Adolescence Is a B*tch…

I mean, let’s not beat around the bush.

It’s an awkward, uncomfortable, turbulent time of growth and exploration where we experiment, rebel, and push the boundaries as we decide who we’ll become. We make our share of mistakes and execute horrendously poor judgment along the way. With each mistake, our view of the world and our place within it becomes a little more nuanced and self-aware, but it’s a slow, painful, often embarrassing process that most of us are glad to have put behind us.

Except… We haven’t.

Sure, our bodies may have developed past the gangly, acned teenagers we once were. We’ve gained experience, worked jobs other than the McDonald’s drive-through window, and maybe even married and had kids. While we might be surrounded by the trappings of adulthood, however, adolescence exists in many areas beyond simply the social and biological.

Of particular importance to us as creators is navigating the adolescence of our work. Most of us don’t even realize it exists or that we might be in it, but until we move through it and reach maturity, we’re not going get the results we’re chasing.

The Traits Of Adolescence

In many ways, our work’s adolescence mirrors our own. When we first start creating, we’re well aware that the work we’re doing isn’t all that…