"When are you ever going to finish something?" The Power of Quitting
View this post on Hive: "When are you ever going to finish something?" The Power of Quitting
View this post on Hive: "When are you ever going to finish something?" The Power of Quitting
I've also found myself quitting a lot more things as time goes on. I agree with you that it's often the right thing, like when you are being treated badly and are unhappy every day, when you feel like staying is changing you for the worse. We do live in a different world than our parents did. It made sense in their day to stay at one job and work there until you retired. It doesn't for us, usually. If we are even lucky enough to find a job in our field, the pay is not enough for us to survive on independently, much less to have a family and buy a house. I think this is one reason why there is such a rift between generations. The older people can't understand why we won't settle down and get on with our lives, but the economic reality is that we can't. It's hard to know what to do and how to beat the system.
I think it's important to stick with a project if you really believe in it and are passionate about it, but even then, in something like film, you are depending on so many other people, and if they aren't coming through for you, it can feel almost impossible to succeed. I had so much frustration my first few years making films as a student and amateur (I am still an amateur--hopefully that will change to professional someday) because I worked on many projects that never got finished, so I had put in a lot of work and effort and had nothing to show for it. I think that was why I stuck so tenaciously to my student film and finished it three years after starting even though I knew it wasn't a masterpiece or anything. Thankfully things got better and now I have a few finished short films under my belt, but getting to that stage has been incredibly painful.
This is probably the best comment I've received so far!
It's great to meet someone who seems to understand me so well.
I feel like letting my parents, I mean father - and all those other parents who have still got their heads stuck in the 70s/ 80s - read this, to actually understand me/ our generation.
For your information, I also quit my job as a teacher in July 2016, just before I went to the Canary Islands. I did this to recharge my empty batteries and rediscover my creativity. My aim was to make a feature and this transformed into my Spanish feature film project.
Especially my father found it very hard to understand my decision. Even more because - after three years of struggling - I was finally offered a permanent contract. Something that is pretty normal in The Netherlands. That was exactly the reason why I quit: I was afraid quitting would be even harder with a permanent contract, didn't want to loose my freedom. Besides all that, I didn't like my job enough. It drained me (from my creativity) and I was close to a burnout.
In that case too, quitting was the right decision. Now, a year and a half later, I feel Steemit - and investing in cryptocurrency - has started to become my savior/ lifebuoy :)
I must congratulate you with sticking to your student film and actually finishing it. I worked on a short film for 8 months, back in 2010-11 and that felt like ages. I followed it up with 9 short films in a year in 2012. Back then, I actually finished films, haha!
Well, shorts are most definitely easier to pull of than features, I am sure. :) I can't even imagine doing a feature, honestly, though I would love to try in the future!
Yes, I understand about working at jobs that drain you creatively--it's kind of like a lose-lose situation, because you need the job to survive until you can start making money from your creativity, but you don't have the freedom or time to focus on your creativity while you work. :(
I found this article very good for explaining the situation of millennials, though I don't really agree with the solutions offered in it. Maybe it would be something your dad would be interested to read? http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/
By the way, I'd love to see some of your films. :) Are they online anywhere?
I didn't had the time until now to read every article of the people who I want to follow everyday and now I had the chance and must say I am glad that I already voted before it is too late because I love this post! I completely agree on this matter. Learning to quit is a skill, the skill of choosing for yourself, and stop doing things you only do because you think other people expect you to do so..
I can see a lot of similarities in our journeys. I think life only rewards us for this kind of life choices, revealing more beauty every time we choose to listen to our heart..
Thanks again for the extensive reply. It definitely is a skill.
I also see a lot of similarities between the two of us and that is one thing I like about Steemit:
meeting up with like minded people. This is one of the reasons why I had been wanting to start sharing my story/ adventures and creative process with others for a long time. Steemit is just the kind of platform that I needed ;)
I am thinking a lot of traveling again but I got some trouble making up my mind.
Exactly steemit is the platform I needed too :) don't push yourself to travel if you have other things on your mind, the day will come that you are ready again :)
Wise words and very true. I told the above - 'not sure about the whole traveling thing, perhaps it's just escapism' - to my twinsister and she came with the idea to spend a couple of day at a time with different people in the Netherlands and kind of follow them in their daily life.
I then thought of connecting that to my (A to Z of Creativity) idea of interviewing people on creativity. Why wouldn't I travel from person to person on foot? As I love to walk and it adds an interesting concept to my project. So, keep an eye on my blog for my upcoming adventures ;)
I sure will amigo ;) looking forward to your creative projects
you might like my latest post ;)
and I'm definitely looking forward to reading about your new adventures too
Congratulations @vincentnijman! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by VincentNijman from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, and someguy123. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you like what we're doing please upvote this comment so we can continue to build the community account that's supporting all members.
Well @vincentnijman you deserve a medal for staying in school (prison) for 21 years :)
Me being a free spirit did not last that long, I could not handle it.
So I stopped in my second HAVO year.
Mum mad of course and tried to let my teachers manipulate me back into it.
Did not work :)
I was out and never wanted to go back and haven't regret it for one moment.
I agree quitting is not failing if you gave it your best.
Doing it out of insecurities is a different story :)
Still would not call it failing.
Maybe the time was not right for you yet.
Leaving or quitting can also mean that the spot your in is not where you need to be and that there is another spot for you that is way better.
In relation ships for me its a different story.
There I have troubles quitting toxic partnerships.
I tend to go to the bottom until I say : I am off this is enough !
Bit stubborn LOL
But all good that is how I learn my lessons :)
If I would be in a new relationship I think I would be able to goodbye earlier now :)
Thanks for the great post !
Haha! Where can I claim that medal? School often felt like prison for me too...
Pretty amazing that you left the educational system at such an early age.
Yeah, I definitely gave it my best and it was more than just insecurities. In the end, it might indeed not have been the right spot to be for me. As you can read in my latest post (today), it freed me up to work on another project that I had been pondering on since April.
Let's not even start on relationships, haha. Yeah, it's all about learning lessons (school slang), experiences. Learning from them and trying not to make the same mistake (for lack of a better word) the next time. Fall down, stand up again, shake off the dust and start all over again.
Thanks again for your kind words! Much appreciated :)
Great, fingers crossed that you will be happier in your new project :)
Cheer! I will do my utmost best to make that happen ;)