Growth is hard at first, messiest in the middle, and beautiful in the end. The next time you find yourself downtrodden, burnt out, and on the verge of pulling your hair out over a project, hold out for just a bit more because it means you’re one step closer to the finish line. 

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If there’s anything I’ve learned after four years of working as a creative, it’s that skipping the “messy middle” and hyperfocusing on the perfect end results will eventually be our own downfall as artists. Though the pursuit of excellence is admirable, more often than not, it leaves us in a state of analysis paralysis. This makes it easy to succumb to mental blocks and burnout once we mess up on the first few drafts. 

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This has been one of the hardest lessons we need to learn as creatives—to sit with our mistakes and start from the bottom up. Admittedly, for a long time, this project got me stuck in a creative rut. The scenes from the first few seconds of my work were actually scraps of my own drafts. Some ideas were great but didn’t fit the vision, some were too much, and others simply lacked the spark I was looking for. And before I knew it, out of nowhere, I realized what I wanted and it all started coming together.  I can’t describe the joy of witnessing how the work I’ve been dreading suddenly becomes second nature to me. 

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It has barely been a year since I learned motion design. Funnily enough, I remember signing up for a motion design task for RecWeek without even knowing anything about After Effects. It used to be just a pandemic hobby, given that I wasn’t able to practice photography and videography with the current setting. As a detail-oriented worker, I fell in love with the succinct and precise nature of this craft that enabled me to spin a captivating story in just seconds. That’s when I discovered my passion for it. I wanted to become better at it, but I knew I was never one to stick to a hobby. I decided to commit to a project in order to help me focus on nurturing this skill. Personally, I find that making learning my responsibility helped me become more forgiving of my mistakes and strive towards a growth mindset instead. I wasn’t as afraid of messing up, knowing that my coworkers are there to give me honest criticism and feedback.

Even after years of experience, the path to growth will never be linear nor perfect.  We are all Works in Progress and as long as you continue to nurture your skills with a hunger for growth, you’ll go a long way.