I’ve been following Christian Henson for the past several years on YouTube. He is a music composer and also the owner of a company who develop sample instruments for Audio.
I really enjoyed this video from him today, as he openly talks about his burnout, and his own problems dealing with work and stress.
Just in case you are wondering why I am posting this: I am NOT suffering from Burnout. But it has been something that I have experienced now around three times this past 12 years of running workshops.
For me on each occasion when I felt I was reaching burnout, the solution was easy: I restructured my workshop schedule so that I get time off to recuperate. I now take each summer off - that is roughly around three months.
These three months off, is often a time where I seem to turn into a couch potato, or I go out daily cycling. I also find myself sleeping an awful lot. I am convinced this is needed, and it benefits my creativity.
During this time off, I have very very little interest in doing anything photographically. Initially it worried me that the lack of interest was burnout, but I now realise that as the summer begins to end, I am looking forward to my trips back to Eigg or Iceland in September.
Having this three months off keeps me sane.
Much like Christian, I would say that my own personality is similar: I never know when to stop, and my hobbies usually tend to become all consuming passions that I seem to turn into something quite serious. I’ve had to learn to take the foot off the accelerator, and also, to not feel guilty when I am not working.
Making great photographs may be something we all want to do. But I have had a very strong opinion for a long time now that just going out every once in a while and hoping that you’re going to create great work isn’t enough. Great work seems to be a combination of talent, and going way beyond what most folks think is normal. In other words, in order to create work that stands out from others, usually something has to be sacrificed. I would argue that those whom you admire - musicians, book writers, actors, athletes, photographers, all ‘have a bit of a screw loose’. They are not normal people. They more than likely sacrifice other areas of their lives and they can’t help themselves push themselves forward.
Being a photographer that stands out from the crowd isn’t just something that you get to by doing photography in the evenings or weekends. You get there because you’re willing to sacrifice things that normal folks wouldn’t.
As I said at the beginning of this post: I am NOT suffering from burnout. But I have done in the past, and I was relieved that I found a way out of it. I love photography, I love being creative, but I have seen for a very long time that there has to be balance in one’s life, and sometimes it’s ok not to be creating.
I realise for most of my audience this isn’t the problem. It’s perhaps that you don’t get as much time as you’d like to be creative. But everyone has their limits. Everyone has that point where they may stop and say ‘shit, I really loved this, but now I’m hating it, and I don’t know why’. There is an expectation that it should always be fun (false expectation), or that spending all your free time doing it will make it better (another false assumption).
Take a step back sometimes. Put the camera away. Stop looking at other people’s work on the internet. Go do something else for a while. All creativity needs its own time. That means NOT doing it is just as important as the times when you are.
Be kind to your creativity, which is another way of saying ‘take care of yourself, and also, be kind to yourself’.