Allow me to give thanks.
I’m not the wealthiest or most inherently “successful” of my friends — not by a long shot. I’ve never owned a company. I don’t drive a nice car. The result of my career choice is, speaking generously, more detrimental to society than it is beneficial.
But man, do I have a fun job.
And I’ve had a pretty darn fun career. Because I’m a creative professional employed by an advertising agency.
It’s been well-documented throughout human nature that once we achieve something that should be, by all accounts, a happiness bar achieved, it’s never enough. We move the goalposts on our hopes and dreams. Then we work harder, head down, trying to achieve more.
It’s one of the big reasons it’s so hard to live in the moment. Why it’s hard to concentrate on anything for very long, period. And why happiness can just feel so damn fleeting overall.
It’s so easy, in this business, to become cynical. With good reason, given the nature of the job: you’re under the pressure to create something, to make something, often under strict rules and guidelines, all kinds of scrutiny from all kinds of different stakeholders with different opinions and reasons to say what they say — most of which never starts with “it’s perfect, don’t change a thing.” You get torn down, built up again, torn down some more, built back, until you finally have something after 98% of your ideas, words, pictures, whatever have passed on or shaped into something either somewhat or totally different from what you had originally intended.
So periodically, and especially lately, I’ve been on a mission to remind myself that I’ve got it pretty good.
I spent six years making baseball ads for a baseball team! How insane is that! So much of the process was not fun at all, but look at what I got to make, who I got to be around, what we got to spend our days talking about. Truly amazing. Even without much of a budget or very much time. In fact, I’m more proud of what we made because of those things. Small box, lots of room for failure, and a high bar: ads for baseball teams, after all, should be good.
Even though I don’t work on baseball ads right now, I’ve got plenty of curious, fun, and interesting things to spend my time on. Interesting business problems to solve at every turn. And as my old friend and boss Jim Copacino loved to say: we have an incredible job because we get to walk in every day with a blank piece of paper and…fill it with ideas!
I’m very privileged. I acknowledge that.
Many would kill to work on the clients I do, in the city I do, with the people I do.
Why is it human nature to get cynical, even when you have an awesome job?
Is there anyone it DOESN’T happen to?
How do you get away from yourself for a moment and appreciate what you have?
The way I do it: by surrounding myself with leaders, bosses, and people below me who care too, and celebrate not just the work that’s created, but also each other.
The other way: by trying to remember, whenever possible, to check myself, my ego, and my cynicism at the door.
And by saying these things to myself periodically:
“your life is good.”
“You’re employed and you get to fill a sheet of paper with ideas every day.”
“You’re lucky.”
I’m lucky.
And I’m thankful, after all these years, to still be working in advertising.