We do it all the time. Whether it’s with our creativity – we play it safe with having the same hairstyles, makeup, style, etc. Or if it’s with work, we stay in the same job because we know how to do it with our eyes closed and we get so accustomed to the same environment.
We stick to what we know. Why? Because it’s comfortable. There isn’t anything to fear when you stay in the safe zone. However, it serves as a double edged sword because you stay in what is complacent. You become stunted. It can take a while to realise especially when change comes at an unwelcoming time. It leaves us feeling shaken up a bit.
In my personal life, I’ve undergone some of these disruptive changes which initially weren’t well received (which is the reason for the hiatus on here). Recently, I had to leave my first graduate job as a digital marketing assistant. A painful sting I didn’t expect. The decision was due to changes being made in the company. It was very difficult initially. But with time I came to understand that it was all to help me grow because with my new role provided me with new ways to grow. Having been put in out of depth situations forced me to step up to the plate and challenge myself.
Now, I have new job as a marketing assistant at a barre fitness studio in Central London. I get to be more creative and take more of an executive position which was met with some slight nerves but you never know what you can do unless you’re forced to do it – and in those situations you see within yourself that you’re actually more capable than you think. I realised that once I got over the initial nerves and trusted myself creatively, I produce really good work. Last week, I got to see one of my designs in print for the first time which melted my heart as I’ve never had my design work printed out before. Especially as a real life product to hand out to people.
The experience has served as a learning curve for me. I’ve always been someone who’s wrestled inside with the thought of being creative because I never felt good enough. But my new job came at the right time where I needed to trust myself creatively, and not play it so safe all the time – and what better way to do that then be in a situation where I didn’t have a choice or I was going to get fired if I couldn’t deliver. I’d never seen myself as a graphic designer before, I battled with the idea of being good enough to even being called a creative. But now actually being in a job that I get to sit and get immersed in creative projects for hours on end and have people interact and enjoy my designs is something that sits really well with my soul.
Detours in our path can serve as the answers we never thought we needed and provide us the growth that we need. My first graduate job as a digital marketing assistant wasn’t an intentional one. It was the only job I got but as I spent time in the role as was able to take skills from it to build my own brand and in my spare time out of work started getting into watching videos on branding I started to realise I had a natural interest in that field of branding in the digital space and felt a connection with it. It served that media craving but gave me something new and exciting to learn about and grow in than staying complacent in writing editorial content .
As humans, we can feel like we only can do as much as we think or the extent to how much we know ourselves or what others tell us. That’s until we’re given new opportunities that reveal to us sides to ourselves we didn’t fully see before.
Espire21 