Choosing For The Goal

It’s been three years since I started my Personal College Curriculum, and I’ve learned many things. I’ve shared how this decision to learn on my own came about. I am now purpose-driven every day. What has allowed me to remain on this so-called path to my dream job has always been asking myself these two simple questions.

The first is, “Does doing this help lead me to my goal?”. Asking yourself this question helps make decision-making easier. It can vary from decisions like picking your education or when called for a gig or a new project. For example, when choosing my education I felt the need to focus on the more important classes that I knew would lead me to my goal, instead of just going through the next few months learning various things in my college course. So I decided to leave college and focus on getting classes that would help me learn more about music and film. The same goes for choosing to say yes to projects. A project like a long-term one, is something I need to stop and think about, as I’ll be putting my time and effort into that project. It’s important to me that I use my time wisely. Asking myself if the project is something I'm excited about and if it helps lead me to that “goal”, then saying Yes is easy.

This leads me to the second question, “Is this something you can add to your portfolio?”. Nowadays, employers like to see a person's experience and the outputs that they’ve made. Looking at where you went to school isn’t something that is looked at anymore. Knowing this came from experience after research and listening to many professionals in their fields. I’d like to point out this is specifically on the side of a creative’s career. Your portfolio is how you present yourself in this industry now. This question is one that I use a lot in making important decisions when I am given a new project.

I’m where I am today because I know where I want to go. So I’m doing all I can to study and gather the experience and outputs that I’ll need to reach my goal. These 2 simple questions have helped me when I was faced with very important decisions. There were moments I could be lost in the idea of saying yes to the gig but I go back to my end in mind and I am reminded again to choose the steps that take me closer to my goal.