What do creative people actually worship?

They say you should buy a really good mattress as you spend half your life in it but they rarely tell you to have a good work life because that’s were the other half goes; half on work, half on sleep. No wonder we are all pondering the point in life. But I was thinking this week, after what felt like a strong work week how much of life relies on small, sometimes insignificant, boosts to get you through.

As someone who works in the creative arts, a good work week doesn’t necessarily equate to financial gain (we are all mugs I know), it usually equates to an advancement in a project or a meeting you’ve managed to secure. So much of our careers are spent creeping to the next stage, what can be as little as, “yes I will read your script” all the way to “you’ve got the greenlight”. The latter, of course, being the holy grail. But somewhere in the middle of all of that, you just have a really good conversation or two. Creatives, inherently, just have a truck load of faith that things will work out.

So, It made me think about how much religion and belief play a part in our careers.

For those of us who choose to be part of the creative sphere, there is no salary that confirms you’re on the right path (well maybe a bit) and no pension that rewards your loyalty. And performance reviews come in the form of some sort of award accolade or box office numbers - both hard to achieve for the average filmmaker.

But what we all have is faith. A stubborn, slightly irrational feeling that the thing you’re making matters and that eventually, someone else will think so too.

And like any good religion, it has its rituals. You send the email. You take the meeting. You do the rewrite nobody asked for because something in you said it wasn’t ready. You show up, even when showing up is sitting alone with a laptop and a cold cup of tea; obviously matcha for me, achieving nothing visible to the outside world.

The gatekeepers are your clergy. The development executives, the producers, the people who can say yes or no from behind a desk while you perform quiet confidence in the chair opposite.

And then there are the other believers. The other writers, directors, producers who are somewhere in the same crawl towards that shiny green light. A good conversation with one of them, those conversations where you finish it feeling seen and energised, is its own kind of church.

This week felt like that for me. While no money changed hands, no contracts were actually signed. But there was a candle lit in a room somewhere and I got to hear two sentences which edge me one step forward;

“I think we are good to go”

and

“I would love to work on this with you”

So simple, yet so sweet. And much needed after the terrible downfall of the week before where an event I had been working on since October fell through at the 11th hour with almost no warning. The rug didn’t just get pulled from under my feet, it got lit on fire. And I won’t pretend I didn’t cry and feel sorry for myself for a whole weekend. I had all the feels (Which btw when you are fasting come out louder and much more violently) but as a reminder of worship, this is all happening during Ramadan. So I reminded myself of the promise I made this month, to try and see beyond myself to what’s meant for me. So after a few tears, I reached out to my clergy who covered me. Together we picked up the pieces and I knelt my head on my prayer mat to remind myself that it wasn’t meant for me.

I’m not sure what that is, if not faith.

So it all goes hand in hand and maybe we should be focusing on the real statistic that matters and gets us through the working week. Not the hours you sleep, not the hours you work, but the hours you spend simply believing it's all going somewhere.

And I think the faith in those numbers is what I think keeps us all going.

With love,

B xo

B-roll: This week, in a bid to be a bit more active on social media, I have released a new series where I will be talking career learnings and anecdotes. I realised that I just want to share more of how I do what I do. Some come find me on instagram if your interested in weekly learnings of my insane career. My handle is @Basmakhalifa