Staying Small
“Shit isn’t real yet when you’re in your 20s. Your early 20s problems will feel really insignificant soon. Try a bunch of stuff, be a little reckless, smoke weed one time, kiss someone nice, stop trying to be cool – it’s not working, it never works – and generally let yourself live.”
This one is for my fellow type-A, millennial, post-university, career focused, worrying 20 year olds.
5 years ago, I took my career very seriously.
5 years ago, visions & goals and manifesting were my world.
I felt like if I could get my hands on enough personal development material, I would one day be able to generate my ideal life. Success looked like being recognized internationally, working with big clients, and having a following. I dreamt about making something BIG happen.
Talking to one of my Mentor's Gordon about his recent venture into his own business, he's found the beauty in staying small. Seth Godin is also a big proponent of being small. In a climate obsessed with growth, I've had to ask myself, what is the added value of being big?
After 6 years pursuing film, I've come to see that I was being run by a narrative that wasn't my own. What I realized was that my drive to work in film wasn't always about being a filmmaker. It was (and still sometimes is) clouded in perception and what 'success' looked like on the outside.
More followers, more views, bigger projects. Being off social media the past three weeks has shown me that so much of what I defined as "success" wasn't actually my own. It belonged to my peers, the media and corporations that create what "success" should look like.
Success the past month has been all the things that aren't normally on my social media. It was spending a weekend off my phone with my closest friends by the lake. It was seeing my sister walk down the aisle with my new brother in-law. It was receiving a teary-phone call from a mother we were filming and hearing her words of gratitude. What I recognize is that staying small has allowed me more control over my time. It's allowed me to put my time and energy into what is most important to me.
Ask yourself: whose success are you chasing?
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