Welcome to part 5 of a 10 part series designed to help you blast through creative blocks and get unstuck. I’ll explore a specific topic and leave you with an expansive journal prompt at the end to continue exploring on your own. Ready? Let’s get it…
I bet ‘burnout’ is a trigger word for you – because it sure is one for me. Mostly because I’ve not met a creative who hasn’t experienced yet.
Rather than get all ‘self-help’ on your ass, I’m going to take a VERY different approach to talking about burnout. I want to answer this firecracker of a question:
What do you do when you’re burnt to a crisp but still have to make money, market your creative work and show up online?
Today’s Creative Urge on creative burnout deciphers why we burn and what you can do about it. Cuz I’m guessing what you need is inspiration, not another online voice telling you what you’re NOT doing right.
You burn because you care so deeply
Let’s get one thing straight: burnout for a Creative typically doesn’t happen unless you love what you do so much that you put your heart and soul into it.
I know there’s a narrative out there that burnout happens when you’re not challenged or there’s a lack of interest in what you’re working on. That might be true for the ‘normies’, but for us Creative types it’s a very different story.
In my experience, the greatest periods of burnout have come after a season of immense creative output. My PhD, for example, left me on the couch for 6 months afterwards, unable to participate in regular life.
It wasn’t because I did too much, it was because I chipped off a piece of my soul and embedded it in that project. I cared so deeply about that work that it took everything I had to finish it.
So if you’re feeling the burn, look to your output first – and if there’s not much going on, you know there’s probably another reason for the singe.
You burn because you’re creating too much for other people
This one is the most insidious because it’s how the online world expects us to operate. From creating streams of content for our ‘ideal clients’ to piecing together digital products to sell – we’re all just riding the burnout wave, right?
For every piece of content you create for someone else, you need to create one just for YOU. Not to sell, not to market yourself and not to ‘attract leads’.
The way we mitigate creative burnout is by creating for the love of it: start a passion project, do an online class (I always recommend Skillshare) or even just doodle on a napkin.
Create for you and take some of the sting out of the process.
You burn because you don’t give yourself creative rest
Hands up if you’ve ever ‘pushed through’ to meet a creative deadline? Yep, GUILTY.
Hands up again if you’re sick of everyone telling you to just ‘do less’ or ‘go on a holiday’ when you admit you’re burnt out? Yep, SAME HERE.
As Creatives, taking a break won’t help – we need proper CREATIVE REST.
This lines up with my last point of creating just for you. Creative rest is one of the 7 types of rest we need and IMO it’s the MOST important.
Creative rest means taking a break from ‘production’ to get inspired. It’s doing soul level things that rejuvenate your energy, like spending time in nature or wandering around an art gallery with no agenda.
Burnout is no match for creative rest – so if you work obsessively, you need to make sure you rest JUST as intensely.
Journal prompt
Of the 3 types of creative burnout above, which one do you find myself in the most? How can you soften your daily schedule to lessen its impact?
Creatively yours,
Dr Maz xoxo
PS: Here’s a reminder that I’ll be speaking at a webinar in April aptly titled Building Leaders Within The Creative Industry. It’s going to be a super practical hour together exploring difficult conversations, the characteristics of a great creative leader and, my face, how to stay calm when everything around you is on fire, ha!