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Published on April 30, 2023

Creative Clarity, Episode 3: Phase 2 of the Artist’s Journey and How to Beat Creative Burnout

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Hello, fellow crafter! Today I have the third episode of Creative Clarity ready for you. As a lifelong creative, I know there are a wide variety of barriers, blocks, and struggles in the life of an artist, and whether you are a hobbyist or a career artist, they can stop you from being your best creative self. Every month, the Creative Clarity series will share knowledge, tips, and know-how to help you overcome these obstacles and deepen your practice.

Creative Clarity is not written specifically for crochet artists; rather, it will benefit any type of creator who is looking to cultivate a thriving creative practice. But, we all know that I’m a crochet blanket designer, so for my crochet peeps, each post in this series has a relevant free crochet pattern released in the same month, so you can channel the energy of the Creative Clarity series into a fresh project. I am super excited to share this with you, and my goal is for you to have at least one ah-ha moment in every post.

Creative Clarity, Episode 3: Phase 2 of the Artist’s Journey and How to Beat Creative Burnout

This post is for you if you:

  • Wonder how to develop your personal style
  • Experience a fear of failure and possibly a fear of success
  • Are working to establish yourself without getting burned out

If this is you, let’s dive in!

The 3 Phases of the Artist’s Journey

Over this and the previous and next episode, I discuss the three phases of the artistic journey and how to make the most of each phase, as well as the challenges you could face at each stage and some action items to overcome them.

First, a brief overview of the three phases:

Phase 1: Inspiration and Imitation

The artist chooses inspiration, and creates a direct replica of existing art within their craft. This is purely a means to get familiar with the process and technique. – Copying –

Phase 2: Ambition and Innovation

The artist creates their own pieces, drawing inspiration from artists and still maneuvering within their own craft, while seeking out and developing a definitive and unique style. – Combining –

Phase 3: Fusion and Ascension

The artist works in completely independent plane, and creativity rises above the realm of the home craft and is fused with other art media and ideas to create something new. – Transforming –

Now let’s take a deep dive into Phase 2. To read about Phase 1, head to Episode 2.

Phase 2: Developing Style through Ambition and Innovation

The first leg of your creative journey was all about learning the basics. Now your goal is to create your own pieces by maneuvering within your craft to find your own personal style.

Episode 2 of Creative Clarity was all about getting inspired, and learning the fundamental elements of your craft through imitation and practice. I also did a deep dive into the ins and outs of copying. In this episode, I talk about how to start your style journey by folding together innovation and ambition.

The second leg of your artistic journey is all about driving yourself toward developing a unique style within your craft.

What is Style Anyway?

Style is the visual appearance of a work of art that relates it to other works by the same artist, or to one from the same time period, location, school of thought, et cetera. This Wikipedia definition reminds me of the paraphrasing of Alfred Hitchcock that I shared in Episode 2, that personal style is just plagiarizing yourself.

Your creative style is what makes your work “feel like you.” It is a unique feature that is present in your works. To experiment with style, start by researching the basics: impressionism, art nouveau, minimalism, photorealism, conceptual art, art deco, constructivism, and surrealism.

Once you have seen the wide variety of styles you can apply them to your craft and start creating. Eventually, those unique features will emerge.

Tips for Finding Your Style

Remember back to Phase 1 when you did a lot of imitating to learn techniques? Well now you are stepping into Phase 2 where pulling inspiration from your own craft, you will begin to develop a personal style by creating, experimenting, and innovating.

Here are some tips to help find your style through innovation:

  • Style is discovered when you copy yourself. In Phase 1 we copied the works of others, and now it’s time to copy yourself to see what sticks.
  • Create copious amounts of art. Make sure you have engineered your schedule and your home workspace so that it is conducive to creating art every day.
  • When a project is complete, put it away. Start fresh with a clear mind for the next project. This way you will see what elements are carried forward, and what elements are left behind.
  • Personal style emerges the more works you create. Your style is the line that connects the common elements that reveal themselves in your projects. The elements that you leave behind are not destined to be part of your style.
  • Niche down to focus on one thing. When you have experimented with tons of projects, it’s time to narrow it down to what you think will be your “thing.”
  • Find your style in the message of your work. When you create art, you are imparting a message to the viewer. Sometimes, meditating on what that message is will help inform your style.
  • Style can be a structured framework. Think of style as those common elements that you know will be present in every project. The rest of the project’s elements can be variable, and that’s where the creativity and individuality of the pieces comes in.
  • Stop focusing on how your art will be perceived. To develop your style, follow your instincts about what feels good and right to you in your artist heart.

This innovation phase may take a long time, and that’s okay. Taking your time to find your personal style is very important, since style is what sets your work apart from that of other artists. There will definitely be some challenges along the way as finding your style will take copious amounts of ambition.

Let’s talk about the challenges that are present in the pursuit of ambition.

The Challenges of Phase 2

Discovering your style through creating tons and tons of works may seem easy, because you’re just doing more of what you love, however, it certainly comes with a set of challenges. Artists can sometimes struggle with staying motivated, fear of failure or fear of success, and work/life balance.

Staying Motivated

As artists in this world of short attention spans, we constantly strive to create more works, and especially in the pursuit of style development. I find that motivation ebbs and flows. Sometimes you get a burst of energy to create, and you ride that wave, and sometimes you are in a slump. Here’s how you can get yourself out of that slump and get creating again.

Seven ways to stay motivated:

Learning to stay motivated will help you when you are at the point where your art supports you financially. Your productivity and quality of life increases as motivation increases.

  • Seek motivational words from artists you admire. Take the time to read positive quotes from artists on a daily basis. Reading the affirmations can help you stay in a positive mindset.
  • Keep a running list of your accomplishments. By documenting what you have created and accomplished, you can celebrate your body of work, and be reminded during a slump that you are an amazing artist.
  • Work in short bursts. Start by planning a five-minute creative moment, and see if it turns into a longer session. Even if it doesn’t, you have created something that day.
  • Join an art challenge on social media. By joining in with a community challenge, you can be motivated to create daily. Often times the challenges will push you out of your artistic comfort zone which is also a neat motivator.
  • Keep learning new techniques. Learning something new will open up a whole line of creating as you figure out how to fold it into your work. Your neurons will be firing as you have those ah-ha moments while you learn.
  • Set an altruistic intention that transcends money and creative joy. Remind yourself why you create art, with a higher purpose than just financial support and the joy that comes from creating. Those motivators can fade when are at a low point, and they won’t get you up and moving like a noble purpose might.
  • Write down your goals, and then cut them into bite-sized pieces. By chunking your goals into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks, you can feel like you are advancing toward finishing projects. The more of a downswing you are in, the smaller you may have to make those chunks. This is okay! Any step is better than staying paralyzed.

Fear of Failure

Fear of failure is most present when you are making the transition of creating art as a hobby to creating art as your career. Fear sparks a fight or flight response in us as artists, and it can either motivate you to fight further and push forward, or it can hold you hostage in a state of creative paralysis.

Suzy Kassem says, “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” Creating art is revealing what is on our insides, which puts artists into a very vulnerable position. The real kicker is that as artists, we are afraid to fail and we are afraid to succeed.

Examples of fear of failure:

  • People don’t care about my art
  • Nobody will buy my artwork
  • I am just copying everyone because I’m not unique
  • Suffering from imposter syndrome
  • I’ll never “make it”
  • I’ll just be rejected

Overcoming fear of failure:

  • Accept that failure is normal. Failure is a crucial part of the artistic process. Remember in Episode 1, I mentioned that probably half of the things we create are terrible, forty percent are okay, and ten percent are amazing.
  • Get into that beginner’s mindset again. Become enthusiastic with a child-like wonder, and follow that feeling to stop caring about whether or not you fail. Beginners don’t care what others think because the expectations aren’t there to be great yet. Learn to enjoy the process.
  • Get comfortable with the worst case scenario. Visualize catastrophe and realize that it is something you could recover from. Then…
  • Do it scared. Find that inner courage to break down the worst case scenario and realize that everyone feels this way. Every artist experiences fear of failure. It is totally normal.
  • Redefine what failure means to you. The only failure is not doing anything. Inaction is the only possible means to fail. Any step is a step closer to success, even if that means making a mistake.
  • Fulfill your altruistic duty as an artist. Remember when I said you should find a motivator that transcends money or joy? That motivator can be to create art for selfless purposes, to lift your community and affect at least one person in a positive way.

Now let’s look at the more vulnerable, fear of success.

Fear of Success

Fear of success looks like purposely setting low goals for yourself, procrastinating and stalling until opportunity passes, ruminating on perfectionism until you just quit, and any other behaviors that stop you from reaching the next level.

Examples of fear of success:

  • Once I “make it”, I won’t be able to sustain it
  • Other artists will just steal my work anyway
  • Success just means I have to work more and work harder
  • Sabotaging yourself for fear of change
  • Too introverted and shy to network and be in the spotlight (Episode 2 talks about networking)
  • Being afraid of the criticism that comes with success (yes, the more eyes are on your work, the more haters there will be)
  • Afraid of heightened expectations and constantly having to raise the bar
  • Feeling guilty to leave others behind

Overcoming fear of success:

  • Practice letting go of perfectionism. Perfection is a myth, which is why it always seems so futile to endlessly reach for it – you’ll never reach it because it doesn’t exist.
  • Stop repeating habits that aren’t serving you. Find out what is working and what isn’t, and drop the bad stuff.
  • Take yourself out of your comfort zone. When you learn something new, you give yourself more slack to make mistakes.
  • Overcome the fear of change. In its heart, fear of success is the fear of change. Exposing yourself to changes gradually is the best way to overcome this fear.
  • Talk to another artist who is above your success level. This will give you a more realistic expectation of what success looks like. You may be stressing over nothing.
  • Notice your avoidance patterns. Take note when you avoid situations that would bring you closer to your goal. Make a journal and examine them, looking for commonalities.

Let’s take a look at another area that can be lacking in the life of an artist: Work/life balance.

Work/Life Balance

During Phase 2 of the artist’s journey especially, there is a tendency for our work/life balance to be off. This is because we are constantly working to achieve so many things at once. We want to hone our skills, figure out how to make a living from our art, develop a personal style, create a social media presence, and much more, all at once, all while maintaining a joyful, creative life.

What does “Work/Life Balance” mean for an artist?

The definition of work/life balance is different for everyone, but you can look at the following definitions and see if you relate to any of them. These scenarios could all amount to an achievement of a healthy work/life balance.

  • Meeting artwork deadlines while having time for family, friends, and other activities.
  • Having enough time to for self care – to sleep properly, exercise, and eat well, and not worrying about your work while you do other things.
  • Feeling flexible enough in your art business to work fewer hours and mix in activities through your day.
  • Not feeling stressed about your art business because you have a healthy equilibrium between making money and spending money.

Fixing your work/life balance to find artistic success

Remember, once you have your work/life balance in control, you can’t just forget all about it. This balance is a cycle, not something you can just achieve once and then you’re all set. Every time you feel off balance, you should examine your situation and make adjustments to get back in the balanced zone.

A few ways to fix your unstable work/life balance:

  • Set true business hours. Before and after a certain time of day, do not engage in the mundane administrative part of your business like answering social media comments or checking email, logging sales, writing blog posts, et cetera. Also avoid working on any stressful deadline projects. Outside of business hours are for self care, family, friends, other hobbies, and fun art projects only!
  • Manage your time wisely. If you waste your business hours away, and you have deadlines (self-imposed or otherwise), your work-time will seep into your play-time and your life will be off balance. Curb distractions as much as you can. Believe it or not, distractions will lead to a work/life imbalance as you struggle to make up for that lost time. Plan time for distraction activities during your non-business hours.
  • Match your work schedule to your energy level. Think of your day as a rhythmic cycle instead of a robotic schedule. Artists work better when we go with the flow of our energy. If you have high energy in the early morning, make sure your business hours include those times. If you are most engaged in the afternoon, make that your scheduled work time.
  • Declutter your physical and mental workspace. Prioritize projects, organize and clear your workspace, and mentally let go of any business-related thoughts that do not actually serve your business. Cancel any subscriptions to website services that are not truly helping. Pare down to the bare essentials and dig deeper into those resources.
  • Manage your stress level. A certain amount of stress is necessary for an artist, but too much stress can actually stifle creativity and bring your productivity to a halt. Discover any non-business related stressors in your life, and try to get those resolved, as this stress can seep into your artistic life.
  • Keep your priorities straight. For example, when you take two hours of free time to scroll your phone because that feels like “taking a break”, do you really feel fulfilled? Align your priorities so that you are doing things that truly bring you joy.

Each week, month, or quarter, pause and reflect. Are you spending enough time doing the things you actually want to do? Are you able to make time for self care? Are your business goals progressing – you’re not just spinning your wheels? As you think through your work/life balance, you can gain clarity and make adjustments.

In order to get to Phase 3 of the artistic journey, you need to resolve your work/life balance issues. Being self aware in this stage is the absolute key.

Now, let’s move on to a hot topic and something that artists are bound to encounter, especially during phase 2 of the artistic journey: creative burnout.

Creative Burnout and How to Beat It

This section covers the true enemy of artistic success: creative burnout. I wanted to focus on burnout separately for this Phase 2 discussion because it can become a huge problem for an artist if it is not handled properly.

According to various studies, a high ambition paired with low confidence to achieve can contribute to burnout via exhaustion. This exhaustion component can ultimately lead to long-term medical conditions including coronary heart disease, circulatory issues, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety. Burnout is serious, folks! Let’s talk more about it.

  • What is burnout vs. creative burnout?
  • What are the warning signs and symptoms of burnout?
  • How can I fix and prevent burnout?

What is Burnout?

Burnout is defined as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands.

According to Christina Maslach, social psychologist and burnout expert, the three components of burnout are:

  • Emotional exhaustion: Working at an extremely demanding level and the need to be continually present.
  • Depersonalization: Becoming more negative, cynical, impersonal, or cold with your family and friends. A loss of compassion.
  • Reduced personal accomplishment: A decreased sense of competence and an increasingly negative view on one’s own abilities. Doubting that your work makes a difference.

Here are some possible causes of burnout:

  • Work/life imbalance
  • Taking on too many projects at once
  • Working on too many projects with deadlines
  • Poor self care / lack of sleep
  • Feeling out of control
  • Social isolation / toxic relationships
  • Overachiever mindset
  • Lack of career growth

What is Creative Burnout?

In contrast to general burnout creative burnout is a loss of the ability to generate novel or useful ideas and solutions to everyday problems, function confidently as a contributing member of a creative team, and maintain faith in the creative process for yourself.

Creative burnout happens over time, in phases.

  • Starting a new project with energy and enthusiasm, buying or gathering supplies, and seeing the potential.
  • Stress sets in as you manage deadlines and battle with the inevitable “does this even work?” self-doubt phase. Stress compounds as other areas of your life are affected by your creative stressors.
  • Burnout begins as you reach your breaking point. Self doubt and maybe even physical symptoms occur, like stomach ache or head ache.
  • The cycle continues as burnout is unrelenting if left untreated.

Some causes of creative burnout are:

  • Perfectionism. This is a huge one. Putting the perceived quality of your work over your own joy. Remember: Done is better than perfect. And perfection is just a myth.
  • Lack of boundaries. Saying “no” is extremely important and is a struggle for artists in phase 2 of their journey. Say no more often than you say yes. People respect you more when you tell them no.
  • Sacrifice of self. If you are consistently putting others before yourself, you may arrive in a creative burnout situation. Learn to stop being a people pleaser. This is your dream.
  • Too much multitasking. Being mindful is very important to creativity, and if you don’t focus on one thing at a time, you will face exhaustion as you are unlikely to complete any task. Stay present.

What Are the Warning Signs of Creative Burnout?

When these signs and symptoms begin to show, you may be creeping into creative burnout territory. It is important to recognize them and make changes to break the cycle.

  • Procrastinating – Long periods of procrastinating can lead to failure and compound creative hopelessness.
  • Constantly exhausted – Unable to cope, tired and down, not enough energy.
  • Lack of interest and motivation – Never checking off your art business to-dos.
  • Increasing self doubt – A feeling that your art isn’t good enough, or like you have impostor syndrome.
  • Dreading making art – Before you begin to create, you feel dread in the pit of your stomach.
  • Physical fatigue – Starting every day with half a tank of energy.
  • Wanting to give up altogether – Feeling like you should quit your creative art business dreams.
  • Consuming more than you produce – Spending way too much time online, consuming media, rather than creating and finishing art projects.
  • Constantly “checked out” and detached – Unplugging from the things that bring you joy and staring into space.

If you are experiencing these warning signs, or even physical signs such as headache, frequent illness, change in appetite or sleep, or stomachache, then it is time to make a change.

How to Fix and Prevent Burnout

Your art business should serve you, not the other way around. If you are burned out, then listen to your body and pull back a bit. Try some of the following advice.

  • Get back to the basics of your art. Pretend you are a beginner and learn everything from the beginning. Work on a project that is well below your skill level for a fast and easy, stress-free make.
  • Think about your purpose and original motivation to create. Get back to the why of your creative work. Beyond money and success, there must be a deeper reason why you are an artist.
  • Prioritize your health. Make time for sleep and for restorative activities. Activity boosts creativity and lowers stress. 
  • Seek new and fresh inspiration. In Episode 2 of Creative Clarity, we talked about the first phase of being an artist. I dig deep into how to find inspiration, so you can start there!
  • Cut out the negative media that you consume. Take a break from social media, and when you come back to it, have set times that you can browse it. Limit the amount of apps that you are on to one or two. Avoid the combative side of social media.
  • Seek support from the people in your life. Reach out to loved ones, friends, and even peers. Chances are they have experienced what you have and can relate.
  • Look back at your previous accomplishments. It’s easy to forget the amazing things we have done, especially in times of self doubt. Of course, half of our art is just so-so, and a small percentage is actually great, so for the great projects, remember that it wasn’t easy to achieve them, and for the so-so projects, think about how far you’ve come.

Remember that creative burnout has nothing to do with your true passion, work ethic, or talent. It is simply a disconnect in your work/life balance. The fixes and preventions are not cure-alls. The cycle will continue if you are not aware of the signs and symptoms, and if you do not step in to solve them.

How I Fixed My Most Recent Creative Burnout

In the Fall, I tend to spiral into burnout which is compounded by the anxiety that the end of the year is approaching and I just didn’t finish all of the things I wanted to accomplish. Fall of 2022 was no different, and I knew I had to do something to pull myself back from the proverbial creative burnout ledge.

I decided to do what usually helps me when I approach creative burnout: Get back to basics! And the Gumdrop Garden Blanket crochet pattern was born. In January of 2023, the majority of my creative time was spent churning out the simple squares of the Gumdrop Garden Blanket. I felt so accomplished as the squares piled up, and the simple design made for a stress-free creative time.

Each episode of Creative Clarity has a crochet pattern that goes with it, and this month my goal for the crochet pattern portion was to highlight my new Gumdrop Garden Blanket. This pattern was released as a freebie on April 15th, and so far, I have made 5 blanket’s worth of squares…

This is how the crochet blanket looks – isn’t it gorgeous? I have used Scheepjes Softfun, straight from my yarn stash, as this piece is meant to make all of your odd remnants look amazing.

The condensed PDF version of this pattern is available for convenient printing on Etsy and Ravelry, and both US and UK Terms PDFs are included in the purchase.

Yarn Information

Note: This pattern is written for stash busting so there are no yarn amounts listed. Simply put together at least 10 colors of yarn from your stash and create as many squares as your heart desires! This pattern will show off any colors wonderfully and is a great way to use up those odd remnants that you feel don’t work in any project. For your convenience, the join and border are written for any size blanket.

  • Scheepjes Softfun Yarn – Head to WoolWarehouse to shop Softfun 
  • Scheepjes Softfun Denim Yarn – Head to WoolWarehouse to shop Softfun Denim 
  • Scheepjes Softfun Aquarel Yarn – Head to WoolWarehouse to shop Softfun Aquarel

Alternate Yarn Suggestions:

Want more?

If you would like to take a deeper dive, I have some more content for you!

Free Crochet Pattern

If you crochet or know someone who does, check out the accompanying free pattern, the Gumdrop Garden Crochet Blanket.

Creative Art Blanket Course

If you want to enroll in my Creative Art Blanket Course, it is designed for crafters who are struggling with their creative journey. In the course, I tackle such problems as, “too many WIPs”, “lost my crojo”, “analysis paralysis” and much more. Along the way, I’ll guide you through the layout and construction of a beautiful art blanket with yarn from your stash.

Creative Clarity Series

Click here to read all of the posts in my Creative Clarity series.

Thank you for reading and I hope it helps!

As always, happy crafting!

Rachele C.

The Art of Crochet Blankets (my book on Amazon)

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