Creative Outlets Combat Burnout

I learned the reason for that in a workshop with an old colleague, who was a former professional NFL player turned PhD in the area of “flow”.

He said the players that burnt out first were the ones that had nothing else going on in their lives.

When he wrote out his identities, they included athlete, entrepreneur, musician, father and husband.

When I wrote mine, I had a hard time to come up with much more than “sales guy”.

That was around 2022.

Ever since—also thanks to working with my BetterUp coaces—I have paid a lot of attention to having a more diverse bucket of identities.

Eg: I don’t have a family, but I have my parents, so I call them each Sunday. (Identity: “son”)

Then I’ve tried new hobbies, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I also make sure to meet at least 1-2 guy each friends each week.

(Where we don’t do anything productive and just talk sh’t, like the old days)

And now, I’ve picked up interviewing people again, as well as uploading short clips. Last night, I did my 2nd pod. (It’s uploading on YouTube now and I’ll share it soon.)

It’s a whole new thing learning about the right camera, setting up YouTube and marketing it. (And indirectly, positively impacting my sales brand, but that’s not a must!)

What I’m producing now is full of flaws and not close to the content’s quality I consume myself, but it’s leaving me with a lot of happiness each time I’ve done something for it.

With childish joy, I always look forward to doing it after I’ve done my sales job—which is still one of my identities.

Just not the only one anymore 🤩

Curious to hear what your identities are… it’s an interesting question to reflect on.