Your Pursuit To Happiness

As a freelancer in the creative industry you are constantly looking for the next project to work on and you will be rejected many times, but no matter how many times it happens it still sucks.

Immediately you get defensive, that you need to prove yourself and that you are more than capable of meeting their requirements, which doesn’t help in some cases as then you sound overqualified and you get rejected either way.

But one thing that tends to plague my mind is that dark cloud of “I’m not good enough” and “I must be the problem”. If you’re out there feeling the same way because you’ve also been rejected, let this be a reminder that you are good enough. I repeat, YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH! Although if you are job hopping constantly because you keep getting fired than you may be the problem there my friend, then you need to get yourself together and get rid of that entitlement mentality.

The job-market is a fickle place. They have high expectations for the work they need done, ridiculous timeframes that change often and usually offer low (or no) wages. Unfortunately, as they are the companies, or CEO’s, they believe they can make such demands and all us freelancers out there must bend over backwards to do what opportunities we can to get by, and most likely majority of the work you find isn’t in the line of what you want or that great in general. It does suck and there are plenty other freelancers that possibly have better skills than you that you are competing with constantly. The same applies to many others hunting the job markets.

When the rejection happens, don’t be harsh on yourself. They don’t know who you really are and what you are capable of. You are unique. The right job(s) that is meant for you will happen, keep looking and pursuing your dreams. I love this inspiring quote from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)’ (see image below)…

In the meantime work on your skills. Be even better. Create the life you want to live. If you just sit there having a pity party for yourself, you will be the only one losing out. Just keep improving your skills, it will eventually pay off. This is your pursuit to happiness. Stay strong.

It’s easy to lose yourself when you’re out there hustling. Stay true to yourself. If you need some inspiration watch “Erin Brockovich (2000)” and ‘The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)’. Both these movies are inspired by true events about people that were facing hard times, struggling to find work and make ends meet. I won’t spoil anything but they are very inspiring and worth it, and their performances, what can I say, Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her performance and Will Smith was an Oscar nominee. Do have tissues handy. I’m going to add Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway movie ‘The Devil Wears Prada (2006)’ to the mix for a lighter touch.

Check out my post ‘Get Back Up! Inspiration From Rocky & Batman Begins’ for more inspiration.

This post was last updated in August 2021.