By Aleksandra Atanasovski

Everyone has their moment of glory.

Here we are, the last week before the much needed half term break. The last week was very intense for me if I’m being perfectly honest, I feel like I’ve let it get the better of me and I’ve been thinking that my work and mentality hasn’t been how I’d have liked it. It just feels like I’ve had my head else where and haven’t been fully focused for some reason. Feels nice to admit that. I’m already starting to feel the intensity of D&AD and it hasn’t even started yet.

I’ve always had a tendency to put loads of pressure of myself to succeed and push myself to be the best I can be. Usually this is considered to be a good thing but sometimes it can have negative effects. I’m always forcing myself to at least attempt as many challenges that are available to me and I like to say that I at least give my best every time but after trying to juggle the different briefs this week I felt weak and instead of bouncing back and giving it about go I just felt like giving up. I understand that it’s only a week of school and there are plenty more to come but I really didn’t feel productive and this is the kind of thing I take to heart. Everyone has their bad weeks, but this one hurt. And it’s the first time I’ve ever felt like this during school.

The problem here is that I’m a terrible loser, I don’t like losing at all because every time I always try and give it my all and it just felt like my attempt fell short. Even thought every morning I wake up and tell myself I’m going to give it my all. I can just feel that fire inside me dampening a bit. I know inside my heart that I want to do something that makes me proud every day. But not everyone is perfect. I’m not an advertising prodigy, nobody is and I need to accept that I will have bad weeks but I’ll also have amazing weeks. I need to recognise that I can be fragile and if I put too much pressure on myself I’ll break.

I just really wanted to prove to myself that I could smash it on the final push before half term but it feels a lot like I failed.

But I’ve realised I need to change my mentality. Working hard is an amazing attribute to have but sometimes it can take a toll on my mindset. I push myself to the limit when it’s not always necessary and I know that life happens and we all have our bad weeks. I just need to focus on enjoying myself and apply my hard working ethos when it’s needed most. Work smart not hard.

I love this job and I love SCA. It’s been the most incredible experience of my life and I’m ready to come back after half term and pay more attention to just enjoying myself and falling back in love with the reason I chose this path in the first place.

The copy scores 74.7 in the Flesch Reading Ease test