If you get the hat-wearing part right, you will certainly survive and thrive as a writer, artist, consultant, or entrepreneur. Get it wrong and you risk the possibility that your Mojo will be buried alive in a pile of too many hats.

What can you do to protect your Mojo?  Know the connection between Hats and Mojo and take these three steps:

1. Count your hats.  Every one-person-show wonders how many hats are needed to make things work.  The answer: you need six hats.  There’s an art and a science to how this operates, but the number is six.  The six hats needed by every one-person-show belong to the creative director, the bookkeeper, the traffic director, and three specific members of the promotional sales team.

2. Focus on when to wear which hat.  Every one-person show struggles over the proper wearing of multiple hats. The biggest challenge is the frequent hat changes that are required without any notice.  So, on high-pressure days, you may second-guess which ugly business hat to wear to perform which set of ugly business tasks. If you wear the wrong hat, you will likely be bumped on the head. If you wear no hat, you will likely be bumped on the head. If after a bump or two too many, you feel compelled to wander about wearing all your hats at once, piled hopelessly on top of each other like a huge hat tower, you will likely be bumped on the head…perhaps as many as six times. You must learn when to wear which hat, and be ready for frequent and fast hat changes.

3. If you find that some of your six hats don’t fit right, don’t blame the hats.  Sometimes, the problem is not the six hats you have.  Often the real issue is the number of heads you have.  Quick review: you only have one head; you’re required to wear six hats.  It’s not impossible to juggle 6 hats, if your head clearly understands the purpose, the goals, and the required needs of each hat.  The real key, however is this: you may naturally aspire to get rid of a few hats, but it’s actually better to redirect yourself to the goal of acquiring more heads…That is, find others who can temporarily or permanently wear the appropriate hats for the tasks that you despise most.

You’re not the only high achiever who is struggling with the fear, frustration, and overwhelm related to wearing more than one hat. If you are a one-person show, look closely at your hats.  The more you understand about multiple hats, the easier it is to protect your Mojo.

Do you feel queasy about your opportunities to make money? 

Stop.  It’s time to look at your situation differently.

When Money is scarce, special precautions need to be taken so that you don’t drive your Mojo away. Creative Thinkers,especially writers and artists, need to build a protective firewall between money issues and the interior space where creativity is nurtured.  Always remember that your Mojo is sort of funny about your relationship with Money. If you get too starry-eyed or frantic about pursuing the Mighty Dollar, Mojo will dump you like a jealous fiancé.

Now, wait a minute.  That doesn’t mean walking on eggshells about Money for fear that you’ll upset your Mojo.  Money is not a taboo topic. Clearly, we’re in a very tough and changing economic season. You need Money and you deserve to be paid appropriately for your Talent.  However, you can unwittingly cross a big line with your Mojo if your relationship with Money somehow means Money rules, and Passion and Talent are demoted to second-class citizens. Mojo hates that kind of Money Pickle.

I learned about the Money Pickle firsthand. Years ago, I was asked to do an important writing project for my Beverly Hills mentor.  My mentor’s new client was cash poor, but product rich. Somehow when the deal was done, I was promised a premium payment, but the currency was destined to be mostly pickles—gallons of fancy-schmancy gourmet pickles that required refrigeration for both shipping and storing.

On the front end, I didn’t care.  I was metaphorically hungry enough to accept the pickle offer because I thought it was a chance for my Talent to do great things. The local economy was in a rough patch and assignments were sparse, so I had time on my hands.  I liked pickles. I needed some good, creative fun. The project intrigued me and I vividly imagined that I could help find a way to take those pickles to the Big Time.

Soon enough, I recognized that pickle payments were not the same as cash.

Truth be told, I began to resent the pickles.  Every time I wrote something new for the client, a special gallon of appreciation showed up at my front door. A new gallon came every week, specially packed to keep it cold.  So many gallons showed up that I began having heart races whenever I spotted the UPS truck anywhere near my house. When there was no room for milk in my refrigerator, I began to ask friends and neighbors if they could store the pickles in their refrigerators for me.  Then I began to ask them if they would eat the pickles for me, too.

The universal “Money Pickle” transformed itself into literal pickles for me. Every time I saw the shipping costs of the pickles delivered to my door, I wanted to cry about Money. Those shipping expenses exceeded the amount I was paid to write the promotional material that represented the entire pickle company.  Right or wrong, I began to tell my Talent that it was doomed to be paid in pickles for eternity. I also told myself that my Talent and Passion had made an unforgivable mistake accepting the pickle assignment.

I can’t blame my Mojo for going on vacation when I upgraded the status of Money and sharply downgraded the status of my Passion and Talent.

At the time, I woke up many mornings maddened that there was no conceivable way to pay the light bill with unopened jars of pickles.  Late at night, after munching those preserved cucumbers and writing about how really tasty they were, I went to sleep wondering why the economic problems of the region had to invade my creative corner to punish me personally with so many pickles.

My Mojo did not return until I stopped focusing on Money at the expense of my Passion and Talent.  When Passion and Talent were restored to their rightful positions, Mojo returned.  And Money appeared almost magically from the sidelines.

Today, I don’t regret taking on the pickle assignment. It could have been worse…say, a thousand baloney sandwiches or a few hundred blocks of government cheese.  I know now that the fabulous work I did for that pickle company paid off in a dozen ways, including real money a little farther down the road.  I’m also proud that when push came to shove, I did stand by the spirit of my rate card, even if I did substitute pickles for cash.  In the end, my Talent and Passion were proven right.  My work for the pickles became an important, tangible part of my platform.  I was one of the behind-the-scenes people those pickles thanked profusely when they made it to their version of the Big Time—a shiny, refrigerated shelf in the upscale stores of the largest grocery chain in Southern California.

Here are 5 tips about Money and Mojo that my pickle problem taught me:

1. If the buyer of your service is cash poor and product rich…don’t lower your rates, ask for something they can provide in lieu of money.

2.  Hungry for work or not, be careful about what you will accept in lieu of money…think hard about how many pickles you can really personally consume and be ready to step away.

3. If your Talent and Passion think some crazy-sounding effort is worth doing, they’re probably right…don’t let Money stop you and never criticize yourself for taking a chance.

4. If your Mojo leaves you at the altar of a job you’re contractually committed to do, do your best anyway.  Skill is capable of working alone even when Talent and Passion turn out the lights for the day.

5. When economic times are tough and traditional opportunities are few and far between, don’t give up.  In down times and in between paying gigs, spend your time building your platform, one block at a time.  Invest in yourself…you are worth it.

So, is outgrowing your dreams a bad thing?  

Well, it really depends on how you look at it and what you do about it. The key is to focus on the part that really matters and not get caught up in the part that feels like a huge, blundering mis-step.

When you first suspect that you are outgrowing your dreams, it is easy to feel unsettled and lose sight of purpose and achievement.  That’s why it’s important to understand the shoe concept.

Let’s rewind to the moment in time when you first became aware that you had potential to go places. Like your first real pair of got-to-have-‘em, cool shoes, you put those dreams on your feet and began trying to Get There. Like your talent and skills, no one really knew how big your feet would become.  And, nobody—except maybe that fresh-faced, early version of you—imagined that one pair of lace-up, red sneakers would be a perfect fit for the rest of your life.

Your Dreams are like your shoes.  Put them on and wear them out.  Enjoy them while they last.  Understand that your shoes can only do so much.  Realize that back when you set goals to get where you now are, you probably lacked awareness about the growth capacity of your own talents and abilities. You also lacked real knowledge of career opportunities…and, even if you knew it all, opportunities that once existed have probably changed by now.

Don’t ever doubt who you are or what you’re doing because you’ve hit a growth spurt and your toes feel cramped.  Likewise don’t doubt who you are or what you’re doing if the world mysteriously shifts its style and you feel like you don’t belong.  Your Dreams aren’t useless when the seasons change or the fashion shifts.  Know that by the very nature of chasing your dreams, you will sometimes step in a wad of gum or worse.

Most of all, think about this: Dreams are like shoes: you may wear them out and need to replace them, you may outgrow them and need a larger size, you may need more than one pair, you may even need a special pair for this season…but no matter what, it’s not the shoes or the world outside that can make you go—it’s your feet.

Are you outgrowing your dreams? Maybe so.  But relax…New dreams, same feet.

Writers, Artists, and Creative People, listen up.  At a very critical moment in your life, you may fall for a very common myth that could put your mojo at risk.  I’m talking about  the classic falsehood that says it’s your duty to stick with a day job you hate because it is less risky than trusting your entrepreneurial options.

Here’s the simple thing you need to truly know—just because you can do a job, doesn’t mean you should handcuff yourself to a run-of-the-mill opportunity at some mediocre place.  You know The Place.  It haunts your mind like a scary, cheap carnival ride manned by the same hooligans that your mother warned you would be lurking in back alleys after dark.

If you aren’t there right now, you probably once were.

So why would you go there…why would you stay?

Like most creative people, you likely imagine that because a door opens, you belong inside The Place with the door. The truth is you should be more careful.  The reality is that almost any door will open if you knock long enough or knock at all.  The door opening may not be a sign that things are meant to be; it may be a sign that you need to choose better doors.  Like others looking for a professional haven, you meandered down the sidewalk, knocking on a variety of doors. When you got to The Place, you were welcomed inside.  You had a funny feeling, but They offered you peanuts and cotton candy and you stayed.

From the moment you arrived, you told yourself to ignore your silly fears.  After all, what could be wrong?  Typically, it’s nothing…for them; and, a lot…for you.  When you have way too much talent for a way too mediocre place, you soon find yourself living at the crossroads of personal and professional despair. Too much talent doesn’t know how to shrink its size, it can’t turn off the volume of its passion, and it can’t dumb down its creative thinking. Too mediocre places don’t allow growth, can handle passion, and rarely subscribe to the shallowest of wisdom. Somewhere deep inside, you probably realize that You and Them aren’t much of a good match.

Talent needs tall space to thrive.  Mediocre Places don’t have adequate space for tall talent.

Why didn’t you know all this?  Well, three reasons are to blame. One is nobody ever tells you the height of your talent. Two is that nobody posts billboards at the front of mediocre places to warn people with talent that ‘your talent must be this tall and no taller’ to work here.  And, perhaps most regrettably, Life doesn’t provide a personal musical score with bone-chilling organ music to alert you that your talent and your creative spirit are about to be slayed.

Here’s 5 things you need to do if you’re in your own too-talented, too-mediocre predicament.

1. Plan to get out.
2. Take a cold, hard look at the size of your talent.  It may be taller than you know.
3. Before you knock on the next set of doors, understand that most doors will open.
4. When a door opens, remember to listen to your silly fears and trust your gut.
5. If you have too much talent for a mediocre place, don’t settle for their peanuts and cotton candy…get out.

It starts with your Creative Side.  You probably realize that the Creative Side of who you are has its own unique identity, special interests, and silly hang-ups. What you may not realize is that one of your Creative Side’s primary duties is to serve as the proprietor of that strange little curio cabinet inside your head that is packed full of diverse skills, eclectic experiences, developed talent, and undeveloped talents.

Like most old-time curio shopkeepers, your Creative Side has a nagging secret.  Sometimes the collections of odds and ends get out of hand…waaaaaaay out of hand.

Like those proprietors, your Creative Side has a drifting attention span and the heart of a pack rat, so you can bet that the inner space inside you that houses all your best talents and skills is also cluttered with years of outgrown beliefs, pieces of dead-end dreams, and a ton of what-was-I-thinking-of, white-elephant ideas.

It’s time now to approach your unorganized collection of diverse skills, eclectic experiences, and growing talents like a curator of a museum.  It is possible to systematically separate the valuables from the clutter and showcase your chosen skills and experiences in a manner that is truly right for your personal dreams and desires.

Take a stand.  And get ready to dig in.  The first step is accepting the idea that you need to.  When things are sorted out, your Mojo will return.

Start by pondering the most common questions asked by creative high achievers at this stage in the journey:

“What are my real talents?”

“What have I done that even matters?”

“Does everything I’ve ever done count?”

“Can I let go of the  junk that I don’t want to do any more?”

“Can I hang onto the stuff that isn’t important to anyone but me?”