January’s a month of evaluation, realignment, reassessment, a month to reaffirm and reflect.
If you’re in business, then January is always a fresh start professionally. You peel away the cellophane of the new desk diary or office calendar like a school kid who has just received a crisp new exercise book on the first day of the new term and can’t wait to crease back the first page to tackle that creative essay or mind bending fraction. With the dawn of the new year comes new resolve…to land that big corporate client, improve your skills and break through that financial glass ceiling. It doesn’t always pan out that way though.
When you work for yourself, that resolve and optimism takes regular knocks. You doubt your ability sometimes, you sell yourself short on occasions, actually, you just get plain tired of chasing the next job. It sap’s you mentally. And you can wobble. It’s been a lean month, your social media is a tiresome commitment and who even looks at it anyway?. That new year spark spatters uncomfortably and snuffs out with an unsettling whiff. Your friends can’t understand it, why don’t you get a day job, with regular cash, some financial security. So you find yourself seduced by the idea of a 9 to 5 with the regular pay cheque, the deductible tax and the company pension scheme. Then you think of the commute, the red tape of corporate life, the performance reviews, the rivalries, the office politics and the unpaid hours at your desk…finishing that last email on a friday night.
The next day you awake, feed the birds, put on your face, turn up the radio and settle at your desk with a cat at your feet. Yeah, you feel crushed sometimes, demotivated and empty creatively…and then the first call comes in…the concept finds form in your head, even during the phone call…the client is cheery, receptive and excited and you feel caught up in their enthusiasm…a reassuring ‘dang’ of the email brings an enquiry from a ‘dormant’ client or a chance meeting at a network event, while a referral from a friend and colleague requires a speculative quote, but your gut instinct tells you: this is a GOOD one!…and you remember why you love this job…it’s what inspires you, fires you and makes you tick… and you can’t quite believe your luck.
#fallinlovewithgraphicdesign
PHOTO BY MADDI BAZZOCCO ON UNSPLASH
