When I started my business in 2006, I held the belief that I would never take on work that I did not want to do. However, this belief has been shattered by my inability to say no to work (translation: unhealthy workaholic). The result has been a cycle of late nights fulfilling unrealistic deadlines, diminishing vision, a lack of care for my health, and occasional boredom towards the very work I was hired to do.
When one is a work junkie (translation: very unhealthy workaholic), the pressure of deadlines and the subsequent choices made in order to live up to those deadlines is the fix that leads to an addiction. I am an addict. I can’t say no. I need the high, but I am bored.
Recently, I was talking with my wife about the boredom I felt and she made a comment that hit me hard: “It may be boring to you, but have you thought about the people that the creative work is for? Will they be bored?”
The moral of the story: You may be bored with your work, but in the business of providing creative solutions, it is never about you. It is about your client, your audience, and the message that is being communicated to them.
Want to overcome boring work? Get over yourself and do the job.