The end of the year is a great time to make decisions - decide to make a great life and career for yourself in 2024 and beyond.
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
I often have a difficult time making decisions and this often becomes all too evident in December. Is it because both “December” and “decide” start the same way with the same three letters? Or is it because it is the one month of the year that I do the most shopping? So many choices, so hard to pick just one thing.
I tend to second guess my choices. There is a plethora of activities in December. Do I go to the holiday concert or to a party? Sometimes I want to clone myself so I can do both. But limited time and other resources impel us to make decisions. I suffer from FOMO – the fear of missing out. But I don’t have the capacity or ability to do everything I want so I must make decisions, which means cutting back on some options.
Deciding is a commitment to a choice. It is cutting off other options. The word decide comes from the Latin word, “decidere,” which is a combination of two words “de” (off) and “caedere” (cut). When you decide you cut off the other options. But when you decide and make a commitment you gain a greater focus and often the path becomes clear and suddenly doors open.
Artists make decisions every day. Should I paint with acrylic, oil, or watercolor? Should I draw with pencil, pen, or tablet? Would this story work best with stop-motion animation or CG animation? Storyboard artists decide on framing, camera angles, and composition. Companies decide on whether to bid on jobs, what software packages to purchase, and how many artists to hire.
Artists looking for work have to make numerous decisions. Which skills to emphasize in their marketing materials? What to include in a portfolio or demo reel? What should be removed? How to describe the shots on their reel in a reel breakdown sheet. How to encapsulate the experience they had at the last company they worked for on a resume? What companies should they approach?
Sometimes artists might be faced with the decision of which job offer to accept. In this situation I found it helpful to make a chart of the pluses and minuses of each job offer. Sometimes just one minus can override all the pluses as in the case of a crazy boss.
Decisions involve making a change and change can be difficult. You have to be brave to step into the unknown. But settling for the status quo does not lead to a great life. If you want a great job with a great boss and coworkers, you might have to decide to leave what you know and go for it.
The first step in decision making is to establish your goal. Are you clear on what it is? Knowing what you don’t want helps in this area too.
The end of the year is a great time to determine what is important to you. Is it freedom to set your own hours? Do you want to be a freelancer? Do you want to work from home? Do you want to work with a team? Do you want to have a gallery show? Only you know what’s important to you. And what’s important to you now might not be important to you in the future. Don’t be afraid to make a change, whenever you need to do so.
Take time to gather relevant information and knowledge through thorough research, examine all your options, give it careful consideration weighing both pros and cons, analyze the aspects of the decision by determining the opportunities and threats that might be involved. Do you have enough financial resources that you could take a job that pays less now but offers more opportunity in the future? Know what you want and need. Is this a good time to make that move? Sometimes you can’t foresee every aspect of a decision, but don’t let that paralyze you. If you have done your analysis of the pros and cons with a clear goal in mind as well as considering the factors that are important to you, then your decision is bound to have merit. Decide to decide.
Ultimately, it’s about doing what makes you happy and what works best for you. Decide to make a great life for yourself in 2024 and beyond.
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”--Nelson Mandela
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As a creative career coach and recruiter, Pamela Kleibrink Thompson helps animators, visual effects artists, writers, and others in creative fields to design a life that they love. For personal one-on-one recruiting contact her at PamRecruit87@gmail.com. Her picture book The Horse Who Wanted to Fly will be published by Firefly Books in fall 2024.
*** Note: Ted Geisel image - No copyright restriction known. Staff photographer reproduction rights transferred to Library of Congress through Instrument of Gift.
