If you’re a creator that has an online presence, then you are most likely familiar with the feeling of always trying to catch up with the pace of the online creative culture.
Social media algorithms are created in such a way to foster regular input of content. If you can’t keep up with it, you’ll suffer loss of clicks, views, likes, and potential connections.
Not to mention the excruciating amount of information we consume on a daily basis, often delivered in a manner of something that you should do.
When we add into the equation feelings of low self worth, which many of us have stored somewhere deep within, and the tendency to constantly try to prove ourselves, we are left with such a powerful mixture that leads to a burnout.
The unwritten rule
The unwritten rule for how to behave if you want to be a successful online creator tells us how the worst thing you can do is to stop. Take a break, and you’ll be left behind. Even a short pause will regress your progress drastically, since everyone is sprinting towards success.
When exhaustion hits, we see it as another proof of how unworthy and incapable of anything but failure we are.
Consistency matters. It is essential for achieving success in anything. However, if we are so overwhelmed that we can’t hear our own thoughts from the downpour of should, must, and opinions sold as the ultimate truth, if it feels as if we’ve been hitting a wall for a long time, then a break is necessary. It won’t damage our progress, because what we’ve been consistent about is doing the things from the wrong reasons.
Consistency will only result in contentment when what we are working on and the approach we have are the ones we have chosen ourselves, based on our genuine needs and desires.
The most dangerous consequence of creative hustle culture
The most dangerous thing of the online creative hustle culture isn’t the fact that we might have pushed the limits of our bodies a bit too far.
The most dangerous thing is that, under these conditions, we often lose a connection with the reasons behind why we are creating in the first place.
Our own voice becomes overpowered by the noise from the outside world.
External stimuli swallows not just our why; it interferes with the way we express ourselves creatively.
When we can’t hear our own thoughts and we can’t recognise our needs and desires, we are unable to act in a way that’s aligned with what we think and feel.
We end up being assimilated into a story that isn’t written for us.
We take someone else’s why as our own.
As a result, we feel disconnected from our work. Something feels off, and we can’t pinpoint what.
The process of creation became yet another dreadful obligation.
The role of creativity in our lives
Most of us became creators because of the immense sense of belonging that comes as a result of being engaged in the process of creation.
It’s our way to express that which can never be expressed in some other form.
It’s a way of being that introduces clarity, joy, a sense of purpose and freedom into our lives.
It’s a thing that adds substance to our days.
So to give it away just like that, to lose it over the little tricks that play with the susceptibility of our minds, when we have the ability and strength to outsmart it, is unacceptable.
A new perspective to unlock clarity
With enough distance from the noise that clouded your vision in the first place, you’ll be able to:
- reassess motivation behind specific things you do and make sure you stay on the path of what feels genuine to you
- open yourself up to discover new opportunities for the ways you can create and express yourself
- connect deeper with your intuition
- gaining clarity
- create work that has 100% of you in it – that is a full expression of your own voice
Taking a break offers the possibility of gaining a new perspective and clarity so that you can rediscover the why behind the creative work you do, and form new goals in alignment with your highest values. It is the safest way to unlock your creativity.
A single step taken from a place of knowing you true why is going to propel you much further than many steps done for the reasons that aren’t genuine to you.
What can you do?
Investigate what’s behind your motivation
If you are to make sure a misaligned creative process and burnout don’t happen again, you need to figure out your blind spots and recognise ways in which your mind falls short in delivering explanations and suggestions that serve you best.
Investigate what’s behind your motivation for the way you show up in your life as a creator (but also as an individual in general).
Are you exposed on a daily basis to content that triggers your biggest insecurities?
Are you being too strict or too preoccupied with trying to keep up with what the algorithm and trends are suggesting?
Are you more concerned with what someone thinks of your work than what you think of it?
Are your expectations realistic?
Whatever the reason, it’s important to be aware of it, so that the next time your inner state changes, you know how to look for cues and take necessary measures to get back on your track.
Choose what you feed your mind
Often we aren’t aware of the impact certain environments have on our state of being.
Sometimes, we know something is not the best for us, but we don’t understand the magnitude of the effect it has on us.
When I eliminated exposure to platforms that I knew were triggering my insecurities, and I allowed enough time away to restore my inner state, each time I’d come back to them, I was shocked by how quickly and severely my confidence and the vision for future would deteriorate.
I’m talking about seconds here. It was almost an instant jump into becoming someone else, someone much less focused, determined, motivated, and hopeful.
It was in those moments that I realised how crucial it is to pay attention to each interaction and the way it influences our ability to stay focused on our vision. It was then that I discovered another layer of the enormous effect our environment has on our wellbeing and possibility for growth.
Our talents – something that we love to pay too much attention to – play only a minor role in the way our lives unfold. The key factor is what our environment feeds into our minds – the substance out of which we build and reinforce our beliefs, and the subsequent habits we develop.
I carried the same talents when I was mindlessly scrolling social media, as I had when I was spending my days in silence. Yet, the difference in the way I would show up in my life and my ability to look forward with hope and determined focus on delivering the best I can offer, was tremendously different.
Curate your environment
The biggest and most important part on this journey of personal growth and creating a life you want to live is to learn how to stay away from the things that compromise your ability to see the possibilities in front of you.
Think about it. These desires we have that are calling us from somewhere deep within, they are ever-present, and aren’t susceptible to the outside world, or the way we see them. They are here, even when we ignore them. They are always lingering somewhere in our peripheral vision, even after years of trying to rationalise why we are best to go in the other direction.
They remain despite what we do. The question is only how clearly can we hear their call and whether we will answer it or not.
This is where our environment comes to play a major role. The more noise there is around us, the harder it will be to hear our inner voice. The more we attune to our inner critic, or those around us who keep telling us we can’t and should not answer those calls, the more our fears and doubts will grow.
Curate your environment to minimise exposure to the noise and give way for your natural brilliance to take charge and unfold in whichever way it has to.
In a way, things sort themselves out. We just have to learn how to not stand in our own way.
Discover new sources of inspiration
Some online platforms that trigger our weak spots are also a place where we habitually go to search for inspiration. This can be a bad deal – we go there in the hopes of getting inspired, but we leave feeling less than when we started.
The reason why our doubts multiply on certain platforms is because they offer short form content which shares only one small aspect of the full story, and it’s almost always the highlight. What’s left out is the other 90% of the story, which are real life challenges and struggles. Consuming big quantities of fragmented stories like this will inevitably create a narrative in our mind that convinces us how others succeed easily, while all we got is struggle and failure.
Think of any biographical movie or book related to some public figure. Hearing about the complete story that follows them from the very beginning, and includes all the biggest struggles they had to face, always leaves us feeling inspired and motivated.
It bridges the gap between what we perceive to be talented people who were destined to be successful, and the rest of us who are just some average nobody.
It helps us realise how what stands behind those creative giants are simple people, just like us. The only difference is that they poured attention and effort into the things that mattered the most to them, and blocked all interfering signal, which over the years accumulated into the visible results.
Learn to shift your attention in some other direction. There are so many other forms of media and platforms that delivered information in a different way. Target places where information that is served offers a more comprehensive story.
Go in the direction of content that, instead of making you feel like a nobody, lights you up with ‘I can do that too’.
Distance yourself to get clarity
If you’re a creative, then your job is to bring out the most purified version of your voice, which is a sweet spot where your talents, interests, struggles, and life experiences meet. Forcing, pushing, and hustling by trying to do the same thing over and over again, despite not getting desired results, will only take us in the opposite direction.
Whatever you produce in that state will be far from your real potential.
That is why, in this state, the safest thing you can do is take a break.
Allow yourself to be absent from your creative practices and online world for a while. This will help you create enough distance between yourself and all the rest, so that you can get a clearer image of who you are, what you want, and what needs to be done.
Spending time in silence will help you connect with your inner world more, and help you sharpen your ability to discern which things introduce inspiration and clarity, and which take away from it. It will be much easier to notice the change in your state even after a short interaction, and prevent further harm.
Then it becomes easy to maintain your inner peace and a state of inspiration, because you can quickly recognise signs of imbalance, factors that caused it, and do what’s necessary to preserve yourself.
Allow change to happen
Taking a step back from what we knew as our usual world, and opening ourselves up for some other things in order to reestablish connection with our why can result in completely different paths appearing in front of us. It’s important not to stay attached to what we perceived as the only or best way for us to show up in our work.
As terrifying as it can be to let go of something that was a big part of us, if we resist it when it naturally appears, we are losing the opportunity to step into something that’s better than what we ever could have imagined. We are closing ourselves towards the possibility of stepping into our full potential.
Let yourself be surprised by all the ways your life can turn out to be great.
Curiosity as guiding force
Be curious about what you still don’t know.
What if the world that you’ve been creating so far was constructed completely out of your head, with no consideration of your natural gifts and talents? A world based on the principles you’ve picked up while being guided by those who aren’t dedicated to uncovering the best that they could be?
What if there is a reality where you can move through your days in a manner that is respectful towards your self, your calling, and the person you always knew you could be?
What if you have all the tools needed for creating days like that and all the strength necessary to deal with the challenges that arise?
What if the first step towards becoming that is to take a break to hear yourself better, gain clarity over where you want to go, and recalibrate your focus so that your effort and attention flow to all the right places ?
A world created out of fear will never be of service to our potential. No matter how successful and safe on the outside it may appear, it will never feel like freedom. It will never be as potent as the actions we took while being guided by that deep inner call, where engaging even in the seemingly trivial action, feels like the greatest liberation.
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