What happens when you stop loving your job? Or harder still, what happens when you stop loving yourself?
Designer James Greig shares his experience of burning out, quitting his job, and putting his career back together again, plus some of the life experiments he’s run along the way. This is a talk about a part of creative life that people don’t often talk about: creative burnout, depression and mental health.
About the speaker
Me, myself and I — self-care for the creative soul
What happens when you stop loving your job? Or harder still, what happens when you stop loving yourself? This is a talk about a part of creative life that people don’t often talk about: creative burnout, depression and mental health. I’ll share my experience of burning out, quitting my job, and putting my career back together again, plus some of the life experiments I’ve run along the way. It might hurt like hell, but I believe depression can be seen in a positive light — by approaching it as the first step in rekindling your creative soul.
James Greig is a graphic designer with thirteen years of experience working with a diverse mix of commercial and cultural clients. He is also a writer and the founder of CycleLove. He writes about design, creativity and entrepreneurship on his blog- his newsletters are read by over 1700 subscribers and provides, in our opinion, some of the most honest and thought provoking content on the internet. James also teaches 7 Things You Should Do Before Going Freelance, a free course for anyone considering self-employment.
Favorite quotes from this talk See all
If your soul is invisible you need to feed it invisible things like love, laughter and joy.
Because of the pace of modern life, it’s getting more and more important to seek out silence in our lives.
What I want to urge you to do is to take a little risk and to open up to your circle of friends and family, and to try and share some of the painful stuff that you’re going through.
Don’t be a dick to yourself.
As a creative person you’re often doing creative things for other people and you need to remember to do that stuff for yourself.
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This is fantastic - thank you for sharing your story! I think a lot of creatives experience the complete burn-out and aren't really sure where to go from there. I'm currently there myself, and I have a lot of plans and ambitions to try and get myself out of it. The problem is that the feeling is very similar to standing at the bottom of a mountain you're going to climb and looking up. Not an easy thing to get out of, but I'm hoping it will be rewarding once it's all figured out in the end!
Thanks for the inspiration.
Good Talk James :) As a 60 year old Graphic Artist that still loves what I do, I can say that self care is all that was spoken of here but also how you treat your body with understanding how to give yourself the best nutrition, detoxification, exercise and emotional balance. The healthier I am the more passion, energy and creativity I experience. I have educated myself on the importance of the gut microbiome in relationship to not only radiant health but emotional stability as well. I love biohackers that teach me what I can do to keep myself on top of my game and Dave Asprey's new book Head Strong is a fabulous place to start. So is Dr. Mercola's book Fat for Fuel. And Kelly Brogan's - A mind of her own. If anyone out there is struggling with depression Don't go the drug route, It doesn't heal anything ( it just makes you the walking dead and destroys your creativity). Where as Kelly's methods not only bring back health they allow joy to grow.