One For The Meal, One For The Reel & One For You

You often see it in ads or read about it in articles, the need for people to find this perfect work-life balance. I’ve never really subscribed to that mindset. Now, it’s not that you shouldn’t try to find that balance, but for me, it just doesn’t work. I don’t have kids, and my wife and I often work together, or at least in the same space. Work and life blend into the same thing for me. Plus, running my own business, my life revolves around my work. There is almost no time that I’m not thinking about or working towards trying to grow the business or improve my skills, besides those few hours of sleep at night.
Rather than finding that perfect work/life balance, my goal is to find a balance in the kind of work I do. That’s work that I do for the money and work I do for the love or passion for the project. Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “One for the meal, one for the reel” thrown around sometimes.
But it really should be, “One For The Meal, One For The Reel & One For You.”
I may have recently heard this concept in a talk Jeff Boddy did. I love this idea, and it’s something I’m always thinking about when trying to balance this creative life.
Since I typically enjoy working or at least creating, I try to do this all the time. Honestly, it’s a little easier to achieve when you’re running a studio because you are the one saying what work we’ll do and not do. Sometimes doing any job in necessary to make sure employees get paid, and it’s the ultimate priority when running a business. However, when there’s some downtime or an opportunity to try something else that’s not for clients, then we pursue whatever creative project we want. Sometimes it might be to improve our skills in an area and style, or sometimes it’s just what interests us. And you never know, that non-client work might even turn into client work.
If you’re not spending your time working on the kinds of projects you want to be, then you should show the work on your reel that you want to do and not the projects you are doing that you don’t love. That’s what those non-client jobs or work for you is all about. You can use those to show off what you want to do more of in the future if given a chance. Most evenings and the weekends, I’m attempting to learn new software that will hopefully lead to other opportunities for LooseKeys. I’m also creating cute illustrations and then having them made into stickers. These adorable illustrations aren’t the work clients have hired us for, but that cute kawaii style is something I love and is just fun to make.
The best part about doing work for you is you’re able to quickly shake off those troublesome clients or a job that you’re not super excited to be working on during the day. Coming home from work and doing more work isn’t always appealing, but when it’s work for you, it makes it a lot more fun and often more challenging.
Taking care of yourself, whether it’s your physical or mental health, is something many creatives push to the side as they chase money or fame.
Don’t forget to take some time to make what you want to make or learn what you want to learn. Look at the work you’re doing, and if it’s not the work you want, then start doing it.
