I recently started a new job where I’m getting more opportunities to be creative, and it’s giving me new life. 

This week, I’ve been working on a video promo that has hit a wall because the script hadn’t quite reached the “conversational tone” the client is looking for despite how many revisions it’s had by the creative team. My colleague knew I had a writing background, so she asked if I could take a pass at it. 

I was actually quite happy with how my version turned out, and after a few more collaborative sessions with my colleague, the creative lead on the project completely revised the structure and simplified a lot of the verbiage. This, of course, didn’t feel great but I was able to internally acknowledge that while I disagreed with him, I knew he was looking at it with the client’s best interest in mind. *It is okay that we disagree.* (Win #1!)

When we presented the new script the following day, the client was unhappy with the structure, and as it turned out, wanted it the way I had originally written it. I started to get a bit emotional at this point but I held on. Then, the creative lead suggested what I had originally written and I was ready to flip tables. (All in the privacy of my own home, btw—I WFH.) 

SO, I recognized I was getting too emotional about it and *I took a step back.* Drank some water, got a few deep breaths in, and self-therapized for a second. My borderline brain was telling me that my opinion clearly doesn’t matter and that I should just give up. My recovery brain was telling me to fight that auto-thought and remember that, again, this is for the client and the creative lead was going off the feedback he originally received. *This was not personal.* I could not let borderline brain win this time. 

So after the client call, we collectively joined a working session to get the script where it needed to be, and the collaboration was a success! They even took a couple more of my ideas when I presented them. *It definitely wasn’t personal!!!* (Win #2!!!)

All to say, this was a huge emotional breakthrough for me and I’m so excited that I was able to handle this in the moment! This has never happened before!