The exact sort of issue you described at the beginning of this is why I decided to not turn my art into a career... and part of why the one time I did do something seriously (illustrating a book) it resulted in me completely losing my mojo for drawing for a solid couple of years. I still don't do as much as I think I should, even just for fun, but I have been slowly getting back into it.
I love your method for creating a random starting place on this--that's definitely a good thing to have, and sometimes I end up not drawing or painting anything because I just don't have a plan, so that would take care of that issue. And also I love the result. Your dragon came out having so much energy and spirit.
The dragon is honoured :-D
And I completely understand your position regarding working with art as a job or not. For a long time, the issues as I described it above were no problem for me, that was during my career as a choreographer /dancer... I have no idea why it changed so drastically as I started to work with fine arts, perhaps dance is ephemeral, and a painting is lying around where I can see it and so I constantly evaluate its worth...
I think it shows a good insight into yourself, to understand how you can be creative and then choose a career accordingly. There are perhaps many people who lack this insight and become unhappy with their work.