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Adjust Your Goals, Not Your Passion
How to Avoid Burnout and Stay In Love With Your Art
When our performance fails to match our expectations, that is when we are most tempted to quit. If you are aiming to be a full time freelance illustrator but aren’t yet getting enough work, you might feel like giving up. If you have been hoping to arrive at a high point of competence in your creative growth by now, but still struggle in the usual ways, you might be thinking about throwing in the towel.
Don’t give up just yet.
Part of growing creatively is this constant experience of hitting our limit. No matter how close we get, it never seems to be enough. We set goals for ourselves and aim for them with all our heart. At first we do so with great zeal; then, after repeated failure, we lose our steam. We feel only negatively about our work and our abilities. How is it possible for us to feel so badly about something we at first felt so inspired by?
I am all for setting big goals and working hard toward them. But there might be more to the story. If we want to preserve the enjoyment of our art, we need to hold our love for it higher than any specific goal we have within it.
