Everyone has their own timeframe where they feel comfortable discussing the uncomfortable and for me it has been about two years. Two years since a full blown burnout that almost had me packing up shop and starting a new career, at the bottom, doing who knows what.
I had completely maxed myself out time wise, I couldn’t balance any free time with work and my love for filmmaking was fading. Not because I didn’t love being with my camera but because the workload was doing more damage than good.
I won’t get into the details of my burnout, I’d rather not relive it in permanent text but it wasn’t pretty, I didn’t feel like myself anymore and living a life with fulfillment felt so distant it seemed like it only existed as a childhood memory. No one should feel like this and I wasn’t about to continue on as such. I did a full analysis of how I was living and I made the proper changes that I am finally ready to share with people.
There is a ton of content on how to properly manage a business financially, how to get clients, how to build relationships etc. but I thought that aspiring professionals in the image making career could benefit from steps a person can take to mentally maintain a healthy balance with their occupation.
First thing, assess your strong points and harness that to eliminate every source of income being multiple steps of work. What do I mean? If you are a strong shooter, don’t constantly book gigs that require you to shoot and edit (or vice versa). You will have to do both jobs, that's the nature of this beast but work on establishing yourself as a single source of content creation. That will allow you to book gigs (aka income) and the responsibility is only for a day. This gives you more free time to have a proper schedule for work you need to do at the desk. If every job is a two step process it becomes almost impossible to stay on top of it.
Give feasible, realistic timelines to your clients. This is no doubt a service industry but that doesn’t mean you have to give everyone everything whenever they want it. Be respectful but give realistic and honest delivery dates to your clients. It may not be what they want to hear but it is certainly better than making excuses and being late on your deliverables. This gives you room to breathe in your schedule and when you don’t feel like there is someone over your shoulder waiting for your product you can work more efficiently and attentively. And in that spirit it is ok to say “no.” If you have too much work coming in - first congratulations - but take a proper assessment of your current responsibilities and book accordingly. If your friend with a small business needs content and you are maxed out its ok to turn that down. Aside from now associating your friends with work you are adding unnecessary stress to your schedule.
Understand that you have given up your life doing this casually. You’re no longer a hobbyist, a spectator of it, you are part of the wheels that keep this industry rolling. Whether you are getting paid or not when you turn your camera on it’s work - that’s R+D and that is essential to this job so don’t think shooting on your day off isn’t work. It absolutely is - which leads to me my next step in avoiding burnout...
Find something engaging and productive to put your free time into. You need to disengage from work at some point. Which can be extremely challenging since we put so much ourselves personally into this field of work. A lot of companies literally have our name in the title, many of us work in our homes and are hired because of the way we interpret events with our cameras. As creatives we have that need to create and to be inspired, finding something that is strictly a hobby is incredibly liberating and beneficial to our well being. An unrelated creative outlet will keep your mind fresh and avoid burnout; you get to once again be a hobbyist, a consumer, a spectator in the creative world and living on those sidelines makes being on the field much more enjoyable. I’m generalizing but going to the gym or a run once a day doesn’t count, that is self maintenance and practicing that is a whole other topic. Find something that completely disengages you from work, something fulfilling that you can put energy into but is never a job, personally I have music. Music has been a constant in my life since I was 9 years old and I am incredibly grateful for the calm it provides in my hectic schedule. The hour a day I dedicate to music is not only beneficial to me, but my clients and anyone around me.
Stop spending all your money on gear. It eventually becomes incredibly disheartening when you see all your money go into your tools instead of your life. I get it, new gear is sexy, it's fun, it's inspiring, but it's also expensive and many times unnecessary. Obviously you need the proper tools to be relevant but that doesn't mean you need the newest shiny piece of gear the second it comes out. I would recommend taking a full analysis of what your current operation is and realistically calculate if this expense could get you more work, make your life easier on the job, do something essential your current gear does not and most importantly is this piece of equipment a “unitasker.” DO NOT BUY GEAR IF IT IS ONLY GOOD FOR ONE THING - THAT IS WHY THERE ARE RENTAL HOUSES. I am constantly intrigued by gear but unless I can answer “yes” to a majority of those questions I do not buy things. Have an honest and realistic understanding of your operation and approaching jobs before you invest in expensive equipment.
With all of that said this job will never be easy. It’s just not one of those occupations. The days are long, you’ll never get the praise on set the actors do, you’ll miss a lot of personal events and you will be so swamped it will give you stress. My goal was to just provide a couple tips to keep you smiling with your camera even on those hard days.
Stay well.
Will