I recently relieved myself of a project that a friend got me involved with. It was a very good opportunity to expand my knowledge in areas that would enhance my technical expertise (for my resume) and bring in extra money. As time went on, I found myself doing nothing but work, not play. It started effecting my sense of self and excitement for experiencing things other than producing for a company’s profit.

Since college, projects have been about doing things that I want to experiment with without expecting a paycheck at the end of the week. This is extremely important for creative’s like myself to employ themselves into the aftermath of the 9-5pm work day, giving in to creativity rather than pushing it down into a place that requires dependency, commitment and role hierarchy rather than self exploration, experimentation and personal gratification.

Since leaving that project, I can enjoy my work-day much more knowing that when I leave, I am not going back to work. My productivity has been much greater and the things I have been employing into my daily creative role in my office job has been yielding great rewards to me and the company (as well as the user). Not only that, but my creativity at home has risen and has inspired me to get back to those things I maintain a passion for.

And I leave this thought with one last quote by one of our generation’s best poets, Saul Williams;

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”