If you are a content creator, you might experience burnout at least once in a life time. It is a state when someone is feeling mentally drained to meet constant demand and expectations. Everyday is a living hell and no matter what you do, it is never going to be enough and make a difference.
I experienced that. Perhaps, I am still in that phase now.
As much as I believe in steemit and steem vision, there was a time when I wanted to step back from it. I wanted to know what was life away from blogging, away from creating content, away from staring in front of my laptop continuously. I wanted to know what was my life without it. I simply couldn't picture it and I tried.
Photo by @plqml on Unsplash
I found it hard to quit.
I suppose, I am already way too addicted and there is no way back.
But there was a tipping point where I could not find a single word to write. Even today it is still difficult for me to articulate things I experienced. On the other hand, I still feel compelled to create more content and there is pressure to put " quality" content out there. So, to satisfy sharing my inner shit-post skill, I resorted to other centralized social media.
And it just feels different.
I always feel like I have to watch things I say and I have a very little space to express myself. There is little freedom of expression out there. Basically, get woke and get cancelled. The hurdles I face on steem is quite different,I have pressure to constantly create a content that is valuable, as there are benefactors who have supported me quite generously over the course of my journey on steemit.
Each time I am filling the blank page and trying to write what I thought, sometimes I hold back. What if my content is shit? what if my content is not deserving to receive such rewards? sometimes I think I deserve more, why would I still get less? I have constant self-reflections and questions about my activity on steemit. I wondered and wondered but I always fail to execute my reflection.
Hence why, I try to cure my burnout by taking more actions. I will write everyday to find that vigor back. To find words that are missing, to find flow in my story-telling skill, to find a life and hopefully joy in my creation.
Having a burnout was really detrimental to my life. I lost many opportunities, ruin my personal and even, financial life. I just wished to never experience a burnout but I did. It has been a year since I try to make myself work harder like I used to, but it has just been a constant failure attempt.
But I am not going to quit. Not yet.
If you ask me, I certainly have tried plenty ways to get out of the rut. None of it has been working. It was only sending me to a state of bumhood. No. It is not an ass. But it is a way to say that I have been idle for the last couple of months. Even then, during my idleness, I have been hustling like there's no tomorrow. It is like there is no way to get out of the loop and breaking the chain.
Maybe I have not find it out.
Mac is a student and freelance writer based in Asia. She specializes in Lifestyle, Minimalism,How-to articles, Travel, Food,and Technology. If not writing and traveling, she can be found reading books.
Cheers! Absolutely get what you mean. It is like you want to create, but the words are not accessible, and even you manage to get something out, you doubt it as not good enough.
Lately I have decided to remove that pressure off me. Create only when I feel like I have something to give or something to say. It angers me when there is expectations that one should constantly be able to give something of value, even when you go through shit that feel like it is weighing a world or two. We must learn how to balance expectations, the ones of your own and from others and our well being.
Then there is also a lot of judgement it seems, when someone is slowing down. Like, that one is not working hard enough etc., when it is not the case. Maybe they work 100x times harder, because of how disabled they are in that moment.
Hey @m31 !
So glad to read again from you.
I have not tried removing the pressure off my back. I should have tried, knowing that it will be much easier for creative stimulation to come. Part of me has been way to accustomed to conform with other's expectation which only causes me to forget about freedom.
Like ayn rand said, freedom is to depend on nothing, to expect nothing and to ask nothing. I believe by having that mindset back there will be more room to create something new and thrive.
Cheers !
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I guess some time off never hurt nobody and it's not something to worry about when it happens. You kind of appreciate the platform more and get to see it from different angles as well. I wouldn't bother about quality anymore. Who's to define quality and what a post's payout should be? It's more about like and friendships, so don't bother that much. Write about what you feel like and let the fortune decide the payout. It took me more than an hour to compile my last post and it's payout is of only $3.5 and I have had photo blogs that got $15 and they were ready for action in 20 minutes. Keep doing what you like and steem on!
Owww really? You can finish post in 60 minutes or even 20 minutes. WOW! I usually spend a lot more time than. Where can I take a class? :)
My posts are pretty average or bellow and that's probably why I am able to write them that easy. I just write whatever I feel like.
Thats the way to go. I put myself to somewhat high standards; Not that I reach those levels with my contributions all the time; But try to. Hence my frequency is stochastic :)
You're a consistent creator and that something will take you far! I should have learned that instead of sprinting, content creating is a marathon. It is a long slow and steady work to reach the finish line. We form judgement usually because our perfectionist side. It is detrimental to one owns progress- that I found. So, like your approach to steem, just keep on steeming and write whatever we like.
That's pretty much the idea. Don't bother too much about occasional burnouts. Sometimes they're necessary.
You got it. A Marathon. Life is a beautiful journey.
It is not that quality is not a thing but I agree with you that the attempt at trying to define quality can be too excessively subjective and misleading if corrupted too much from personal perspective. Quality is kind of like intelligence (IQ) in that there are different kinds. Also, something of little quality can have elevated value in it. Like, for example, a dirty dollar bill or a simple letter from George Washington. A simple journal entry from a scientist may be of low quality but perhaps a particular journal entry unlocks the secrets of the universe lol. Also, the most quality article may be full of deception and may be kind of retarded like Alex Jones lol haha.
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I can totally relate to this.
Last year I only posted a few times, I had no desire and inspiration at all. I wouldn't even come to Steemit to interact or read posts which was part of my daily routine since I joined this platform 3 years ago.
Then, at the beginning of this year, I got inspired to write again. I wasn't forcing anything, I just went with the flow without pressure. I made a few posts in January and now I've been writing every day this month! I have so much to share, so much inspiration for creating content.
I think that we all go through the phase of burn out, it's normal. I would say take it easy, don't be too hard on yourself, give yourself time to get back into that creative flow.
I wish you all the best! :)
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I am glad that you find inspiration to write again. Thank you for your encouragement, I am taking things slowly that's for sure.
I am happy to hear about your inspiration. February must be a special month.
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Why not just take a break from blogging for just one day and then come back the next day and blog about that? If you still feel something deep inside your gut, then wait a week and then take two days off and then blog about your Sabath from journaling. It doesn't hurt to experiment. You could repeat the process and try taking even more days off each week or not, if you want. But take it one step at a time.
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I know exactly how you feel. I am experiencing the same thing after I worked my rear off perfecting the manuscript for my book as well as the cover and making sure it went through and now that its done I can't be bothered to write much anymore.
Did you feel like you were running out of words? I feel like I wanna throw up words but they're just circulating around my head and I have not been able getting them out.
In a way I suppose. But it's more from fatigue and exhausting all of my brain power on this big project. Like, I suppose I am in a recovery state but here I am trying to force myself to write when I can't. It's also a matter of vision, since I have other things I want to write about but I fear it'll lose the plot or seem like a huge mood whiplash to my readers. Since almost everything on my steemit follows the life of my main character. You read one story about him, and then suddenly the next story is someone or something different. And then it's trying to bring everything together so it resembled a comprehensive story and universe. But I suppose it's the overthinking that's also causing me to not write as much, being mentally overwhelmed and all. But I guess this is where we have to force ourselves to take a break, otherwise we'll just keep putting everything off further, you know? Sooner we take a break sooner we can get back to work.
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I am not a great content creator, but I am sure, many would not be able to create content on a constant basis , if that is not spontaneous. We should have a Steem Book , where people could just go and paste their photos with few words, adding some more social touch.
Your Steem book is something we have; Appics is kinda like Instagram, ie photo/video + a few lines of text.
Need to try out then.
You should :)
Appics is like that. With the coming of SMT there are many front-ends that will allow you to optimally post these contents. In the end, steemit will only be the main layers where content gets dumped and then sorted.
My burnout is that steemit is a circle jerk.
You learn a lot about people by looking at how they act on steemit
Yeah, lots of that circle jerking ongoing; I closed my eyes for it a long time ago. Never look into trending and hot channels. Concentrate on those who are more or less genuine. Best way to go around our blockchain.
I was trending once. I received downvotes right after and was no longer trending. I am convinced they have bots that detect if an undesirable user is trending to give downvotes to so only a certain group gets promoted.
Could be indeed. I hope we can grow in a sustainable way in which we only have a few bad actors. However, it could also be that a few bad actors are destroying all we are trying to build here.
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Learned about it a long time ago !
Nathan, you are right.
Creative Writing:
What I learned from my high school Creative Writing class was that good writers write even on their bad days. So, I force myself to write even when I don't feel like it. It is like Michael Jordan practicing basketball each day or as often as possible. So, he missed many baskets.
Routine
I force myself to write now on my daily Steemit blog. I confess that so much that I write can be pretty boring or whatever the case may be depending on the day and the topic and the oatmeal. But I keep a minimum routine going. I have a daily template on my computer in my Pluma notepad program, AKA my text editor. So, I make thirty files for each day and have them ready. So, I add to my blog throughout the day and then publish them at the end of each day.
Forced
I just want to emphasize on the value of having a routine. But I'm not saying you have to always stick to routines. You can change them and stop them at any time. And I know routines can be anti creative perhaps. I know that too. So, you can get burnt out for sure. So, that is why you must contemplate your routine periodically. Like once a month, reevaluate your goals and write down your game plan on a piece of paper and stick it to a wall. Don't be too lazy and don't work too hard. You know yourself and you can at least experiment and try out different things to see what works.
They should have really taught me that in my class. Heck. I am en English literature student but there was nothing about this advice passed around.
I begin to see the benefit of writing everyday. It helps me with speed and also more exposure to fancy vocabularies and phrases.
couldn't agree more. I always try to take a good break. I am notorious for being a sprinter instead having a marathon journey and that's something I am willing to change.
I'm passionate about education. So, to some extent, we all have opportunities of educating people. Sadly, some classes may fail to say things that people need to hear. Being a sprinter is fine to the extent you are able to sprint again and again and again. Because that becomes like a marathon eventually.So, what matters is consistency, persistence, perseverance.
I never experienced a real burn out, but have been on the way to it a few times. From experience I know that when all seems to become too much, I need to take a step back. In the end I do realise that some pressure can be good, but too much of it can be devastating. This also counts for pressure we put onto ourselves. I would advise to not force yourself to write yet another great article, but leave writing to others when nothing comes out of you. I think you shall drop being to critical towards your work; Post whatever you feel like. In case some autovoters dont like it; They can do something about that. Don't be to harsh on yourself. Easy to say, I know. But it is the way to go; Removing your inner pressure is the first step, I think...at least that was always the case with me when I got in overload situations. You can do it! :)
Thanks for the encouragement @edje!
I stepped back earlier and filled my days without writing. It was a novel experience for me especially from the last 2 years or so. I have learned many things and I couldn't wait to share, I just need to find that vigor to write. I will do it slowly, learned my lesson about consistency and discipline.
Cool; Always good to learn :) I had my times as well I felt the need to create/write something every day. Fortunately that need is gone completely. Feels sooo relaxing.
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Yeah, too much pressure is very toxic lol.
You are good by the way. Hope you find inner peace. When we start calculating the value of our creation than the problem arises. It's invaluable.
I mean priceless!