Tuesday, June 9, 2015

You can't rush your career

So this morning my son in middle school told me he just wants to skip middle school and go straight to high school and college. For him it's all about the hockey and he wants to go straight to where it's more competitive. I told him he can't do that, he has to learn what he needs to in middle school because each part builds to the next and if he went straight to high school, he'd never succeed. He needs all those steps that lead up to it.

And that made me think of our careers as writers. I think many times we just want that success, that brass ring. But are we really prepared? Each of these moments we've been in have been the steps we needed to be able to handle the real success we want. Think of it this way -- imagine your career as your schooling when you were a child. Your first draft of a script, was like kindergarten. It seemed brilliant when you first wrote it, but now you look back at it and it looks like a bad finger painting! Then you move on to maybe a second script, another class, each step teaching you something new. You're growing as a writer. Maybe you'll get a girlfriend or boyfriend along the way, bullied by someone insecure, asked to hang with the popular kids. But you need all those steps and those will be the moments that you'll remember. Till eventually you find yourself graduating and someone hires you! But that can't happen overnight.

So next time you look to rush things, just remember, you're still learning. Enjoy the lessons. They're there for a reason. And before long, you'll realize it's time to graduate and go out into the real world.