Why You Have Creative Stress

The spark of creativity is a great feeling. As the rush of excitement ignites, a euphoric feeling passes through your body. A genius idea formulates. It’s so good that you have to document it — scribble it quickly on a napkin if no paper is nearby, or frantically type it in your phone.

When it’s really good, we stop at nothing to capture the thought before it wanes.

These are the moments of inspiration that can hit us at any moment. And some of those ideas grow — into a personal goal, a client project, a community collaboration, or a deliverable for the job. Some of those ideas wake up in the middle of the night or push us to get out of bed in the morning.

But how does a person go from a state of creative bliss to a state of creative stress? How does the feeling of intrigue and anticipation gradually (or quickly) turn into an unrelenting burden? There may be a few reasons why:

You take yourself too seriously

I should be able to finish this in 2 hours.

If I don’t make this perfect, I’ll fail.

I can’t believe I didn’t get it right on the first try.

I should know better…

“Why….soooo…serious?” is one of my favorite lines from The Joker in The Dark Knight. There’s nothing wrong with holding a standard or level of expectation for yourself, but sometimes our expectations are unrealistic. Creativity is not something that we can command at any time and its nature is not rooted in perfection. It’s an iterative process of exploration that includes both success and learning. To expect that every creation you make will be a Picasso creates unrealistic pressure and removes the permission to fail.

Suggestion: Give yourself grace in the process. Give yourself permission to learn and say “I don’t know”. Remove the fear of failure and embrace your humanity. You will not always have all the answers—lighten up.

“The creative adult is the child who survived.” — Ursula Le Guin

Trying to force/rush it

Your lack of patience could be producing unnecessary stress. Sure, we all have dealt with timelines and due dates, but every creation is not under a time clock.

Oftentimes, we want the shortcut. Hurry up and finish. Rush. But rushing to do what? Create a thoughtless output in record time?

If we want to experience the fullness of creation, it takes iteration. It takes time. It takes thoughtfulness. It takes exploration. It takes practice. To create a deeper output, there needs to be some patience to let ideas emerge, visualize them, iterate on them, and come to a desired outcome.

Suggestion: Step away from it. Take a break. Sometimes that might require time to sit and think for a while. You might spark a great idea watching the ceiling fan go ‘round, listening to a bird chirp, or discovering a new color palette from a glimpse of a TV commercial.

“Patience is required for the nuanced development of your craft.” —Rick Rubin

No creative joy

What happens when creating isn’t fun anymore? Ideally, creation should be invigorating, relaxing, freeing, or stimulating. You should look forward to it—maybe even smile while doing it. There’s a song from BB King called “Thrill is Gone”. That’s exactly what happens when what was once a privilege to work on now becomes an obligation. What causes feelings of joy, excitement, and anticipation to transform into feelings of anxiety, stress, and frustration?

Suggestion: Identify the source of your mind shift. What circumstances have caused the shift from joy? It could be time pressure, distraction, or perfectionism. It could be personal insecurities or unproductive beliefs that alter your mindset about your ability to create. Is it a person or a suppressive environment? Maybe a technology glitch or lack of resources that have seemingly halted the joyous flow. Identify what you think are the cause(s) and then find a way to infuse joy and excitement back into your work, if you can. This could be as simple as playing your favorite music in the background while creating, redesigning your workspace, creating in nature, or reframing the expectations of the project or yourself.

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook

Lack of information

A very practical and common bottleneck for progress could simply be an information gap. It could be a lack of data, written copy, an answer to a critical question, context, specific knowledge, insight, or something else that’s stifling the creative process. How can you visualize the data if you don’t have it? How can you confidently create when you are guessing?

Suggestion: Make finding the answers and gaining understanding a priority. Ask critical questions to the right people. Request more information. Do more research. Have the conversation. The key is to seek out information early instead of creating more frustration by avoiding this step. Perhaps the level of missing information or the degree of ignorance should inform you whether the project is worth starting or continuing.

No process

While it is great to allow ideas and outputs to flow and come naturally, that is not a reliable strategy. Some sort of structure is needed as a guide to foster your creativity. If every action is done on a whim, or if each new project is executed with unintentional steps, then it shouldn’t be a surprise that the work will become stressful to not only you but to others who may be involved.

Suggestion: Use a framework to help optimize your creativity. This can include the same or similar steps you’ll enact each time, to create the right environment and mindset around creation from start to finish. An example of a design process is: 1) ideation/brainstorming 2) initial design 3) iteration/revisions 4) final production. These steps aren’t there to hinder; they serve as guideposts to provide space and time for creativity to happen.

Too many rules

Conversely, adding too many rules, processes, or guidelines can also hinder creation. When the process becomes too rigid, the mind gets trapped in conditional statements that suppress free-forming thoughts. Not allowing yourself to explore, discover or experiment can turn a creative endeavor into a purely left-brain exercise.

Suggestion: Keep good creative processes but inject freedom into each stage. Don’t suppress your thoughts and ideas. Create an environment where you can be free to imagine, truly brainstorm, and express both logical and illogical ideas. This can be through writing, sketching, recording personal audio, or group interactions. If you have the time and space to explore, then do it. The key is to understand that every output will not be used; by cycling through ideas, you could land on the right outcome.

The wrong people

Who you collaborate with could influence the “when, how, and what” of your creation. The truth is, everyone does not make a great teammate, nor does everyone understand or support your work as a creative. Though we all will inevitably work with someone we don’t like, we can choose who we allow in our creative spaces for the long term. Are external voices providing encouragement and constructive criticism, or only negative vibrations?

Suggestion: Although you may not always be able to choose who you work with, you can choose your inner circle of creative support. Find people who can challenge you in a healthy way to grow but also support and understand your creative journey.

It’s in vain

What is the purpose behind your creation? Is it therapy for your soul? Is it to help others? Is it to market or sell something? Is it your gut feeling guiding you? Whatever your reason, stress may arise when you start tying vanity metrics to your work. When you are more concerned about posting your creations to get likes, shares, emoji reactions, and views, what does the work turn into? Does it turn into an obligation to feed and please the masses? Will you even like what you create if it’s always measured by a surface validation of strangers? Will you judge your abilities and goals based on what you want, or based on what they want?

Suggestion: The reality is that content creation is a real job. People get paid to create. But is the price of it worth your creative soul? Revisit your “why” behind what you create frequently, and recenter yourself, if necessary, so that you hopefully don’t live and die by vanity metrics. Consider dialing back or pausing posting your work from social platforms if the results are negatively affecting your mental health. Honestly assess your motivations to create, and explore tactics on how you can balance your desire for attention versus your desire for purposeful creation.

Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you. —Miguel de Unamuno

Not inspired

Although inspiration is not a prerequisite for creation, it certainly helps. Lack of inspiration is a shortage or omittance of sentiment, motivation, or insight that generates action beyond the logistics of the project. It’s the lightbulb moments that are seemingly divine. Without inspiration, the act of creation may seem dry and mechanical.

Suggestion: Feed yourself sources of inspiration daily. Live an interesting life. Travel, read books, converse with diverse people, watch good and bad movies, try new foods, explore nature, take walks, and observe interesting fabrics and textures. Open your eyes to the simplicities and complexities of life. You can pull from all of your lived experiences. Inspiration can come from intentional action or it can be sparked from the collection of your memories and observations. Keep your eyes open. Build your lived experiences and remain childlike in curiosity to stay connected to an endless flow of inspiration.

“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life” — Elizabeth Gilbert

Ultimately, it’s up to us to remember our innate power to create. Regardless of circumstance, limitation, or constraint, we still have the power to create something. That’s literally what creativity is—bringing something into existence, regardless of what you may or may not have. That’s the challenge. There’s beauty and privilege to mimic something our ultimate Creator has done but on a human scale. Let’s do our best to enjoy creation and to live out the fullness of what creativity has to offer.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

Let me know what other factors you think might cause creative stress in the comments! If you liked this read, you may also enjoy Dear Creatives, Live Your Life.