Five Things I Learned in My 2.5 Years as a Creative
Drop the ego
When entering the creative space, it is easy for confidence to turn into cockiness. We can inflate our heads by thinking that we have the most creative or craziest ides. But that also means that we take each idea that we present personally. And with that you are unable and unwilling to compromise or effectively collaborate on the creative process, which ultimately ruins the creative process. In order to become a better creative you must lose the ego and be open to critique and collaboration. I remember in my first year I would constantly pitch ideas that I swore up and down were industry changing, that I was the saving grace of the company, but my pitches never landed. Each “no” made me angrier, impacting my performance. I learned that I had to chip away at my ego in order to get better. Egos reduce the chance of growth, drop it.
Look at the glass half full so you don’t lose your shit
Working in creative is 98% of no’s, 1.5% maybe’s, and 0.5% yes’. Constantly hearing no is enough to make a creative lose their mind, especially when everyone on the team feels that it’s a solid idea. In order to continue creating and hopefully reach that 0.5%, you have to look on the brighter side of things. Personally, a practice I employ, is finding one positive from the experience, it could be a nice complement from a higher up, or something impactful that I learned. I believe that when you look for the small wins, they’ll eventually add up to a massive one, thinking this way keeps me from completely losing my shit.
Be kind to yourself
I feel like it’s easy to start questioning your abilities in creativity. I often found myself asking “Am I supposed to be here?” “Am I really that good enough of a creative?” I constantly would beat myself up after a bad review, tearing down my talents. But I began to think, “how would I feel if someone was saying this to me?” I instantly knew that I would defend myself, praise my skills, and even give myself a pat on the back. I realized that I needed to be much kinder to myself. I encourage you to do the same, do it through morning affirmations, listening to a favorite hype up song on the way to work, reminding yourself out loud with who you are. You’re learning as you go, so be kind to yourself throughout.
Scream when you need to. It’s healthy.
Being a creative is completely frustrating. From pitching and concepting to production and editing, it’s enough to make you slam your head against a wall. While I don’t recommend that you slam your head against a wall, I encourage you to scream it out. I remember once that I just had a really rough day at work. The projects I was on weren’t going the way I had hoped and I was overwhelmed with anger. As soon as I got home, I found a pillow and screamed my lungs out. I instantly felt better, and was able to get back to work the next day. It was a moment of emotional weakness that I embraced, and I’m glad I had. Sometimes all you need is a good scream.
Write down everything
We are creative beings, and throughout our day-to-day lives we have new ideas. WRITE THEM DOWN. They can be half thoughts. They can be silly. They can be fragments. I don’t care, just write them down. There’s nothing more annoying than having an idea, not writing it down, and then days later you can’t remember what the idea was anyways. Every idea is one worth exploring. So write them down.
I have many other things I’ve learned, and am continuing to learn, while working as a creative. All and all we should be open minded as we continue to create because learning is what makes us better creatives.
