Feb 9, 2022
You Are Not Procrastinating, Things Are Just Becoming
Think what you like, you are not a procrastinator.
In 2008, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk came up with the idea of a feature-length film titled Squid Game, but at the time, he was unable to get the script greenlit. He had to put it aside to work on other projects. Ten years after, Squid Game saw the light of day, and not only that, it is the biggest show on Netflix with 2.1billion hours of watch time.
The Queen’s Gambit even took three times more time to see to fruition. For thirty years, William Hoberg and Allan Scott were trying to make the film. 62 million households chose to watch the limited series in its first 28 days, the novel the film was adapted from by Walter Tevis entered the New York best seller 40 years after it was published.
I get that this looks like another article on resilience but it’s about your mindset in the waiting period.
It took me so long to understand this. For years on end, I would start working on an idea, then because I have abandoned it for so long maybe due to lack of resources to execute it at the time, I’d be filled with guilt, I’d self-loathe. My mindset began to change when I attended film school and my tutor would talk about how some of the films she made took years.
It doesn’t apply to only films, it could be anything. what looks like procrastination or abandonment may be the idea becoming.
In those moments when you are waiting, and you are not even sure what you are waiting for, it is important to extend yourself some compassion. It is that compassion that would enable you to look at yourself as a work in progress. It is the compassion that would give you the strength to pick up the project again and give it another go even if it is 20 years later.
