I don’t really know how to take time off. When I was younger, I was taught that you did the job until it was finished. That life was all about the art of accomplishing something and then moving on to the next. You work, you get better at working. You write, you get better at writing. This is why I’d always stressed to find a job you’re passionate about as you’ll end up spending more time working than you will be doing anything else.
I took a lot of pride in the idea that experience points mattered. That there was a linear progression of sorts, instilled in us, by our progressive school education system from K-12. We level up. And eventually, if you push hard enough, anything is possible. Or so we’re told when we’re younger.
I think getting older is realizing how much of this was a lie.
Because there are no trophies for just showing up. The linear model of growth over time stopped working when we as a culture, seemed to become so obsessed with efficiency. The only work that seems to matter--especially in today’s world where everything is measured in data points, compensation, and at worse: social media engagement conversions--are the actions people see in the public eye.
You’re here to satisfy the numbers. Whether it be job performance, sales quotas, or visits through the metaphysical door of requirements. Hard work is rewarded with more work. The idea of mastering something is valued less in a world where everyone sells themselves as a master in something. This is why it’s kind of important to stop and step back as a creative and scream:
WHAT THE HELL ARE WE EVEN DOING ALL OF THIS FOR?
I haven't been in this game that long but I see how much talent goes unseen. It's not to say that experience is underappreciated, but rather, I genuinely think we've entered a culture where the loudest voices seem to not necessarily be from the wisest or most talented of people; but rather, the ones who just know how to rally a crowd. Online or otherwise.
I don't know what it means to be an influencer. I do take slight offense when I'm propositioned for a job by someone who's less than half my age.
It makes me question what did I do wrong? Why is this 15 year old likely my future boss? And most importantly, did all these years honing on my craft mean anything if 15-year-old Bradley, from London, can use his influencer money to hire 4 people just like me to ghostwrite a better book than I ever could write...
As creatives, we’re constantly questioning ourselves and breaking our abilities apart. We're jotting fragments of thought onto the page. Investing both ourselves and our time into our craft.
Why do we do this? I don’t really know.
I'd like to think it's because the years of experience have ingrained discipline into the fabric of our everyday being. But I think it's more than that...
Part of it is the dream of becoming famous. Some of it is to fulfill this itch to make something. Most of it--at least for me, anyway--is because we just tuned into this art without really knowing another healthy way out to express this. It speaks to us. It calls to us. Make me, daddy... or mommy... or whatever gender-appropriate parental authority figure kink is right for you, so long as it's the right age and deemed consensually appropriate.
Whether you're writing your first book or your hundredth, I think it's important to remember why we're writing in the first place. Appreciate the journey and the years accumulated in building up that experience in order to build our craft...
So that when Brad, with all his followers, and all his charisma of a well-meaning snickerdoodle--they're cookies for children if you ask me, in that they snicker as they doodle--asks if I will join his team as a minimum wage intern... I'll tell him:
No. Value my experience. Ya, little itch.
And then show him up by hiding from his legion of followers and writing a blog post about it.
Oh, it's that joke. We all know the one. It's different because most jokes start with "A guy walks into a bar". This joke we call "the experience of life" usually ends with "A guy walks into a bar".
ReplyDeleteThe thing about experience and experience points is that you get to recognize situations in less experienced people. We of the older Gen-Xs turn at the Millennials and the Zoomers and say, "Yeah, I remember that. It's really going to sting."
And that's the meat of the joke.
The first part living is the discovery of the lies you were told when you were younger. The lie we were told was that you 1) go to school, 2) get a job, 3) get married, 4) retire at that job, and 5) die with your grandchildren crying at your coffin. When you discover what you were told was completely inapplicable to your time and generation, you begin your first steps in the experience of wisdom.
No one said that it wasn't going to hurt.
Eventually people discover that they need to carve their own path which usually involves gathering skills to follow their passions to be the best damn (fill in the blank) you can be. And even that isn't enough, because eventually you will discover that being the best damn (fill in the blank) there is is still nothing unless there is a place for that.
No one is going to pay you money if you're the best at driving steel spikes into a girder with your forehead. Well, not many people, anyway.
No, a lot of the time people either discover that life is a crapshoot or they were born with some kind of divine inspiration to do the right thing at the right time in history. I envy those people because the truth is that no one really knows the golden rule or definition of success.
Some people define it with making a lot of money. Some people define it as finding your ultimate happiness. Others dedicate their talents to the service of mankind. It is pure kismet when all three happen to the same person.
But, regardless of who you are, you will always question your path. You will find discouragement and adversity in life. And eventually you will need time to sit back and relax to blow off the some steam before going onward.
And then, and only then, "A man walks into a bar..."
Swalla
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