Dispelling the myth: Do creative people always need to be ‘on’ to be successful?
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This thing called ‘creative spark’ can be defined as your brain’s ability to form interesting new connections, releasing chemicals to suggest that ideas are worth pursuing – fuelling motivation and creativity. And it can feel so fragile at times that creatives can be tempted to stay mentally ‘on’ in order to protect it. What this might look like, is seeking an output for creativity elsewhere when we’re experiencing burnout in one area. Or it might be a practical feeling of needing to always stay curious and engaged with the world around us so as to not lose creative momentum.
But in truth, this spark isn’t something you can actually control. It ebbs and flows with the right physical and mental conditions, and so it’s important to know when and how to shut off and create that mental headspace needed for creative clarity and renewal.
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Why does the creative spark disappear?
Well, it doesn’t just disappear. In truth, the creative spark we all possess from childhood – that universal human trait which we cultivate through playful curiosity, persistence and vulnerability – ebbs and flows. More often than not, if it feels like you’ve lost the ability to think creatively, what’s actually happened is that you’re experiencing burnout. Repetitive and monotonous tasks, pursuit of perfectionism, overconsumption and overproduction, and an absence of real downtime all contribute to very real and normal mental exhaustion. In other words, it may just be that the environment that creates the spark is what’s broken down.
The importance of setting boundaries between work and rest
Burnout is a product of unclear work boundaries. You may close your laptop for the day, but your brain never actually switches off. Your day’s problems, whether in work or personal life, carry on looping in the background. We remain on high alert, remembering uncompleted tasks or minor setbacks over completed tasks and major successes. This looping effect is known as cognitive closure, or the Zeigarnik effect. (Roberts, 2025) It may also look like a marginal shift in where we redirect our attention after a long day, for example from creating to consuming. Creative people who manage to avoid burnout are those who have learned to incorporate small, intentional ‘shutdown rituals’ into their lifestyle. From taking a moment to pause and reflect on achievements of the day, to tidying one’s work station or engaging in a half hour session of mindfulness meditation – there are many ways we can acknowledge this boundary between work and rest, and create an opportunity for mental reset. It might sound simple in practice, but it does take enough discipline to action. But it matters: without an ending, the mind does not know that it is allowed to rest and reset.
So how exactly do we set these boundaries?
Get out of your head, by using your body. The mind might struggle at times to respond to commands we give it like “relax” or “stop thinking”, especially if we’re already stuck in fight or flight mode. But the body can help: creatives rely on repetitive physical activities like stretching, walking and cooking to create intentional movement, giving the mind the structure it needs to quiet down without shutting off completely. Most importantly, as part of this movement comes an awareness of slowing down: just like with mindfulness meditation, we don’t want to carry stress into these physical actions, rather adjust our pace to one which is much less frantic than the routine we’re used to when productively ticking off tasks at work.
Let ideas come and go, without acting on them. One of the hardest things we can do as creatives is to simply not act on every idea we think of. This is another meditative hack known as metacognition, where we learn to adopt a ‘thinking of thinking’ kind of thought process. We become mere observers of our own minds, and rather than frustratingly suppressing all the creative thoughts which quickly build up into mental clutter, we allow these ideas pass through lightly. If it’s sticky enough, we could just jot it down or doodle it in our ideas notebook, and move on. So if you don’t yet have a dedicated ideas notebook, consider starting one.
It’s also about accepting the idea of failure, and learning from it
Create the self-discipline to accept if something isn’t working. This reset boundary can also be prompted when we’re in the process of working and problem solving – not just at the end of our day. If we’re struggling to find the solution to a task at hand, it’s okay to just set it down. It’s less about discipline, and more about identity: most of us see discipline as pressure, but it can also be reframed as a way to remind ourselves of who we are and why we do what we do under all the noise. Discipline is what remains consistent, even whenever dopamine, impulse and motivation don’t show up to work that day. So take a moment to step away from a task, and accept that failure to solve a problem in that exact moment is a very human thing – but it doesn’t mean that the problem can never be solved.
Not every day has to be creative. Perhaps the biggest shift here is mindset: relinquishing control and perfectionism, and realising that this expectation we place on ourselves to always produce new work or content, or to always remain inspired and progressive in our ideation, is fuel for burnout. Creativity doesn’t work that way. Some days or weeks might feel slow, but that isn’t as much failure as it is part of the rhythm. And we might get stuck on a project, but that doesn’t mean you’re failing as much as it is an opportunity disguising itself as a challenge. One to learn a new approach to problem solving, ideation, and therefore, creative thinking. But at the end of the day, we can’t overcome these issues without creating the right kind of mental headspace.
Creating without a deadline, or a purpose
When we think about it, when we’re working in the creative industries, a large percentage of what we create ends up being for someone else. For a client, to a budget, as part of a team which may involve several superiors, and with a hard deadline. Sometimes, all we need is a feeling of self-improvement without an agenda. As creatives, it’s so important to protect time that has no purpose. This can be achieved through creative side projects, which at times might not even feel creative to begin with. It’s time spent doing things just for the sake of it, because you want to, even if it doesn’t lead anywhere. Creative recovery happens when we move fluidly between modes, such as from producing to experiencing or from thinking to being. So as long as it’s something which relaxes, and allows the mind to relax in turn, we can then say that time spent has found a new purpose.
At the end of the day, sustainable creativity isn’t about pushing ourselves harder. It’s about knowing when to stop, and trusting that your ideas will still be there when you return. ✺
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