Burning Brightly

“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” The implication of the quote seems to be that working in an area of life that you enjoy is not really work at all, and by extension that you will never get tired of doing it. Among the creative people I’ve spoken to, this idea is almost universally rejected. (Side note, when I speak about “creative people,” I’m speaking of people who spend a large portion of their life creating. I firmly believe everyone is creative in some way, but here I’m talking about people who intentionally create often).

If anything, most of the people I know who are engaged in something creative are willing to work HARDER for it simply because they enjoy doing it. To me personally, enjoyment often comes from a sense of accomplishment, even if that accomplishment is something simple, like finally completing (or even starting) a task that I’ve been putting off for too long.

The issue with this “love what you do” philosophy that really bothers creative people is that if they have days when their endeavors truly feel like “work”, and it is difficult for them to summon the energy to get through it, then they start to feel ashamed. They have the feeling that because they are doing something they love that they should always love it – no matter what. Bad days, complaining, and lack of energy are not allowed or else they’re frauds and don’t truly love what they are doing.

Well I have great news!

It’s ok to hate what you’re doing sometimes.

It’s ok to burn out a little every now and then.

It’s ok to pick up the pen, or the instrument, or the keyboard, and then set it back down in disgust.

Sometimes not finding enjoyment in things you normally like is a sign of growth, because your standards grow with your skills. If you truly love doing something, then you will get mad at it sometimes. You will feel like you’re terrible at it sometimes. It will exhaust you sometimes. You will feel like you never want to see that paint brush or guitar or unfinished novel again.

There is only one thing to do when you get to the point you feel like you want to quit: quit.

But not forever.

Do some other thing. Put the paint brush down, turn off the amp, close the journal. Let your mind dwell on other things. Maybe do something else creative, maybe don’t. Go on vacation, read a long book, take a nap, solve a bunch of math problems; do whatever you want to do that is NOT your creative thing. Put some space between you and your creative thing. Act like your creative thing doesn’t exist.

And then, slowly, let yourself come back to it. Maybe it’s an hour later, maybe it’s a month or a year, but come back to your creative thing. You will have gained perspective and clarity, and you will have let yourself love it again.

Don’t give it up completely, but also don’t force yourself through it until you truly hate it.

Taking time away from a project might be the best way to make sure that instead of burning out, you burn brightly.