My Personal Professional Goals.

My annual review is just around the corner here at work. Every year you fill out a self-evaluation form in which you’re supposed to list your professional goals for the next year so your manager and your team can help you obtain said professional goals. But honestly? Everyone just kinda writes down some bullshit and calls it a day.

So I felt compelled to write my own, off-the-record (yet not off-the-blog) Personal Professional Goals. Just some things to keep in mind as I navigate this jungle of an industry; with weasels, snakes, charlatans, sycophants, grand-standers plus a lot of ego and a lot of stress…it can be a squirrely place (how many animal references did you count in that sentence?) Anyway. Here we go.

Elyse’s Personal Professional Goals

• Be Myself, Always. Do NOT give this industry, this office, these people the opportunity to change who I am. I will not let them beat down my spirit. Suck out my life force. Take my joy and my hope and my wild eyes. I will always—always—stay passionate, hungry, enthusiastic and joyful. Stay myself. Be authentic. Allow myself to be vulnerable so I may truly connect with others on a human-to-human level. Be true to myself, to my taste, to my morals.

• Keep My Shit Together. Control my emotions when I get frustrated. Don’t lose my cool or downward spiral fast and furiously. Sometimes things don’t happen the way you want them to. That’s ok.

• Don’t Be Manipulated. Don’t let managers or fear or higher ups or threats or bullies scare me into listening to my inner voice. My intuition. Listen to that above all else. Don’t allow myself to be emotionally manipulated by small, petty people who are insecure and have way too much to prove. You know your shit. Trust it.

• Be a Badass. Above all else, be a rockstar. Be first string. Be THE writer of choice for projects due to my smarts, my fun, myself. Bring amazing ideas. Bring energy. Bring enthusiasm. Bring effort and positivity. Bring my best, savvy self.

• Have Fun. But being a rockstar doesn’t mean I have to be serious. Be silly. Make jokes. Make fun. This is JUST advertising. It’s not brain surgery. No lives depend on this. Everything we make is just a word printed on a piece of paper or projected onto a screen. No babies or puppies will ever be harmed in the making of banner ads. Relax!

• Make It the Best It Can Be. Sometimes clients just want to make crap. But it’s our job—my GOAL—to make the crap as artful and inspired (and least crapful? crappy?) as it can be. Create work I respect. Help people FEEL things. Activate communities. Get people talking. Be authentic to the brand. To the client. To the goals of the project. Try my hardest to make even the smallest project, as highly impactful as possible.

• Be Reliable. Follow through with what I say and what I do. Be the kind of team player that everyone loves. That works their ass off. That knows the client. Knows the work. Knows it all. And can be the voice of reason. The expert. The go-to girl. And be this more often than not.

• Find Strong Mentors and Latch On. I must find my people here. My people: experienced, strong, don’t conform, are honest, are themselves, are really fucking smart. And it’s helpful if they are funny, too. Learn from these people. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid. Get advice. Let them guide you. Open up to them. Connect in a real way. Let them help.

• Remember: It’s Just a Job. Don’t let work control or impact my REAL life (Brad, Puck, my family, my friends, my home, my hobbies, my writing, my adventures, myself). Don’t let it affect my health. My relationships. My self-worth. My body. My spirit. Go, plug in and do the best I can every day. Be strong and helpful and awesome. But then go home and recharge and leave all the stress, frustrations and paper cuts at the office.