Artist Burnout and the Fear of Failing.

"If you aren't giving it 100% of your attention, then you aren't serious enough", "If you aren't willing to sacrifice everything else for the sake of your art, then you aren't a real artist."

I am sure that there are hundreds of artists out there, in any medium, that have had these statements hurled at them from those who have come before us, and even our peers.

There is this alluring idea that in order to be an artist, a REAL artist, not just an amateur, that you need to give up everything else in your life so that you can devote your time and effort to your craft.

Most of us have sacrificed relationships with family, friends, or partners, we have missed holidays, birthdays, weddings, and funerals. We have put aside even our own needs as a person, to be able to give all of ourselves to a process that consumes our life. It takes over how we think, how we feel, how we relate to the world around us, and how we navigate our next steps.

I myself am an artist. I have considered myself one since a very young age.

I have two degrees from reputable music schools. I have taken endless lessons, coachings, and career planning meetings. I have poured my soul, my money, hard work, and my time into becoming an opera singer. I have missed Thanksgivings, Christmases, birthdays, weddings, and so many other important moments in life, all while in pursuit of finally "making it".

What really is "making it", though?

What is the definition of someone who has finally happened upon the scene and is doing the "damn thing"? If there is apparently one path to reach this level: to sacrifice it all, give everything, keep going, keep at it, then why aren't we all having the amazing careers that we were made to believe we would have if we just kept at it?

Honestly, I think the success that we achieve needs to be reframed and redefined on an individual basis.

There is no one-size-fits-all road map to the career that we want. There is no amount of, "if you would just give yourself over to it completely", that can magically conjure up the career of our dreams for us.

There are so many young artists, of all mediums, who are being led to believe that if they only work hard enough and do all of the things that those have come before us have done, then we will have a large and rewarding career. There's nothing that can stand in our way if we just want it bad enough.

I call bullshit. I call that setting us up for failure, when we are all already fearing that failure.

We give all of our time, energy, and money to our crafts only to have the rewards look like a fraction of what we were hoping for.

Don't get me wrong, there are the one in a million few out there who rise to stardom, have a seemingly lust worthy career, and who make it look like it was just easy for them. That's great for them. This is not to diminish those who are currently fulfilling their wildest dreams and living out their intended career path. But, there are those of us who may have done all the right things, according to whom ever, but are still struggling.

We are burning out. We are so afraid of what is considered failure, that we are literally burning the rope at both ends, pouring lighter fluid all over it, and then when it finally burns up, we are exhausted, drained, and a little scorned.

There are too many of us that are putting our lives on hold while holding out hope that one day all of our efforts will pay off in the amazing career we have always dreamed of. We need to start defining our own versions of success.

We need to start letting the fear of failing whatever idealistic version of ourselves go. We need to start focusing in on what makes us happy as an individual OUTSIDE of our craft. Do we have other interests and passions that we have let fall by the wayside due to the intensity at which we have gone after our intended craft? Are there people in our lives and relationships that we have lost, that we wish could foster, but in order to do that we would have needed to take time away from pursuing our goals? Do we know who we are outside of our craft? How much of our self worth is tied into how well we do or how much we succeed in our craft?

We need to start to reframe how we think our success looks. We need to take time to think about how we navigate in the world around us, and whether or not we are truly living and experiencing at our fullest. Or, are we leading dulled lives due to the pursuit of success. Redefine what your success is and you won't have to be afraid of failing. Redefine what you want and what makes you happiest in your career and life, and you can steer away from burnout.

Just a few things to consider.

Love,

A Burned Out Artist.