And the reason this is, is that – I would say “unfortunately”- we have no other choice than to figure them out top to bottom, all by ourselves.
Take them apart and rebuild them, so that they stop standing out like a sore fake thumb, and become a lived-through thing, that is in integrity with who we are.

That, is what being an artist means.
Because an artist is not just a creator, but it is a creator with a message. And as long as there are aspects of our lives that still convey the message of others, or of society at large; We. Will. Suffer.
You, will suffer.

Me, being slowed down by the ball and chain of how to properly set up my Terms & Conditions, waiting for the magical moment I would finally make myself copy, paste, and mimic, what others had done in that area?
Oh, I was planning for a horrific, inauthentic, wouldn’t-be-found-dead-with-it move, in what was supposed to be my dream business.

So that is the bad news:
If you are an artist, you will need to take apart aspects of Life others can just borrow, copy and paste.

Good news is of course, the satisfaction and almost post-sex glow on your face once you do, and rocked it!
Once you have personally designed an area in your life everybody says you cannot do yourself, and you have to do it like this and that, and then you create something new entirely?
Oh, the sweet smell of artistic success!

But sure, I would agree with you that it would be nice to, for a chance, be able to use other people’s work and just go with the flow.
Just that every time I try this tempting short-cut, I end up losing time, money, or blowing the whole thing up because I just don’t want anything to do with it anymore.

So there is all that, about being an artist.
You have a message, and it wants to express itself.

And that message, that authenticity, is part of a bigger artistic “divine assignment” a.k.a. A Calling. Something is coming through you, work only you can do. And the catch is, only you know what this is.

And perhaps not even that;
You don’t know WHAT the highest work is, but you only know these weird projects, these effortless curiosities, that you follow.
You know when you are deeply involved in activities that give you so much joy, yet you have no idea where it will lead to.

Bingo.
“Highest work”.
Keep doing that thing that fills your heart with joy.
And for God’s sake, stop doing the things that suck the life right out of you.

But even with as little as we ourselves know about what our highest work is, we still know more than others who view us from outside.

I could have used normal Terms and Conditions, and no one would have noticed.
But I would have noticed.
And from that moment on, it would have been a countdown to the moment I had burned my company down to the ground.
Every time I attached that diabolical document to an email, a nail to the coffin.

Only you know when something is “off”.
And only you know, what you’re here to do.
And even when you don’t know, you still know better than others!

.
This is my definition of an Artist:

To be an artist is to be in an active and committed relationship with a craft, a calling, a message or a vision, as it is coming through.

This relationship takes shape in following curiosity, passions, hunches.
In following your Heart.

An artist is not responsible for expressing their highest work;
But for keeping the pathways clear, so their highest work can express through them.

Suzanne Beenackers

My curiosities are being offline and living in a fictional past.
No idea how this is ever to amount to any official “art”, but I know it is what I have to do.

My passion is writing, I have 10.000 blogs, give or take 😉
I write with the same visceral need others suck their thumb. Although I also suck my thumb.

And my purpose is to live a Rock Star life, and to advocate the message of freedom.

Every time I do something that contradicts or denies those things, I don’t just work against my own nature, my own purpose;
But against the integrity of our time together, at this company Catacombe.

Every time I stray and end up being some kind of sterile, dried up, proper-business version of me, it violates the Rock Star quality, the juiciness, the sex, the luscious unpredictability and rebel nature of our rule-breaking work together.
And I have reduced the Rock Star tagline of this company to just some fuckin’ marketing gimmick.

In the same way you too, know what your highest work is.

It’s the work that comes with great ease, with great joy. It’s the work that makes you feel alive, on purpose, happy, in your power.
The work that makes you feel sexy, in love, creative, a bringer of Life here on this earth.

The work you, Artist, are here to do, is the work that awakens the Rock Star within you.

Because the Rock Star within you, was given to you for a reason. They are not just there residing inside of you, to bring out whenever the circumstances are right and you think you are welcomed.
They’re not a party trick.

You were given this strength and this power, for a reason;
To bring your work and your message, into the world.

And rock them all.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Let God do their frickin’ work, Rock Star!
| 2023 03 22 Top offers 2: “The Artist”
is the eighth Catacombe Rock Star post

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Catacombe offers international Rock Star mentoring & business coaching:
https://catacombenijmegen.com/current-offer/
“The Artist” is one of my top three offerings.
The other ones are Rock Your Business, and THE ROCK STAR.

& in-person business coaching in Nijmegen.
https://catacombenijmegen.com/nederlands-dutch/

“It was at the moment that Elvis the Man was sacrificed;
And Elvis the God, was born.”
movie Elvis (2022)

Manifestos are written across different continents, for different purposes.
They have been written when there was a call for change, revolution, justice.
Manifestos have moved us forward, when the world around us collapsed.

From a writer’s perspective, it would be funny to now say;
This is no such manifesto.

From a global perspective, it would be wise to now say;
Christmas 2022 calls out for a new savior.
A new light.
That after three years which have pulled us deeper into war, polarization, death and recession, it is a time when the manifestos should be drawn up and sworn oath to.
When new voices should let themselves be heard, nail their words to doors, and set fire to systems that have abandoned us.
But no.

Writer or not;
This is not, such a manifesto.

This is a manifesto for you, Rock Star.
Because it is you, who has forsaken this world.
Our soul has left, a long time ago.

If someone asked those who were meant to be Rock Star Writers, to pour their brilliant analysis of the state of the world into words, words that would move millions;
Then tell me, how many would be able to answer the call?
A hundred?
Ten?
One?

If someone asked the Rock Star Musicians, to write a protest song to mobilize the masses;
A song to chant that would not just change to world, but unite it.
How many could do it?

If the artists were asked to visualize the atrocities of our time;
Who would?

And the truth is that after years of not understanding this myself, and honestly brutally losing myself, again and again;
I now have perfect understanding of WHY, so few Rock Stars in the most authentic, bold, and FREE way, exist today.
Why all those calls would go by unanswered.
Because it doesn’t pay jack shit.
That’s why.

And that nobody in their right mind would – and should! – pursue this path if you are not absolutely sure that you’d not just rather kill off your own soul, and go for the money.

Because you can be either an employee, or you’re an entrepreneur. The latter meaning an independent professional of some sort.
That’s your choice.
Artists have artificially been forced to take their place with the Independents, next to the local physical therapist in what used to be, and what are now the proverbial yellow pages.
But that’s not how this shit works.

Artists who are domesticized into payroll jobs or into regular businesses, are castrated, chained, curtailed.
And I say this having perfect understanding that within a few weeks I will be handing my balls in, just like you have.
So no judgement.

But it has fucked with our minds and we started believing that shit ourselves!

And if we want to have a guaranteed income, we do need some sort of employment.
And if we don’t want to end up in severe trouble with tax services, we do need to find a way to cope with the business side of things when we receive money for our art.
And yet.
It is so not who we came here to be.

We did not come here to become successful musicians, writers, artists.
And even more of us did not come here to be the specialists, the successful online entrepreneurs, the local brick and mortar businesses that we were pushed into believing that we are either.
Yet we let ourselves be fucking swallowed whole by it, now didn’t we?

By now we have so much identified with being this neatly boxed up pretty little professional.

We’ve joined professional associations and take further training.
We have insurance for an array of things.
We have disclaimers and legal protection to shield us from unhappy clients.
And the list goes on and on.

All pretty little boxed up stuff that if you market it right, you will be able to monetize the fuck out of.
And you better, since you just handed in your balls and soul to do it.
Monetary compensation should be the least you should go for.

But it will not get your soul back.
It will not get YOU back.
You can never earn back, or buy back, the parts you have given up believing in. The parts you thought you had to give up to join the club of good employees or good businesses or even bad employees or bad business.

You were never supposed to buy into all the crap society has made up so it can function.
It is absolutely not your job to make society function, simply because you came here to rock the fuckin’ boat.
That’s in your divine job definition under the P of Purpose.

You know you are a Rock Star when:

A.
You have an art
This can be a regular art, like music, painting, writing, performing, but it can also be a craft, a skill like teaching, pastry baking, and yes, also selling and marketing and running a business!
It can ALL be your art.
And you have at least one.

And B:
You have a message
This is the part that sets you apart from your peers and why believing you were like them has crushed you.
This is why you forgot you’re a Rock Star.
Because you DO have a message!

And like all messages, just like the one that came 2000 years ago, it was meant to be spoken and to be written.
Your message came to be screamed and to be yelled.
It came here to be set free, but also to be carved in stone and to be nailed to doors.

And it is this message, that a professional business would never show. And the reason why, as I said earlier, Rock Stars have perfectly good reasons to send their soul into the afterlife long before they die.
Because the message is the part where you are no longer that well-functioning, skillful, professional under A.

Speaking your message may very well be what kills your business, gets you fired, wakes up the neighbors, and becomes your downfall.
But it can also be the thing that propels you to stardom, doubles your income, brings you friends, and creates your legacy.

But regardless of which one it is going to be, it will certainly
– and with all the bells and whistles and angels and hearing God’s voice you will feel this happening-

It will certainly, save your Soul.

.
~Suzanne
become the Rock Star you were born to be

Your Rock Star Manifesto | 2022 12 24 Christmas Eve
was the very, very first Catacombe Rock Star post

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Category: Purpose

Let God do their frickin’ work, Rock Star! | 2023 03 22 Top offers 2: “The Artist”

Your Rock Star Manifesto | 2022 12 24 Christmas Eve