Thoughts About Motivation.
What drives me to juggle multiple projects at once and how do I manage to not burn out?
Recently I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance of mine who came to visit me while attending Sunnei’s OBJECTS II collection launch at the Milan’s HQ.
After brief chit-chat about how dead fashion week was this season, he diverted the conversation to make me the protagonist.
Through his FFFP2 mask, he muffled: “I always wanted to ask you, how do you manage to do so many things at once? Where do you find the time? How do you stay motivated?”.
This question caught me by surprise. I raised my eyebrows.
I was not expecting this sort of query to come from him.
He’s a retired professional athlete involved in one of the coolest French football clubs, he’s active in the fashion business, he’s a personal shopper working to provide footballers with better wardrobes, he consults on what seems to be a huge amount of disparate projects and he’s at least 10 years older than me.
He must know a thing or two about multi-tasking, so why was he asking me?
I was both flattered and flustered by the enquiry - definitely taken aback.
As I scraped every corner of my overwhelmed brain for a pseudo-intelligent response that would not sound cliché and self-righteous, I felt like my surroundings froze.
The loud techno music playing in the background suddenly went silent.
My quietness probably lasted for less than a second but it felt like an eternity - it felt like I was striking dumb in front of a jury examining me for a final test.
“How do I juggle all of these things?” I thought, as I scanned the room to find cues and nervously fidgeted with my feet on the grey carpet decorating the room. I cackled.
“Well, nowadays I do much less than I used to and I do much less than I would like to. But I guess the secret is to be good at time management and agree only to projects you fully believe in.” I said.
The statement was true. I do less than I was used to now that I embarked a journey as consulting marketing director at my friend’s fashion brand, but what is the engine that drives me to dip my toes in a vast variety of projects simultaneously? How do I stay motivated? I didn’t really answer that part of the question.
It wasn’t the first time I was faced with this dilemma.
People have asked me this in each and every interview I have ever given, talk-panel I have been part of and even in my daily life, I receive messages about motivation from younger creatives trying to find the strength to keep going.
However, I never really reflected on the subject deeply enough to deconstruct what fuels my ambitions.
In order to formulate a strong theory and be prepared next time I find myself facing this sort of interrogation, I took it back to the basics and grabbed pen and paper.
As I scribbled ideas and battled with my own inner monologue, a side of my brain kept trying to pull me away from my current task.
Ideas about projects in the pipeline kept popping up.
Thoughts about my ultimate goals in life blurred the original task I set out to achieve.
I relinquished my 0.5 Muji pen on the table and leaned back on my chair. I crossed my arms and looked up.
How could something so familiar to me be so hard to materialize on paper? My mind kept wandering.
Suddenly, a lightbulb moment 💡.
The matrix orchestrating my ability to have my hands in multiple jars all at once isn’t a topic belonging to a fancy self-help book on how to succeed in life. Rather, it is quite the opposite.
Over the course of what we will call my “career”, I did not have a clear picture of what my purpose was. Nor what I absolutely liked to do.
Sure, I had an idea and specific tendencies, many interests and passions, but none was satisfying enough.
My achievements in the apparel industry were grand - considering my standards - but the deeper I got into it, the more I felt discouraged by it. And that dissatisfaction is what drove me to try new things. Sometimes all at once, sometimes subsequently.
The need to find a purpose in my work is what pushes me to get up every morning at 6AM and come up with solutions to problems that I care about.
Ten years of trial and error led me to learn what I am actually passionate about - aka storytelling - and, being the curious, extroverted person that I am, decade after decade, my interest for certain subjects will expire once fulfilled. Others will come to substitute them and I will most likely learn about what my future aspirations are on the go.
But ultimately, I will always be driven by the fleeting dissatisfaction I find in the present in tandem with my purpose on earth: helping others - whatever that may mean.
If you’re into the psychology of success, I highly suggest you read GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth - which I believe I already mentioned in a past newsletter.
If you want to know more about my professional journey, watch this lecture I held for The Creative Kids.