did your fulltime job make goals unreachable?
polycounter lvl 12
hi guys,
i've been wondering, did your fulltime job cloud your life goals?
when i did freelance back in 2014, my goals were very clear, i wanted to be a great artist and i did my best to keep improving.
but once i got a fulltime job working even on huge movies and being happy generally for few days because new projects kept starting, along the way my goals were basically unreachable. i couldn't see myself doing art at all, experience became irrelevant and i just didn't care. i was really questioning "is this what i love?". i didn't hate it nor did i love it. i didn't hate it only because money was there.
i was even attempting to start various businesses in that period of time, just to secure something in near future.
once the project was over, i was laid off (yay for lay offs). and to my surprise i was happy, my old goals are still there, everything is better than before EVEN though money isn't the same.
i realized that i like being free(lancer) and managing my own shit.
anyone had any similar experiences?
i've been wondering, did your fulltime job cloud your life goals?
when i did freelance back in 2014, my goals were very clear, i wanted to be a great artist and i did my best to keep improving.
but once i got a fulltime job working even on huge movies and being happy generally for few days because new projects kept starting, along the way my goals were basically unreachable. i couldn't see myself doing art at all, experience became irrelevant and i just didn't care. i was really questioning "is this what i love?". i didn't hate it nor did i love it. i didn't hate it only because money was there.
i was even attempting to start various businesses in that period of time, just to secure something in near future.
once the project was over, i was laid off (yay for lay offs). and to my surprise i was happy, my old goals are still there, everything is better than before EVEN though money isn't the same.
i realized that i like being free(lancer) and managing my own shit.
anyone had any similar experiences?
Replies
That part needs to change no matter what.
as an employee you can prolong your enthusiasm for the job/project by putting yourself in new situations, like working abroad (assuming that turns out a positive experience, of course), regularly switching companies or jobs/projects within a company.
but the problem remains that work will take up so much energy than when all is said and done and you come home from the job you won't have that much opportunity to follow down your own path in that little slice of spare time.
In fact you don't learn anything valuable from employment, you just work. Nobody want to make you more competitive and rival their own jobs.
Moreover your field of competence is getting narrower every single day step by step. And one day you would suddenly find that whatever you did before is no more in high demand.
You get your chance to improve yourself not only as an artist in general but simply improve your skills only during your own free time.
So being laid off once in a few years is actually a good thing.
I'd much rather be in a team with other people where you can share ideas and collaborate, rather than having home/work life blend together... the need to constantly find new work on a regular basis can be sucky as well. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, working from home has its perks. I've heard a lot of people try to find a happy medium by working in a small team where hours are flexible (or an artist's collaborative work environment,) another benefit being that you don't feel like a small cog in a big wheel. Different strokes I guess!
I guess it comes down to what work you get to do; be it freelancing or by studio. If you get to work on AAA proj, you might get to do something fun and challenging. Same with freelancing as well. Or you might get to work on uninspiring proj that doesn't really push your skills to the limit and beyond.
definitely nothing to do with AAA, just the people you work with.
If you really want to accomplish something significant while holding down a full-time job, you have to either make lifestyle sacrifices and squeeze every last minute out of your free time and dedicate it to your project, or save enough money to quit your job and focus on your goals full-time (risky, but could be big reward... Mark Cuban, MJ DeMarco). Otherwise, in my experience, you'll be chipping away at a project so slowly that it will be difficult to ever see the end. Burnout is real, and trust me it will fuck you.
40+ hours a week - that's a lot of time! Make no mistake about it, you are being paid to dedicate your LIFE (very limited resource) to someone else's dream. And that is fine for many people who love what they do. For others, you have to get real and make a decision if you actually want to accomplish your goals (big or small).
movies don't really push your skills, i've halfassed a lot of shit and it passed to my surprise. thanks to motion blur.
deadlines are also retarded, one sculpture, one day. 12 sculptures, make it happen.
i really hope i don't have to return to something like this again, yeah it's great for experience but it's not good for you.
i'll try and stick to freelance as much as i can, because this is the way to go.
thanks a lot guys for advice and your share of experience.
All project-based work is this way. It doesn't matter if it's a movie, game, building construction or picking fruit.
The goal is to finish the project on time and on budget. Once the project is done, you are done. Maybe there is another project ready to go, maybe not.
If you don't want to live that kind of lifestyle, you have to find work that is not project-based. That means service or maintenance.
If you can find an eight hour a day, five days a week job which isn't project-based then you will have lots of free time to work on your personal artwork.