Hello everyone! A different style of newsletter this time. Basically I was going to start a very big project for the rest of the year and I was super excited. Those following me on Instagram will have seen me do a shot for the very first time in my life to celebrate (I have never had an alcoholic drink in my life) (it was a shot of strawberry soju) (it had pretty much no effect except I slept funny).
The very next morning I was told I was still on the project but in a much smaller capacity due to changes beyond anyone's control (it was not related to the soju shot).
I have been sad ever since, I'm not going to lie.
It sent me down another "why am I freelance should I get an office job oh wait I'm doing this freelance thing because I literally could not bear the office job life oh god what do I do" spiral.
Which got me revisiting this exercise I did a while ago.
Figuring out what you want to do when you do everything
If you're like me and you're a **very** multi-hyphenated creative, it can get super overwhelming.
It felt like I could do so many things but I was ending up doing nothing as my attention was so split. I was being pulled in all directions and I wasn't sure what skills to develop. When I chose to focus on one area I felt guilty for neglecting the other areas. Or, a project would pop up requiring a different skillset and disrupt my focus. I didn't want to waste my abilities by giving up any of them, whilst simultaneously afraid of moving ahead with any of them in case it was the wrong path.
It felt like being stuck in one place with a super heavy bag, unable to take a step and just sinking into the ground.
Then I realised; just because I can do something doesn't mean I have to do it. It was time to sort out the bag.
Step 1: Write down all your skills
Step 2: Organise them into a venn diagram with these two categories:
Monetising
Enjoying
Some things may be outside of the circles, sitting on the edge. You can sort them so the closer they are to the circle, the more you enjoy it. It's fine if it's a bit messy, as long as it makes sense to you!
See example below:
So for example, live photography is something I don't super enjoy and I don't really make a lot from it so that's on its way out of the diagram.
Hopefully this will give you some clarity and allow you to know what to focus on with your work. You can choose to:
Put your attention into what's in the middle
Only focus on what's in the "monetising" circle and relegate "enjoying" to hobbies instead of work
Focus on monetising the "enjoying" skills
You can leave this exercise there if that gives you enough information. For me, I went one step further:
(please excuse my awful graphic design, it is not a skill that's on my list and why I respect graphic designers so much)
I organised everything into these four boxes with these action points. The arrows help me visualise better and see what I want to shift, what I want to let go of, and what I want to give more time and energy to.
This exercise I developed has really helped me so I hope it's useful for you too! Please do forward this email around to anyone you think might benefit from it!
We'll be back with a creative opportunities round up in two weeks. Fingers crossed I don't get downgraded for any more projects!