Are you feeling uninspired, underwhelmed, discontent, or just plain bored with your creative ideas, projects, or tasks? If yes, then you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Am I worn out or Burnt out?
Have I lost sight of my end goal or North Star?
Do I need to change my creative process?
Do I need to take a break from my creative projects?
Is my team having collaborative issues?
If you’re starting to feel like you hate the work you’re doing, start by removing yourself from the creative situation, and seek the root as to why you hate all of your ideas if you’re a creative or your job if you’re working a 9-5. Once you gain an understanding as to why you feel this way, you can start working to adjust and redefine your “why” and your next steps.
Whether you are designing a product, writing a pitch for a client, or just doing your everyday tasks at your job, there are a few things you can do to transform the situation and get you back into your creative tempo when you feel like you hate your job or you are lacking inspiration for creative ideas.
We spoke to some established creatives and artists and they shared the below ideas on how to get out of a creative rot.
Reevaluate Your Ideas or Projects
Remember that creativity is not a linear process and no ideas come shiny clean and perfectly understood. No matter the creative venture you are on, you must recognize that creativity in all forms will be met with successes and failures. Re-evaluate your ideas and try to both recognize and embrace the dull moments, as these moments have the potential to guide the direction of your project. Maybe you hate your original idea of photographing people touching hands, but you want to produce a photo that represents the theme of human connectivity. This moment should be seen as an opportunity to reevaluate the subject of your project while maintaining the theme. Instead of people holding hands, consider photographing something with more depth, such as people working together to rebuild a home after a natural disaster or a crowd cheering on a comedian with stage fright.
Take A Step Back from Your Work
Remove yourself from the project or take some time off work and use that time to search within yourself to find the root cause of your discontent. By disengaging from all projects, you give your mind and body a break. Your break can be days, weeks, or months long or even just one full day of not doing anything.
You can use this time off to nap, go on a day trip, read a non-work related book (a nice novel maybe), go for a run, or a take leisurely walk —whatever floats your boat and recharges your mind and body. Not only may these activities inspire creativity, but they should reignite your fire by giving you the time and space to reconnect with your motivations and passions.
Tame Your Self-Loathing
Hating your ideas can lead you down a dangerous path towards self-loathing and resentment of your creative project which can then lead to impatience and frustration. Very well mind provides a list of ways to stop self-loathing when you find yourself in a negative state:
- Tame your inner critic
- Inventory your strengths
- Learn to accept compliments
- Develop self-compassion
- Practice forgiveness
When you hate all of your ideas, you should remain calm and try following these steps as you ease back into your creative grind. In order to take care of your craft, you need to take care of your physical and mental state.
Reward Yourself
As you lean into your projects, reward yourself. You are working hard at your grand idea and that is something that is not easy, and it isn’t arrogant or presumptuous to recognize that. Blast your favorite music or radio station as you work, take an ice cream break, or go for a night out dancing with your friends. Plan a reward ahead of time, as sometimes it’s just what you need to push through an idea-hating and motivation-lacking rut. Knowing at the end of the day, a reward is waiting for you, you may change your perspective, seeing your glass half full rather than half empty.
It is a lovely thought to believe your creative venture will bring you only complete and utter joy, enlightenment, and bliss, but it is not very a realistic perspective. Creative work requires hard work, long days and nights and sometimes you also have to do the mundane.
Concluding Thoughts
Sometimes, your job or creative projects could have a steep learning curve which can cause low self-esteem, trigger resentment, and even provoke self-loathing. If and when this happens, you must remember that it’s just a phase and that you can overcome it.
Keep in mind and apply the useful tips we shared above to help you recharge during a creative rut. Some of the suggested ideas are preventive suggestions that can also help you avoid getting into a rut in the first place. Whatever the situation may be, I wish you luck on your creative journey.
More Reading
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HOW TO MASTER THE ART OF DOING NOTHING
Photo Credits: Unsplash
