Honestly, I don’t even know where it begins and most certainly have no idea where it would possibly end, if there is an end to it.
The other day the challenge for the photography course I am doing was: time to get out of our comfort zones. This wasn’t aimed at me so much as all the other participants, who all seem to own a Greyhound or three and keep photographing them for each assignment.
Whilst I can understand that it is also somewhat boring.
My own comfort zone probably looks rather different and I wondered about that regardless. I don’t want to play it safe. I want to take a risk. I played around with the latest photography assignment, giving it some thought and I liked at least some of the stuff that I ended up sending off. Some was probably still conventional, but I tried to have fun with things, which was my main aim when I agreed to participate in the course to begin with.
I like photography, but it’s not my main creative outlet. In a way, trying to be a creative photographer already puts me outside my comfort zone.
Naturally that leads me to writing. I’ve not written about writing for a few days now and it is high time I made mention of it again.
Since this directly affects my future “career”, I should throw in a thought or two.
If I could snap my fingers and be done with it, I’d be a published writer yesterday and live the life that I want. Alas, I’m going to have to take the long and slow route. I could also go hard and fast, that’ll be my challenge for NaNoWriMo.
I’m trying to figure out where my comfort zone as a writer is. My current job is not very creative. It is rather very mundane. Since my promotion I also ended up with more responsibility, but things are not a lot more interesting, at least not anymore.
The next step some people have in mind for me would mean more work, much more stress and a lot more responsibility. That is all I know and it doesn’t sound appealing at all, if you ask me. In fact, it sounds a little as if it might be better to run the other way.
It’s my save option, because not much else is on the horizon and I do feel a certain need for a roof over my head. Well, I feel a stronger need for a keel under my feet, but that can be arranged.
The other option would be to pursue the various copy writing positions that I have seen advertised. Woohoo. Now, that’ll put me in a whole different set of issues.
Do I want to write? D’uh! Next question. Do I want to be a creative writer? Double d’uh! Let’s make it more interesting. Do I want to write for someone else? Hit the brakes, we arrived in an unknown area of my comfort zone.
Writing a book or writing copy for a company are two very different pairs of shoes. I know one of them fits me rather well, but I’ve never tried on the other pair. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to me to try. A rather staggering oversight.
My ultimate goal is to work for myself rather than someone else. But I have to arrive there somehow and writing for someone else must certainly hold a valuable lesson for me to learn. Or two.
It would put me out of my comfort zone. No doubt about that. But if I don’t challenge myself, I can’t grow and that is another of those things I’m quite into. Personal growth and all. I’ve blogged about it, surely.
So, would I rather be a copy writer for a small company or a team manager in a big, multinational corporation?
You tell me and if you have no clue, go back to my first blog post and start reading. There are only 126 preceding this one and some of them contain videos and photos on those days I felt lazy.
Get back to me, when you can answer the question and I’ll tell you, if there was a prize to win.
2clouds 