The distinction is valuable.
By Lisa Hochgraf
My New Year's resolution is to read more for pleasure. And wouldn't you know it, my first pleasure read of 2015 inspired two work-related blog posts (this one and "Fifteen Years to Famous," which published last Wednesday).
The first book I read this year was Yes, Please! by comedienne Amy Poehler, famous from her time on "Saturday Night Live" and "Parks and Recreation." (Poehler would be proud of me for writing two posts referencing her book, I think. The back cover says, "As a reader of Yes Please I hereby swear to purchase book and read it. ... All parties agree to discuss book with family and friends and purchase multiple copies if so inclined. ... " But I digress.) I thought what Poehler had to say about the different between career and creativity was worth talking about:
"Creativity is connected to your passion, that light inside you that drives you," she writes. "That joy that comes when you do something you love. That small voice that tells you, 'I like this. Do this again. You are good at it. Keep going.'"
The parts of my work that fit Poehler's creativity bill include interviewing people about things they are excited about--and then writing them down in a clear way for other people to read; pulling together a ton of details of writing and design into what becomes Credit Union Management magazine each month; and knowing that the work I do supports people at credit unions who make it their business to help people improve their financial lives. Poehler says career is different from creativity.
"Career is the stringing together of opportunities and jobs," she writes. "Mix in public opinion and past regrets. Add a dash of future panic and a whole lot of financial uncertainty. Career is something that fools you into thinking you are in control and then takes pleasure in reminding you that you aren't. Career is the thing that will not fill you up and never make you truly whole."
I started my career as an editorial assistant for In Business magazine, then became an editor for CUES, then president of my own free-lance writing company for a time, and now senior editor for CUES. But do these progressions in title really matter? Certainly not so much as the work of interviewing people, making magazines and serving people who help people. Poehler gives some advice:
"You have to care about your work, but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look."
What are you passionate about? How does that balance with the stepping stones in your career?
Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES senior editor. CUES Elite Access: Leadership Brand and Shadow starts in May. It is offered virtually and in partnership with Cornell University. Read another CUES Skybox post about creativity.
