Is your creative job bleeding into your life? 🧛

A creative job is fun. There are so many positives that come with having a job that doesn’t–always–feel like work. But the unspoken downside–and we are all guilty of it–is that we tend to identify as creatives throughout life. The job becomes an identity. How is that a bad thing? All of a sudden, what makes you brilliant at your job starts to bleed into your life. And that can be a double-sided coin.

Loving what you do means pouring your soul into it. You go above and beyond and sometimes even further than your body and mind can take, some days you feel exhausted, some days you feel entirely alive. It’s a roller coaster, it keeps you young at heart, a rebel at core and a bit(?) insane (in a non-threatening way).

You can’t stop being creative. You simply are what you do. But do you need to be all the time?

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Creativity fuels perfectionism 🔍

This took me a while to figure out. I was a carefree child. I‘ve never defined myself as a perfectionist and yet… it comes with the job and settles with experience. The higher you get on the ladder, the worse your perfectionism becomes. It bleeds into your life. You start to make plans about everything, even your free time and there seems to be no end to it. 

It doesn’t have to be that way. Remind yourself every day, that there is a job and then, there’s life. And life is messy, unpredictable, unconstrained. How can you be a perfectionist and live in the moment? The first step away from your job is letting go. And I mean really letting go. Break the mould and let it be broken. You can pick up the pixel perfect ruler tomorrow morning and give it back at 5.30pm. 

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Sometimes you can be–a bit of–an asshole 💩

There I said it. But think about it. In the creative fields personal opinions fly high because they are embedded in the way the industry works. The way you think about–and filter–project work, can extend into your after-work life. Have you ever caught yourself criticising everything around you? It’s that book you are reading that could have been better. It’s that poster you saw on the street, which makes you want to redesign it for free. It’s that menu you picked up over the weekend that makes you cringe. You are slowly becoming a judgmental asshole. And you need to stop and check yourself before it’s too late.

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The pressure of constant creativity 🫣

You know the one I’m talking about. It’s the pressure to be creative ALL the time! It bleeds into your life so much you start to dream about the job. Or perhaps you get those “eureka” moments, in the shower, the ones that make you jump out like Archimedes, and rush for a notebook and a pen. Does it sound a bit worrying or insane yet?

I had to learn to shut off the parts of my brain that wanted to be creative all the time. It can be very tiring to have to use your brain at full capacity all day long. So limit the hours and try to find something that helps you switch off.

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Your side hustle is more of the same 💀

Are you still doing the same thing just outside of work? Maybe it’s time to reconsider? For some people creativity fuels more creativity, but for a lot of us, doing the same thing on repeat, leads to exhaustion. You can find a hobby that’s not your job. I’m not saying don’t do something you enjoy, but try to limit time spent doing your job outside of work. Creativity takes a toll and I’ve seen a lot of creative people burn out.

Some days you just need to log off and do something different. It could be that you enjoy being active, or cooking, going out and socialising, playing with your children, reading a book or simply watching TV. Allow your brain to take a break and refuel for tomorrow.

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A creative bubble is still a bubble 🫧

You don’t need to slip your creative title into every conversation. You don’t even need to tell people you’re meeting for the first time. Expanding my circle of friends outside the creative field helped massively. It taught me how other people see the world. It took me out of the bubble I was in and I stopped talking about my job and what’s happening at work. It’s a breath of fresh air. A pause. When you are surrounded by creatives you only experience a small percentage of the world’s population and that’s both limiting and unrealistic. Once you step out of that boundary you start to get a better picture that’s–somewhat–more inclusive.

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I understand that of course, you are a creative person. That won’t change. But perhaps take yourself a outside that cushioned zone for a bit each day. Experience the real world, stop relying on your job to feel interesting and don’t force yourself to be creative all the time. All I’m saying is, at the end of the day, take a deep breath and let it all go. 

The usual three things at the end

❤️ Creativity, Inc. is a book about how creativity should be harnessed for business success and is written by the founder of Pixar.

🦔 AI is used to track hedgehog populations in this pioneering programme (which is in partnership with my old university, Nottingham Trent).

🐣 Did you know Global warming is affecting chocolate production? Subsequently the cost of Easter eggs has risen to almost double–in some cases–this year according to Which?