"What theories about myself and my creativity am I willing to test? Am I willing to fail?"

Sarah Firth is an awesome cartoonist and graphic recorder, among many other things.

Sarah takes a bit of a mad scientist approach to her creative life. She embraces experimentation and testing to try to discover new ways to organize her life around her creative interests, always looking to answer the question: "How much value can I bring to something? And then also how much time can I buy back?"

This openness to experimentation has helped Sarah build a more anti-fragile, flexible, stable, sustainable—and enjoyable!—creative life.

Sarah has followed her curiosity to make life-changing pivots in the face of adversity, including the surprisingly positive aftermath of a traumatic car accident that derailed her post-college professional plans, and learning to use her neurodivergence as a filter, and even a sort of superpower.

More from the episode...

• "Identity is utility" - How to embrace your personal identity without pigeonholing yourself.
• We discuss the benefits of being multi-passionate: "Having range as a person is actually really powerful and makes you anti-fragile. It makes you flexible. It makes you come up with creative solutions, mix things in from different industries together to innovate."
• How can multi-passionate people make the most of their diverse skills on a resume and in the workforce? Hint: "You don't have to show all your cards."
• From driving trucks to graphic recorder, Sarah explains what she looks for in a career: "How much value can I bring to something? And then also how much time can I buy back?"
• After a traumatic car accident upended her life, Sarah embraced comics as "graphic medicine." What happens when life crashes into your intentions?
• Sarah shares her experience of neurodivergence and physical disability, including how she meets challenges in ways that are empowering.
• "People are like houseplants and we all have different needs." - Why discovering what works for you is so important.
• Why is Sarah cautious of the classic adage 'trust yourself'?
• Sarah offers tips for preventing social media burn out and dealing with hate online.

More about Sarah Firth

Sarah Firth is one of the foremost practitioners of the art of graphic recording, and that's not all (or even most): she's also an Eisner Award-winning nonfiction cartoonist who takes on many of the most important issues of the day, including climate change, Covid, #metoo, and art-making with a disability. Her work has been published by ABRAMS Books, ABC Arts, Frankie Magazine, kuš!, Graphic Mundi, Penn State University Press, Penguin Random House, Picador, Allen & Unwin, The Nib, Black Inc, and Routledge. She's currently working on her first full-length book of visual essays, supported by a Creators Fund program grant.

Connect with Sarah Firth

https://www.facebook.com/SarahTheFirthCreativeServices/

https://twitter.com/sarahthefirth

https://www.instagram.com/sarahthefirth/

http://www.sarahthefirth.com/

Additional Links

http://www.sarahthefirth.com/shopsarahthefirth/graphic-recording-quick-skills-a-free-mini-course

https://assemblepapers.com.au/2021/02/03/unexpectedly-thriving/

http://www.sarahthefirth.com/shopsarahthefirth/untangle-your-brain-and-think-on-the-page