You make me want to be a better artist

This week was especially challenging for me at work, creatively-speaking. For a while there I was on a sad and frustrating losing streak meaning all my concepts and designs were being shot down. “Not the concept we were going for.” “I’m not feeling the whole lightning theme.” and a straight up “No. Try something else.”
While I know it’s not aimed at me personally, it’s hard for me to not take criticism personally whether it’s constructive or not. Dude. That’s my art, it came from my heart and head…it’s personal. So whenever anything of mine gets rejected, I need a moment or two of self-pity before I recover and trudge on. You can imagine the lows I was feeling during my aforementioned losing streak.
But then the Design Faeries smiled upon me and granted me a small winning streak. For a couple of days all my ads and concepts were being approved without changes which, in my line of work, is rare. So a happy balance was struck and all was right in the universe again. What a relief and a fantastic way to end a work week.
While I hate feeling disappointed and mildly humiliated whenever a client or creative director is not feeling my designs, it’s good for me. Rejection challenges me to be a better artist. It keeps me humble. More importantly, it makes the little happy dances I do in between the losing streaks feel all the more triumphant.
Rock on.