Beating Burnout

Often the key to having massive impact is the ability to keep going when others would have burned out. Below, you’ll find some brilliant entrepreneurs and creatives sharing how they’ve overcome or avoided burnout.

Kyla Henderson

If I am being completely honest, being burned out is one of the hardest things to go through as an artist. In my case I felt burnout the most when I was trying to compete with myself. Getting to a certain part as an artist and winning awards and being in exhibitions I started to put pressure on myself. I went into my art works with the mindset of “will this be good enough to win something?” Read more>>

Danielle Galligan & Nicole Folino

We joke that very few of our peers have spent as much time as either of us have at one company or in one professional role, but we’ve managed to avoid burnout by embracing the aspect of our industry that is ever evolving. There are always new mediums to produce content for and on, new potential collaborators to team up with, new brands to promote, new products to sell, and there are always more doors for us to knock on on behalf of the artists we represent. Read more>>

Jung Hyun Kim

As someone who works in the arts industry, where you have to create all the time and live on an irregular schedule, burnout is a common occurrence. I often don’t recognize burnout until after it has passed. Read more>>

Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown

First, I want to say that I’m not sure there’s ever a way to avoid burnout. I feel like “Overcome or Avoid Burnout” is similar to “Work-Life Balance” so you never completely overcome or avoid burnout. Instead, it’s fluid and what we should focus on is how to pay attention to when we’re experiencing burnout and how to restore ourselves. That being said, here are some strategies that I’ve used to help me recover. Read more>>

Deezy Hendo

I feel like the best way to avoid being burnt out, is to take a good break. Sometimes you just gotta chill out. Sit back get your mind right absorb all the good shit let out all the bullshit and come back even better. Read more>>

Crystal Mance

I conquered burnout through the transformative power of the Lord, therapy, and personal growth. Recognizing burnout’s subtle signs is crucial; many endure it until reaching a breaking point. During therapy, I faced the challenge of acknowledging and releasing various roles and controlling tendencies. Despite the initial difficulty, I committed to the necessary steps for recovery.  Read more>>

Maja Re

Coming from the Corporate World, where burnout was a way of life, it has been QUITE the adjustment to create a lifestyle where burnout does not exist. It’s so funny, we’re taught that the harder you work the more successful you are, and that just isn’t the case at all. The more ALIGNED you are with your true path, the more successful you are. And how do you create or follow alignment? Read more>>

Melissa Lohrer

I was living through cycles of burnout for most of my twenties and early thirties. I grew up as an athlete and learned to tune out signals from my body. I learned to push through discomfort. I learned to keep going when I was tired, sick and had nothing left. So I wasn’t even aware of the burnout I was experiencing until a decade in when I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. I lived for the weekends and every weekday was a struggle to get through. Read more>>

Ekaterina Erofeeva

When you have a passion for something, especially something creativity-related, and you want it to eventually become your career – almost inevitably there will come a moment when you’re either concentrating on creating what you want and desire or you’re allowing yourself to producing work that is not entirely your passion, but it’ll pay the bills. And that is the moment when an artist can totally burn out.  Read more>>

Elizabeth Even

Ahhh burnout. Such a buzzword and at the same time a constant in the healthcare industry. Over the years, it has been called many things: burnout, compassion fatigue, lack of worker well-being, but at the end of the day we are all talking about the same thing. You. Are. Just. Fried. Mentally, physically, emotionally, or all of the above. It was all over the headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for good reason. Many healthcare providers were faced with some of the most challenging and scary times they (hopefully) will ever face. Read more>>

Isabela Schmucker

In 2018 I moved to a small town in Florida due to financial difficulties. I took on 2 jobs to support myself, an English teaching position and part-time sales role. I quickly realized that this was not sustainable and fell into a cycle of constant fatigue. Moving through dealing with clients, learning how to sell for the first time, and being a prepared teacher and having to constantly talk for hours on end, overwhelm became the norm.  Read more>>

Rodrigo Arruda

I started my BFA in visual arts degree in 2012. I had a lot of energy but felt lost without a clear motivation or direction. Around 2013, I assisted an artist at the São Paulo SP-Art fair, where I met artists with much more experience than me. In that same year, I experienced a traumatic event in my personal and academic life. My options were to let depression overcome me or put all of my energies into building myself as an artist.  Read more>>

Latice Williams

To overcome or avoid burnout. I will say don’t try to do everything and learn how to say no. In the cake industry we feel like we need to do cakes and treats just to try and keep up with the latest trend. Don’t do that, do what you’re comfortable with and so no to the rest. If you’re no comfortable with a theme or design a customer sends over. Say no in the most polite way. Read more>>

Herbology

I find it so vital to set aside downtime from dropping projects and shows just for yourself to realign, or regather yourself. Allow yourself to be centered to process your next step. Doing a million and one things w/o a team or sufficient rest will diminish the productivity of your craft. So with that notion in mind, I understood early the importance of taking a break from what you do to give the best of what you do. Read more>>

Amy Shearer

I wish my burnout journey had ended after I left my high-stress career in fashion retail and that the solution had been easy. In 2019, when I decided to leave my 15-year career behind, I assumed the long days, endless deliverables, and intense goals were the sole reason for my physical and emotional exhaustion. I blamed everyone — the industry, my boss, the patriarchy. Read more>>

Chase Fleischman

I don’t think you can avoid burnout entirely, but one way I try to overcome it when I’m burnt out is to just take a break, sometimes for up to a week or two if I’m not really in the mindset to sit down and try to come up with new work. Read more>>

Lauren Ornelas

After consistently running various organizations since I began in 1997, I get this question a lot. Thank you for asking! Over the decades, I have done different things to avoid burnout. One is that I have always been interested in various issues, and so even though my paid job has been doing one issue (veganism), I might also work with local groups on anti-vivisection work, or I might do anti-vivisection work for my job and work with a local group against animal circuses. Read more>>

Quincy Palmer

To this day, burnout to any extent seems unavoidable. I’ve learned that it can only be managed by recognizing how those symptoms affect me personally and learning when to pivot or take my foot off the gas a little. It’s going on 6 years since I’ve began my journey as a full time DJ/ Producer; full time creative if we include all of my other endeavors, and one of the biggest lessons to learn is balance.  Read more>>

Tori Jane Ostberg

Burnout is a 100% normal thing to experience, no matter how much you love what you’re doing. I’ve never in my life wanted to do anything but chase, and even still, I occasionally experience burnout. Sometimes, I’ll overcome it just by stubbornly plowing through and persisting; others, I’ll take a break for a day or so and then come back roaring the next. Read more>>

Dr. Alyssa Martin

Avoiding or overcoming burnout can be tricky and has definitely taken some work for me to find a good way to manage it. The best way for me to avoid it is to have a good work-life balance. Finding hobbies and activities that I enjoy outside of work has helped a lot with avoiding or overcoming burn out. Although I love my job and each day is exciting and different, taking care of other people, especially people in pain or struggling with their health can be pretty draining.  Read more>>

Justin Ross

The first step in overcoming burnout is knowing what it looks like for you specifically and also realizing it doesn’t happen over night! Burnout can come from weeks or months of running around at a pace that you are not ready built for! We are all constantly learning and growing within ourselves and our careers and after realizing growth and personal development is like a muscle and life is its gym, you’ll start to understand the seasons that are to come as you climb towards success. Read more>>

Dave Cook

Even though I really love my job, I’ve had my fair share of burnout moments. There’s hardly any downtime in what I do, and it can get pretty intense. Over the years, I’ve learned how important it is to look after myself. If I don’t, burnout just creeps up on me more often. My self-care kicks off with a solid morning routine. Read more>>

KNSTNTYN

I have found that burnout comes when everything is sacrificed for the one thing. All your rest, self-care, friends, downtime etc. When you have something you NEED to do, that permits any sacrifice, then burnout is inevitable. Avoiding burnout comes through mastering yourself, and all the needs and wants you have in your life. Sometimes the greatest strength you can show is the strength of restraint. Read more>>