Master Class | Judging Our Own Work

Who among us hasn’t judged their own work?

It’s part of our job to judge and evaluate the work we create, determine if it’s good or not, determine if it’s worthy of completion or continuation or not. It’s our job as a creative to create a self reflective narrative so the world can see who we are.

Incorrect.

It’s our job as creatives NOT to judge our own work, but to create. Anyone who uses social media can tell you of a time when a post they didn’t really like very much garnered far more attention than anticipated or a post that was heartfelt and personal resounded with very few people.

It’s not up to us to determine how the world is going to receive our work, but it IS up to us to watch and interpret their reaction.

I feel like this idea is one of the biggest struggles facing new creative professionals today, and we certainly see a massive amount of it in the wedding industry and stationery world. New creatives come into this community, follow the trends and create what is currently popular. It creates massive amounts of competition and very little room for growth, but it does help weed out the less creative and driven.

You have joined an industry because you saw others being “successful” at it. Rather than pursuing art, exploring and expanding like we talk about in the Passions course, and then producing…you just followed everyone else. Have you ever produced anything other than the items you feel fit within the paradigm of the wedding world? A lot of you probably haven’t.

Producing is such a huge part of being successful, and I don’t mean producing a wedding invitation. I mean generating art. it’s in the generation of art as an idea, as an exploration that produces great ideas and unique approaches. Without that generation, you’re not moving forward.

When you position yourself to create something in the exact vein that you see others creating and then hold yourself as the only judge and jury, you’re setting yourself up for stagnant and sluggish growth or no growth at all.

It’s not our jobs to judge, it’s our jobs to create and to put those creation into the world and allow the world to judge. It’s our job to then listen.