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We all suffer burnout, but you don’t have to suffer alone. Ahead of this year’s Valentine’s Day, leading creatives share their top tips on reigniting your passion for creativity.
Are you feeling uninspired, burnt out, or just plain tired of your creative work? It happens to us all, but most of us don’t really talk about it. And that creates a vicious circle, where you assume you’re the outlier. This makes you wonder if you’re lacking in some way or even cut out for a creative career at all.
So we’ll start. If you feel you’ve lost your passion for your creative work, you’re NOT alone. Everyone faces this at some point, even the world’s most famous designers and artists (we’ve interviewed most of them, so we know, even if we were told off the record).
And that’s not really surprising. Any career, whether creative or not, can become a churn, whether it’s due to our own actions or things outside of our control. It’s usually a combination of both. But with that established, what can you actually do about it?
The good news is that it is possible to reignite the spark and fall back in love with your craft. In this article, we’ll explore some practical tips and strategies for rediscovering your passion and reigniting your creativity. Whatever type of creative you are, these ideas can help you get back on track and find joy in your work once again.
All these suggestions come from the Creative Boom community, and there are plenty more where they came from: you can access the full thread
1. Try something new
Ask a creative about a time they needed to get their mojo back, and you’ll hear the same advice coming back, time and time again: try something new.
“I’ve fallen out of love with my work a few times,” says Dave Ellis, designer and co-founder at motion design studio
UX designer
Part of this process is about stepping away from work that has a specific purpose and re-engaging in work that’s purely done for fun and creative curiosity. For illustrator and comic artist
That’s exactly what happened to illustrator
2. Do a daily/weekly/monthly project
Learning a new discipline is one way to reboot your creativity, but it’s not the only one. Another is to keep doing what you always do but do it differently. Collective projects, which are often shared on social media for fun, are a great way to approach this, as comic artist
“I had a bit of a creative crisis where I just didn’t draw anything for a month or so,” he recalls. “I was focused on making comics, and it just wasn’t working for me. Taking part in
You don’t, of course, have to do a project to reframe the way you create, as graphic designer and illustrator
3. Take a break
When your laptop stops working, the first thing you try is “Switch it off and switch it on again.” And the same applies to your creativity: taking a break is often necessary to get all systems running again.
For illustrator
When Tom Smith finds himself falling out of love with his work, he’ll take a similar approach: “I’ll just take a break ENTIRELY from anything design and development-based for a couple of weeks,” he says. “Then, I’ll gradually introduce related media that I find inspiring; books, blogs etc. This always works to re-kindle my spark.”
How long you need to break can vary enormously. “Last year I burnt out and felt very disconnected from creating: I wanted to quit,” recalls illustrator, writer and artist
Content writer
At the opposite end of the scale, the shortest of breaks can still be rejuvenating, especially if you get away from your desk. “Movement is a huge self-preservation tool for me,” says
4. Get inspired by other creatives
Another way that a break can help you get your mojo back is when you spend it getting fresh inspiration. And it’s often best to step away from your chosen discipline and get creatively inspired by something else. Illustrator
Children’s book illustrator and designer
Trying new mediums with no goals in mind, or even taking a step back from even looking at art, and then one day you feel the flicker in your heart again. It always returns when you stop trying so hard to get it back.
5. Fake it till you make it
Seeing amazing work by others on social media is often a way to fall out of love with your own work because you’re (unfairly) comparing it to the best of the best. But ultimately, that’s a self-destructive way of thinking. Better to be realistic and recognise that 99 per cent of us have room for improvement, and that will come in time: no need to rush things.
Illustrator
One trick that can help is reminding yourself how much you’ve actually improved to date.
“I like to look back at my really old work and see how far I’ve come,” says illustrator
But if you can’t get rid of negative feelings around your work, sometimes you just need to accept them and ‘power through’. “I always fall out of love with my creative work as soon as it’s done,” says
6. Be open to change
If you’ve followed all of these tips but still can’t reignite your love for your craft, perhaps you need to consider making a bigger change.
Siobhan Maher, founder of
Change doesn’t have to mean changing discipline, of course. Alternatively, it might mean changing how you work: from employee to freelancer, for example, or vice-versa.
“For me, it was when I started to work for myself that I re-found my love for what I do for a living,” recalls Ben Veal, founder of
Ben’s top tip for anyone that is finding themselves in a bit of a funk right now is to take some time to jot down what motivates you and, even more importantly, what de-motivates you. “Then try and carve out a way of working that fits your lifestyle and creative spirit.”
7. Books and courses can help
When you’re learning a new skill, you’ll use a book or course to give you a structured learning experience. Well, if you want to fall back in love with creativity, there are books and courses that can help there, too.
“I’ve committed to Julia Cameron’s
Craig Lovelidge, a creative
8. Talk things out
We all know that a problem shared is a problem halved. And falling out of love with our work is a problem like any other. So chatting about it, preferably with fellow creatives who’ll ‘get it’ more, is a slam dunk.
“I can’t afford to take time off and don’t want to do something else,” says graphic designer
Often, talking things out makes it easier to recognise what it is exactly that’s pulling you down. “When I found myself falling out of love with my work, I looked at what I loved about my job and what I couldn’t stand,” says Craig Lovelidge. “I then made a conscious decision to say no to the people and work that drained me. I wrote universal gratitude notes and planted them in the soil next to young saplings in the forest. Growth started there and then!”