Thanks for subscribing to the Build Your Video-Editing Career newsletter! On the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month, I dive deep into how to build a long-term editing career outside of Hollywood. 

Welcome to 24 new subscribers since the last issue! 

Recently I posted this tweet

The responses were eye-opening. Many of these areas needed attention for a lot of people.

As editors, we often face deadlines, long hours in dark rooms slouched in cheap office chairs, no ideas for projects, and relationships that go on the back burner.

That’s a recipe for burnout and a short career.

If we want to build a long-lasting career, how do we give these areas the attention they need? 

Fully exploring each area is a bit beyond the scope of one newsletter. Dozens of books have been written about them!

But action follows clarity. So let’s look at what each area needs and ways we can be intentional.

Rest

Our bodies pour out energy all day. Rest is the element that fills us back up. 

There are two kinds of rest:

• Physical 

• Mental 

Physical rest includes sleep, but it’s more than that. It’s stillness, the absence of spending our physical energy. These moments are crucial to let our body repair and restore.

Mental rest is letting our brain take a break. As editors we constantly spend our mental energy to solve problems, address notes, and be creative. Moments of mental stillness let our minds take a break from pouring out.

A good sign that we’ve found a restful moment is when weight lifts off our shoulders. We are able to take a slow breath. We feel our muscles relax and our mind settle. We feel stress and tension release.

If there’s a looming deadline or crazy workload, these moments can be hard to find or justify. But they are even more vital then.

Energy is a limited resource. Find ways to rest to fill back up.

Questions to find rest:

• How can I get more and better sleep at night? (7-9 hours is recommended for most adults)

• What are ways my body can be still?

• What are ways my mind can be still? 

• How can I add these moments into my day?

Recommended links:

• TED: Types of Rest

• Rest, by Alex soojung-Kim Pang

Health

Our health involves the same two areas as rest:

• Physical health

• Mental health

Editing may not be a job like construction but it is still physically taxing on our bodies. Sitting in a chair all day literally takes years off your life.

Editing is also an emotionally taxing job. It can be hard to receive critiques on our creative work, even when those critiques are delivered well. (And they often aren’t.)

We may also work on emotionally intense material that can definitely impact our mental wellbeing. 

Our most important tool is us, not the computer or footage. 

Questions for better health:

• What kinds of food are good for my body?

• How can I regularly exercise? (Even just go for a walk)

• How can I get more sunshine?

• How can I learn to handle stress and emotions better?

Resources:

• Optimize Yourself (a fantastic resource built by Hollywood editor Zack Arnold

• In Defense of Food documentary

• Emotional Intelligence course

Inspiration

Editing is a creative endeavor. A vital aspect of creativity is having new and fresh ideas. But how do we find inspiration?

Inspiration comes in two ways:

• Direct (taking inspiration)

• Indirect (feeling inspired)

Direct inspiration is watching things in or related to our field and getting ideas for our own work. It’s noticing new techniques and trying them. 

Indirect inspiration is when things build us up to “feel inspired”. That could be music, new experiences, or enjoying others’ creativity. These give us courage and excitement to create.

Questions to find inspiration:

• Where can I watch videos that I can learn from?

• When I watch something, what is one idea I can try in my own work?

• What is a non-video creative field I can enjoy?

• What is a new experience I can have this week?

• Who is a creative whose work I enjoy, editing or otherwise?

Resources

• The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp

• 8 ways to find inspiration

Relationships

An editing career can be hard on relationships. Long hours don’t leave much time for family, friends, or even energy to give if when we’re with them.

But our life will be measured by the people we loved, not the videos we edited.

We have two kinds of relationships:

• Work

• Life

Work relationships are our coworkers and friends in the industry. I’ve made lifelong friends in my 14 years as an editor, people I’ve learned from, worked for, and even hired. 

Life relationships are people outside the edit suite. Your family of origin, friends, spouses, and kids. These are the people we do the work for! Either for them to enjoy the videos we make or to provide for them.

Both relationships help us grow. We get new experiences from life and new techniques and ideas from work.

Both relationships keep us working. They give us a reason to go back to the edit suite and they support us in hard times.

Yes, this is an idealized view of what relationships can be. People are often broken and take more than they give. 

A change of perspective can be helpful. Instead of asking, “How I get better friends?” ask “How can I be a better friend?”

Life-giving relationships are marked by generosity. When we pour into others, we enable them to pour into us. “Give and it shall be given to you,” as Jesus says in the Bible.

Questions to strengthen relationships:

• What is one way I can give to my work and life relationships today?

• Who is one person I can text/call today and say hi?

• What is one way I can limit work to make time for people?

Resources

• Boundaries, by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

• 10 ways to become a better friend

Wrap-up

As your career grows you gain more responsibility, your project grow in complexity, and if you start a family your home life grows.

Intentionally building these areas now will provide a support system for years to come. 

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That’s it for this week’s deep dive! 

I’m considering hosting a series of Twitter spaces on these four areas. If that sounds helpful, hit reply and say “healthy”.

Keep cutting,

- Jesse

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For daily tips, I’ll see you on Twitter.