I woke up today with a strong feeling that I have something valuable to share.
Today marks the fourth month of my game development career break. At first, it was emotionally difficult for me, but now I believe that everyone should take a break every few years, especially creative people.
Why? First of all, it’s a great time to reflect on your life.
The following text will begin on a personal note, so feel free to skip ahead. I’ll form a more public-ready list in the next post.
Creative work can be draining, especially when you’re striving to do your best. My focus has always been on creating things that make people happy and excited – interactive systems, music production, 3D art, and video games. I loved what I did, but it took a toll on me.
Growing up, my family was very poor. We had to work hard every day just to have enough to eat. Although things have changed since then, the idea that “you must be employed, or you’ll end up as a hobo” was ingrained in my mind.
As a result, I spent all my time trying to improve my skills and career, sacrificing my personal life and relationships. While this approach did have some benefits, such as rapid career growth and skill development, I eventually found myself in a situation that didn’t align with my values, and I didn’t even realize how I got there.
I worked with people who hated and lied to each other on a project that no one cared about. I invested two years of my life into this project, and it was ruined. Furthermore, the country of my passport started a horrible war against my homeland, and most of the people around me supported it. I lost most of my savings, and as a result, I was completely burned out.
In short, everything was messed up.
As the saying goes, “If you find yourself at the bottom of a pit, the first thing you must do is to stop digging.” So, that’s what I did. I went on a long journey to reflect on the situation.
There are mine results of these thoughts:
You may have already come across these results in motivational pictures, but, as you know, one only learns the most important lessons from personal experience, not from others’ failures.
Your mental health is not a joke.
You don’t have to accept inappropriate behavior. You don’t need to be in a toxic company. Just leave and find something better, they will forget about you in a week anyway.
Sounds very selfish? Yeah, kinda. But life it’s not a scripted RPG — the most difficult path is not leading to the best reward. Often it works in the opposite way.
It’s not a representative statistic but I tried to change the toxic culture in the team I’ve been invited to three times in my life and every time it didn’t end up well. It’s much more effective to build something based on your own values from scratch than trying to fix other people.
Employee-employer relationships are not friendship.
On a full-time job, you are essentially selling your time for money. It’s not your skills or expertise that are being sold, just your time – which happens to be the most valuable resource you have.
There is no need to put more effort than you receive in return, as you will be replaced regardless of how much effort you put into your work. This principle applies to any relationship, by the way.
The best indicator of a good manager is their passion for their work and their treatment of their team members.
Remember, you are not your company, nor are you defined by the project you are working on. You are simply you and your work is just of the steps in your path.
Leaving the comfort zone makes life richer.
I do not personally like this term – your comfort zone often is not comfortable at all. But living your regular life forms something like a bubble around you.
This bubble prevents you to see clearly through what’s happening outside. No matter who you are, how successful your business is, and where you live — this bubble will shrink your world to its size.
Leaving and doing something unusual every so often breaks this bubble.
You cannot even imagine how many different things other people face every day which can be easy for you (and vice versa) until you see it by yourself.
It works both for personal and professional life. The most talented people I meet in my life had a wide range of experience before they started doing their main job. For professionals doing a long pause and focusing on something else will end up boosting their main skill.
Doing something unusual is often a stress. Yes, but it’s so much better to experience controlled stress than be forced when you’re not ready.
A career break is a great time to experience new things and not think about daily routines.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
It takes some time for me to agree with that phrase. Just by starting tracking values you want to improve you’ll clearly see how to do it and gain the wish to do so. Write a diary, track your physical activities, hobbies, yearly goals, etc.
Clearly visible and understandable data allows you to improve daily.
Time is the most valuable thing you have. And it’s limited.
It was the most valuable lesson so far.
Use the tracking data on what you’re spending your time daily and you’ll be shocked. Literally, I’m not joking. Just seeing how much you’re wasting and how much you could achieve will change your behavior. You’ll notice how many things you can safely remove from your life and free time on truly valuable things.
It will increase your productivity, both in life and at work. Top-1 skill for any manager working with other people – you cannot manage people if you cannot even manage yourself.
There are many more things I would like to talk about, but this text has become too long. I will continue in the next posts.
Did you really read until the end? If you did, great job! Thank you for your attention.
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