From the Ashes of Mid-Life Burn-Out
My impending 40th birthday forced me to reflect and fix my strategy!
It’s my birthday today and I’ve just turned 40 years old. A younger version of myself may have thought I would feel old, but I don’t feel old; my mind is sharp, health intact, and my zest for learning, creating and experience is strong.
Yet the change from a “3” to a “4” in the leading digit of my number of times around the sun has made me face my inevitable mortality. Am I happy with life so far? What do I yet want to accomplish? What should I do to achieve my goals?
🔥 Dealing with Burn-Out
As I write today, I am at peace. But for the last month I was dealing with burn out for a long while without realizing it. Every day felt like a slow march with no end in sight with an ever-present anxiety pushing me to produce “something of value” every day. I had worked hard without break for far too long, only taking a week and occasional long weekends off over the span of years. I never felt I had enough time to get things done, which was compounded by diminishing returns on my productivity.
I went to the gym one day to try and burn off my frustrations — hitting the heavy bag with boxing gloves usually works wonders — only to return home with these feeling.
“Why am I still so frustrated!?” — “Oh! I’m burned out and need a break…”
This occurred about a month ago. Since then, I’ve been taking time to go outside to enjoy the sunshine. Long walks with my dog. Writing thoughts into a journal to reflect on everything important to me. Created peaceful music. Made an effort to observe the beauty of my surroundings. Basically zero pressure, do what I feel like doing.
I feel rested once again and recognize that going forward, I must take a minimum of four weeks of leave per year from my practice (much like an employer would give). I may enjoy what I do, but it’s necessary to take time off. And I suspect, it will provide me with renewed energy that will make what I create even better!
💡 New Decade, New Goals
I’ve been thinking deeply on how to transform my practice into one that is sustainable long term. What I was doing before won’t work going forward, but I want to continue making algorithmic artwork — alongside other creative pursuits — and make a living from it in some way. I needed a new business plan where I provide value to others in order to pay my bills, keep my creative flow going, and can work with who I am as a person; a soft spoken introvert who enjoys deep uninterrupted work in solitude.
My creative work had stalled because I didn’t know how to satisfy these conditions beyond just selling my artwork directly. And I wasn’t willing to burn through my nest egg just to create for the joy of it, knowing I’d have to return to a 9-to-5 existence devoid of my current creative freedoms.
🧠 “You enjoy watching creatives on YouTube and they seem to make a decent living…”
Huh… could it be that simple? Document my work on video in an engaging way and build up an audience that could support me? It would take a bit more effort to make the videos, but maybe it could be a way to keep my creative practice going?
I’ve spent the last two weeks learning Davinci Resolve — I can’t believe this software is free to use — for it’s professional editing and color grading features. At the same time, I’ve learned how to use my iPhone 15 Pro with the Blackmagic Camera App to record ProRes 422 Apple LOG footage to get the absolute best quality source video I can with what I have today. I also invested a bit of money to build a mini-rig for my phone so I can be ready to shoot in a moment’s notice throughout the day.
It’s actually been pretty fun to re-learn video production and I could see how I might use it creatively down the line once I get better at the basics.
📋 Business Strategy
After watching countless videos on content creation strategy from artists who I feel are successful, here’s what I’m thinking:
Make artwork, music and projects that are fulfilling
Focus on YouTube and SubStack to build audiences
Forget social media, it’s a waste of time (Insta, X, BlueSky, etc.)
Document interesting moments, thoughts, techniques, etc. on video
Produce “vlog” style videos for YouTube, occasional focussed topics
Write shorter “update” style newsletters, occasional breakdowns
Provide value to subscribers first, include sales focussed CTAs second
Release artwork, ebooks, tutorials, asset packs, etc. for revenue
I feel good about this strategy. It doesn’t require me to go out and try to network in person or constantly post in hopes an algorithm picks me that day. I can just create, document and share consistently; compounding interest via evergreen content.
Let’s see what my 40’s can bring to life!