Creatives And Burnout

5 WAYS TO BURNOUT A CREATIVE

While your creative employees produce a different types of work and think differently, they’re also people. Odds are, if you couldn’t work in certain conditions, they can’t either. 

1. Overwork them. Give them too much work for a long time, and don’t offer support or solutions to getting it accomplished.

2. Give them unrealistic expectations. Make sure all those tasks have impossible deadlines.

3. Foster unhealthy work environments. Never make clear goals, give feedback, or acknowledge their contributions.

4. Don’t all them to be creative. Micromanage all the mundane tasks. Bonus points if you can make it something don’t care about.

5. Create an environment where they can’t live out the fruits of the spirit. Make it hard to love, have joy, have peace, be patience, be kind, live generosity, be faithful, be gentleness, and have self-control.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION FOR BURNT-OUT CREATIVES

Rest is the antidote to burnout. Resting both in God’s presence and resting physically allows us the space to think, dream, wonder, notice, and process inspiration around us that we turn into innovation, ideas, and creativity. 

1. God’s world. God is the source of creativity, His creativity is infinite, and the world around us gives us JUST a glimpse into it. Find your next idea in God’s patterns, colors, and compositions, and find rest in the awe of how many there are.

2. Yourself. Take a look at things you’ve done recently and compare it things you’ve made years ago. You might find your ideas are stronger or your skill has grown. Be encouraged! Don’t give up. Keep going, and show yourself grace.

3. Others. I don’t care if it’s cooking, plumbing, running, or any other skill, when people excel at their gifting and are unapologetic about who they are, we can refocus our thoughts from what we make to who we were made to be.

4. Your Local Art Museum. You can’t swipe past art in real spaces. Go look at it in real spaces, soak in the shadows from thick paint and the angles when you stand in different places. Screens cannot replace physical spaces.

5. Firsts. Go do something new. It can be gardening, driving a different route to work, eating new food, or vacationing in a new city. If you feel like you’re in a rut, you might be. Spark ideas, expand your perspective, be a novice, and have fun.

KNOW THE SIGNS OF BURNOUT

PHYSICAL

• Feeling tired and drained most of the time.

• Lowered immunity, frequent illnesses.

• Frequent headaches or muscle pain.

• Change in appetite or sleep habits.

EMOTIONAL

• Sense of failure and self-doubt.

• Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated.

• Detachment, feeling alone in the world.

• Loss of motivation.

• Increasingly cynical and negative outlook.

• Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.

BEHAVIORAL

• Withdrawing from responsibilities.

• Isolating yourself from others.

• Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done.

• Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope.

• Taking out your frustrations on others.

• Skipping work or coming in late and leaving early.

Why does repurposing something unwanted feel so good?

I found three tannish-brown (you know the color) filing cabinets that were literally collecting dust in a basement at work that serves as a kind of graveyard for giant desks, displays for an overwhelming amount of printed content, and other extremely heavy furniture from the 90’s. While I was pushing things around to get to these perfectly functional filing cabinets, I kept thinking, “they should just throw this stuff away,” knowing full well why they haven’t. Sure they’re not wanted or needed NOW, but there’s nothing wrong with them. At one point, they served someone really well. Maybe they can again in the future. 

The world has changed, people have changed, and we don’t operate like we used to. Files I work on, the way I manage projects across multiple people, and how I collaborate is all digital, making filing cabinets antiques, at least for most people anyway. I’m happy to have been able to work with both the relics of the past and the seemingly limitless tools of the future. 

Repurposing is so satisfying because it takes creative problem solving to think outside patterns you’ve lived within to give something useless a new purpose. Yes, it keeps trash out of the landfill, and yes it’s free, but even more exciting than that, it establishes new value once again. 

That’s just what Jesus does for us too. He redeems rejected people, restores broken hearts, and establishes value in us all, including marginalized, undesired people. 

Perhaps the real reason repurposing feels so good is that in a small way it reflects God’s redemptive character we were designed to participate in for the salvation of others. 

I’d rather be doing something else right now, but I’m writing.

I’d rather be making something right now, exploring one of the 74 ideas I just thought of, or going on an adventure. But I’m writing.

My least favorite subject in school was English. I loved the teachers, I still remember the books we read, but I hated writing the essays. I increased the required double spacing to 2.1 and found the fonts that made a 1.5 page essay into 2 pages. In college, I jumped through hoops to get a writing requirement paired with my ceramics class so I could get away with writing as little as possible. 

It’s just hard for me to sit and write out thoughts. Not because I’m void of reflections, ideas, or my own “aha moments,” I’m just not wired with the desire or discipline to sit still long enough to find the right words to untangle scattered thoughts into something that’s comprehensible. Writing requires you to slow down, think through one thing at a time, and in this exact moment I’m thinking through this week’s meal prep, materials I need to get for an outdoor planter I’m making, advent devotional content I need to do for work, freelance projects for the week, laundry I need to do before my son’s swim class tonight, and… you get the idea. I’m sure that triggered your own to-do list while you’re slowing down enough to read this. Slowing down and focusing is hard, it takes practice, and it’s not how we operate in 2022 anymore. 

Because I’m not naturally inclined to write and I’m out of practice in the art of slowing down, everything I type out I doubt. After every thought, I circle through the same questions: Does this even make sense? Where did I miss the Oxford comma? Now that I’ve put words to thoughts and ideas, does it even matter? Does anyone care?

Here’s the answer I keep landing on to the later questions - I’m not sure if anyone else cares or not, but either way, it does matter. My thoughts, my process, my ideas, my journey, my heart, my perspective, my contribution to the people and the world around me matters. While I work on growing my writing muscles, I’m also growing my ability to trust my instincts, acknowledge gifts and abilities God has given me for purposes greater than me, and be unapologetic for how God has made me. I am a creative, passionate, follower of Jesus with encouragement, insight, and valuable perspective to share with others. Maybe one day I can add thoughtful, provoking writer to the list.