This weekend, I was talking with one of my camera crew after a long shoot day. We were traveling back home after a particularly long 15 hour day on a shoot that was very much a ‘pay the bills’, kind of shoot. The subject matter wasn’t particularly interesting or exciting. We weren’t out there shooting what we really enjoy which is typically in the extreme sports, outdoor/adventure world, we were shooting in a relatively stressful environment, very fly by the seat of our pants, run-and-gun type of shooting.
And I looked at him, exhausted and said, “Days like this are tough because we didn’t get recharged by our work. It felt like a drain on our energy and joy of creating. But I know it’s also going to pay dividends in the long run.”
It’s shoot days like that where we really prove to ourselves how creative we can be. Can we get the shots and make something incredible with very minimal preparation (not because we weren’t prepared, we prepared the best we could. The nature of the situation we were capturing just isn’t able to be prepared for or pre-produced very highly), very minimal plan, and very minimal inspiration?
The answer is yes, I’ve reviewed our footage from that shoot and I’m actually much more excited to edit it than I was to shooting it.
But I had this realization while reviewing the footage, the proud moment of the skills and the talent that we’ve developed over the years of shooting together as a team, that we’re that confident and comfortable in our craft that we’re able to create something that looks that incredible with as little prep and planning as we had for this shoot. The realization that those skills have been formed over a number of long years doing many more shoots that were a struggle and felt like a drain than shoots that gave us energy and got us really excited. The realization that those ‘dividends’ that I was talking about when I said that to team mate were at work that very day and that the work we had just done was compounding those benefits further.
The realization that not all work is going to be incredibly fulfilling but it all increases our capacity to be fulfilled by our work.
And I think a lot of productivity falls into this category: When we’re in the thick of it, doing the work that matters but might not be our favorite way to be doing it, it’s very hard to see the forest for the trees. The hustle-porn culture of instagram and pinterest will try and have us to believe that if we’re doing the work that matters then it should be energizing and not drainig. There’s this lie as old as the concept of work itslef that says, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
I’m calling bullshit. I love what I do and some days are just really hard work, plain and simple. Being productive doesn’t always feel good. Being productive and doing the work that matters doesn’t always give you energy to get up and go do it again the next day.
Doing the work that matters can sometimes be a grind and you need to take a break from it and that’s perfectly ok. I’m not doing a thing today. It’s a Monday after a long weekend of filming and I’m going to do absolutely nothing with my day. In fact the only reason I’m writing this right now is because I genuinely love and enjoy this practice.
There’s a therapeutic quality in this writing for me. But aside from this, I plan on doing some reading today. Maybe catching up on some youtube videos from my favorite creators, eating some Ben and Jerry’s, and this evening I have a massage booked.
It’s about to be the most laid back, non-obligatory, day I’ve had for a while and that is perfect. It’s exactly what I need.
And the reality is that, even when you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing with your life, even when you’re doing the work that matters, the work that you were placed on this earth to do, you still need breaks. You still need rest.
Rest has long been viewed in the marketplace as a sign of weakness, but if you gain nothing else from anything that you’ve ever read from me, gain this: Rest is the source, not the antithesis, of strength in the working world. Rest is where the truly creative ideas are formed that we then take back to our work and create. Rest is where the energy comes from to carry on and continue when it’s not easy, and it’s not always easy; in fact, it’s hard more often than it is easy. Rest is literally the life blood of doing work that matters and being productive. If you want to get off of the busywork carousel and actually start doing work that matters, find time to truly rest. Find 5 minutes of every hour to just rest. Find an hour in every day, find a day in every week; whatever it looks like for you, just find time to rest, do it often and do it regularly.
Let your brain and body know that it can get used to taking breaks and recharging. We need to start taking rest more seriously.
Get off of the train that says 18 hour work days and 5 hours of sleep per night for weeks, months, years in a row is the way to be successful; I did that for the first few years of my business and in hindsight I can see how much I was limiting my capacity by being absolutely drained all of the time.
Learn how to work 8 or 10 hour days and get more done in those 8 hours than you previously could in 16. Learn how to build systems into your work that make you more productive and efficient. Learn how to procrastinate everything that is non-essential and only work on the things that matter right now.
It’s possible, I promise. Get off the train that says that “paying your dues” really looks like working yourself dead until you’re so burnt out that any semblance of passion and excitement for what you once loved have left you entirely.
Take a break, find your rest, get rejuvenated, come back to your work excited.
That’s the way.
Thanks for reading.
Much love. Peace…
