Get a life. No wait, don’t.
January 10th, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Our Work | No Comments »
When I was pursuing an acting career, I was putting in long hours, neglecting friendships, spending every last dollar on books & classes. I told my concerned parents, “I am sacrificing my 20s to have a career in my 30s.”
I am no longer acting, but I have continued in my strange study of writing, comedy, producing, filmmaking, and creativity. And, I’m happy to say that my mantra still stands. And as I approach my 30th birthday, this statement looms large in my mind.
I’ve learned, however, that a “career” wasn’t really what I was looking for as a young 22/23-year-old. I wanted a powerfully meaningful life. And I felt that a life spent creating and exploring would give me that. I just didn’t have it yet. I had to work hard and sacrifice to re-train my brain.
Long hours? Yes. Years’ worth of late nights. But as my friend Patric and I used to say to each other, “If you don’t work 16 hours a day, you’ll be stuck in a job working 8.”
Hugh MacLeod speaks to his own experience in this area in a great post called On “Having No Life,” an expansion of his extremely popular post from 2004, How to be Creative.
The thing that turns a job into passion, that turns work into play, is a sense of mission. When you’ve got a real sense of purpose, the lines that separate work and play evaporate. So instead of thinking about how “creative” or “uncreative” your job is, ask yourself what “purpose-idea” your job is articulating.
