Every year around this time, I feel like most of us start analyzing life. And realizing that all the trips, dinners and other plans we broke over the course of the year in the name of work don’t leave us very fulfilled. I think at times, we put way too much pressure on ourselves, telling ourselves that we simply must get this done. Right at this very second. When often times, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
A journalist for The San Francisco Egotist recently passed away and spent the past year documenting his life and thoughts with cancer. One piece/post in particular has made its way around the advertising sector, “A Short Lesson in Perspective.” It’s worth the read. The full read. I cannot remember the last time I sat at my desk and read something so profound, so moving and so incredibly truthful.
“The creative industry operates largely by holding ‘creative’ people ransom to their own self-image, precarious sense of self-worth, and fragile – if occasionally out of control ego. We tend to set ourselves impossibly high standards, and are invariably our own toughest critics. Most artists and designers I know would rather work all night than turn in a sub-standard job. It is a universal truth that all artists think they a frauds and charlatans, and live in constant fear of being exposed. You don’t have to drive creative folk like most workers. They drive themselves. Just wind ‘em up and let ‘em go.”
Hanna (Non)Tana 