Have You Become Afraid of What You Used to Love Doing? 

so burnt out im putting this in „watch later“

Yup. I got a Bachelors in Fine Art, then stopped making stuff after graduation. For years I didn't do anything artistic. I learned to adjust my priorities, goals, and expectations...and that's when the desire to draw finally started coming back. Remember, nothing is ever lost or wasted. I believe you can get where you want to be ❤

This topic just hits the spot. Seems like I was facing burnout for about a year now and each time I tried to find some answers in the internet I saw a lot of responses like: "If you can't just do what you love nonstop - maybe you don't love it, so just stop doing it and find something else!" or "If you love something you can't be burned out because of it, that's not the "true passion" then" and etc. But this video helps. Thanks.

I blame childhood trauma and CPTSD. The hypervigilance creates crazy levels of toxic perfectionism that prevents me even getting started. Thanks for the insight :)

As someone who doesn’t draw this video seems to have awfully little to do with art. Without ever as much as lifting a pen with the intention of drawing, this is 100% relatable, mirroring my own experiences with such high accuracy it makes me bit uncomforable.

The last sentence "if you are happy with yourself doing nothing, then you're probably in a good place, not afraid to do anything" summarised the message so well.

The worst pain I've ever suffered is when I saw someone good with their Art, in it I saw myself, the one I was supposed to be, the one I could had been

For me It's scary to flow creativity because I was only taught through negative reinforcement. Now whenever I 'make a mistake' in the process I'll get both worried and angry!

This anxiety and overthinking is exactly my mindset right now. I sit down to draw, already upset with myself because “it used to be easy” and “I have no muse anymore.” It’s become so existential that it makes me feel like a husk of my former self when I think about being creative. I’ve definitely trained my brain into seeing creating art as a stressful experience :/

MAN this is exactly what ive been going through, its geniunely so confusing and I've only been crawling out recently; thank you for the content you make!!!

The problem is not a lack of awareness of me being burnt out, the problem is that there are far fewer moments in my life where I'm NOT BURNT OUT, than there are moments where I am. I swear to god, every. fucking. time. I finish ANY PROJECT, AT ALL... it comes with the cost of months, if not half or even an ENTIRE YEAR, of burnout, being unable to get myself to engage with my hobbies, thus halting my progression with my skills and all.

I used to love drawing, nowadays I dread the thought of it. I don't even have the courage to describe in detail what my exact feelings about drawing are, but knowing that I'm not alone really helps. If you ever feel like your rambling thoughts are probably not worth an upload, know that this particular video deeply resonated with me. I sincerely thank you for it.

No, thanks for checking though, Mattias :)

immediate yes.

Glad I decided to watch this at the moment, since I'm an animation student I've felt every time I draw is for obligation. The best way to overcome the overthinking, is to just do things, thanks

In all seriousness, while in the process of becoming brave to draw again, please be patient with yourself and the mistakes you will inevitably make along the way. ESPECIALLY when you're dealing with health issues and illnesses (both physical and mental).

I think this video speaks WELL beyond just drawing, I have several friends who could deeply use this for creative writing & engineering projects they're engaging with and always stressing about.

How can you practice if you're afraid to draw? I forced myself to push through that fear and practice and honestly, made my burnout much much worse.

Accidentally wrapped my whole identity and self worth into a project I used to pick up and put down for fun; worked on it without a mental break for a year and a half, and had a week long mental breakdown. I felt really silly about it, but if you put your whole worth into your art, or another unsustainable piece of your life and you put pressure on it, it’s gonna crumble like a house of cards. And you’ll suffer. And only be able to eat canned peaches for a week. Don’t be me. Don’t end up hurting yourself. Enrich your life, and value yourself outside of what you create God bless you ❤

Never seen something more accurate to my own experience. Honestly gonna share this with everyone I can

I’m terrified of drawing. Humans shouldn’t be able to make images on paper! It’s unnatural and scary!

This feels like it was made for me directly. For the first time in a really long time I have not drawn much of anything in like 5 months. A few times recently I’ve sat down to draw and it feels unapproachable to start. What should I draw? If I don’t have an idea I’m inspired to make i could always choose a go-to like doodling Sonic or drawing blob rabbits but… no that doesn’t feel right for me right now. I don’t want to just draw the same thing every time, I want to make a cool new drawing I can be proud of. I guess I’ll start drawing a figure… but my figures still look too flat and the head shape I’ve been using for a long time feels amateur and ineffective. I finished the drawing and… this looks exactly like something I could’ve drawn 3 years ago. Have I grown at all as an artist since then? Have I lost my skill? I think what I’ve realized is that I have lacked artistic inspiration for a growing amount of time now. When I get inspired I feel super motivated and everything clicks and I create something I’ll keep looking at fondly for years to come. But I haven’t felt that way since early this year. I don’t really know what’s missing, but I think I’ve just been undergoing too many stressful and trajectory-altering life situations during this time to feel passionate. I feel as though I will get back into the swing of things, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get there.

I do love the stick figure advice videos they really help me out!

I can't believe you've put into words EXACTLY how I've been feeling lately, like every single point in this video.. The way you explained the issue behind the analytical approach to drawing and a skill to methodically 'get good at' is the main error I believe has caused me to lose all consistency, even though it's always at the back of my mind. Especially where you mentioned around 3:18 the questioning behind what kind of artist I'm 'supposed to be' really hit the nail on the head for me. I put it in my mind that I wanted to focus on character design, so breaking this down into smaller parts, I tried to focus individually and one at a time on anatomy, expressions and clothing folds in a coursework and exercise type fashion. But treating the act of drawing as repetitions to get better I think has simply caused more lack of motivation to keep going. You're 100% correct that I need to simply detach from any goals, identities, focuses or expectations, as I'm not even consistent with drawing at the moment. Having fun is the easiest and best way to stay consistent. I can worry about the details later, the act of drawing itself will teach me how to become better and what kind of artist I want to become. Thank you!

bro that helps so much. I compose tracks for videogames and it's gotten to a point I'm straight out in fear for my life whenever I think about working.

Personally I feel this when I'm about to edit a video but like the feeling goes away when I just do it and I feel satisfied by the end. I'm not sure why there is hesitance sometimes, I don't think it's burnout for me personally as when I get over my fear I start enjoying it

5:31 in other words "Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer could make " I've learned so much from being an artist, philosophically, existentially, my identity and so on. This video sums up the Artist's struggles so well. I quit drawing and decided im going to keep it as a hobby, but then realised my whole identity was being an artist and I asked myself who am I? it took me down a deep rabbit hole, but much needed one. I looked back recently at my art and it's no wonder I never felt successful and got burnt out. I worked myself like a slave, kept overthinking it and drew for validation and not really what I truly loved about art. I tried doing something in between but it only muddied it. On the flip side I got to realise why I needed validation and where it stemmed from. I was supposed to become a full-time artist because then I wouldn't have to do 9-5 work and would do something I loved... "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" but if you take out the joy of what you love it'll end up being work.

As someone whose love of art got destroyed by art school, this video is so underrated and I can’t wait to see you blow up!

I'm always appreciative for these videos talking philosophically or more emotionally about art, honestly it's a rare site on this platform in general. Most content about art on here is to "LEARN QUICK WITH ONE SIMPLE TRICK" but, what about all the moments before and after that? What about how I feel when it doesn't work? I think this video was very sweet, and informative :3c I'm still not sure how burnt out I really am on art, but I'll keep this video saved and in mind!

This literally describes my predicament. I go 110% on what I animate and draw so much that I forget to eat, I get fatigued easily and now I'm at the point where drawing is too daunting of a task that I put it off for months on end. Like you described in the video, I am also a very Analytical and Serious personality with a lot of "Problems" I have to solve before I can draw. I've reached a kind of burnout where the things I claim that I want to do are actually things I need to do because of a self-imposed deadline. "This cartoon HAS to be released on THIS specific day of the year or else I have to wait another whole year to have a second chance at this deadline." This has been going on for about 3 years now. It sucks.

It’s insane how well you seem to know my mind. Not even just drawing but like life goals in general like you said in the end. Goals that are literally just meant to be fun and stem from passion, but that I sometimes view as an obligation when thinking about the grand scheme and thereby detracting value from it.

"is it okay to be influenced by anime?" made me giggle cuz that shit is so real LOL thx for this video man

In general it's a really good idea to write down the problems that bother you and chances it will be obvious what to do by the time you wrote them down if it's something more complicated it will still help and you can keep writing as you think, journaling is great(and no you don't have to have the best journal in the world)

damn, this video is so spot on. thank you for making this because honestly it's been really lonely and well... scary, being on this side of the art experience that no one talks about and no one else seems to be going through. i haven't drawn in 4 years because of fear, and it's hard to talk about it or even admit to myself because, what the hell does being afraid to draw even mean, yknow?? but seeing this video + all the comments here helps me feel less doomed hahaha like, if this is also something others experience and are gently pushing themselves through, then maybe i can find my way out of it too.

I burned out from art several years ago. I was so obsessed with how other people might perceive my art, whether or not I was using all the right techniques that were taught to me by professors and other artists, if my anatomy was good enough, if my editing was good like that of other artists’, if I was improving at the same rate as other artists who were good at their art, if I was “on par” with all the artists I saw who had thousands upon thousands of followers, who sold prints of their art, and published books, and who “made it” online as artists. But all I kept seeing in my own art was “almost, but not quite there.” And it was never good enough. I started to hate my art and hate drawing. It feels worse than doing the dishes. I used to derive so much joy from it for over 20 years straight, but then it all perished and I never regained my passion for art. I feel bad still calling myself an artist because I haven’t done a single substantial art piece in years. I don’t know if I’ll ever return. Every video I’ve seen on artistic burn out seems to give the same advice, none of which has worked for me. I realize that my attitude of always comparing my art and trying to view it through the eyes of a hyper-critical audience is the problem, but no matter what I try, I can’t snap out of it. I’ve tried starting a sketchbook that I had promised myself I would never ever show anyone or post online, so that I would have a safe judgement-free space to draw, but I just keep thinking about what will happen when eventually someone will see something else I drew years from now and then I’m back at square one of hating my art because I don’t think it’s good enough to be seen by anyone. I can’t get out of this mindset and I’m so sad and frustrated, I just want my beloved hobby back! 😭💔

Me and programming for the past 3 years. Thank you

Oh my god, that list at 7:07 is darkly funny and deeply relatable

“Replace my burdens with more burdens,” wow, nothing has ever been more accurate.

i used to be incredibly passionate about performing music instrumentally, so much so that i persued a music degree. but the switch from performing because i love it to needing to practice every single day or else my professor will be able to tell if i didn't was too much. this was also when my self confidence was below the floor, so i was constantly comparing myself to my friends and other musicians who were *miles* above what i was. not only did i switch majors, but i never touched a single instrument ever again. it's been more than 5 years, and the thought of picking up an instrument again (regardless of what type) fills me with so much dread and sadness. never realized it was actually burnout til this video, so im glad i know what the problem truly was. i hope i can perform again someday

I really needed this video! I'll listen to it regularly because I most definately feel this in my life. Especially with other life factors contributing to my burnout.

Art collage mixed with high school art has made it hard for me to draw. The sad part is I want to draw/craft stuff again but life and my motivation is just not there. It just makes me sad when I try to doodle anything and I just got mad or get in that over-perfection mindset that it looks bad. But I'm praying once for me and my boyfriend's online business works well so I can start making designs for our products and start getting back into art again.❤🙏

Afraid to be the type of guy that shifts the conversation to be more about himself here, but I've been feeling a very similar way with music and this video really helped me-- I'm still thinking about how these things apply to my own process. I hope that the waning views on your more recent videos do not discourage you from making more really awesome stuff in the future-- no pressure, however! ;)

I went into therapy for one and a half years, and even when my psychologist more or less told me these things, you REALLY hit the right spot. And here I am, still with a burnout tendency. I couldn't stop laughing through all the video, but deep inside it was like Pedro Pascal's crying meme. God bless you.

you have no idea how closely i can relate to this 🫠

love this, it's not about facing your fears, it's about letting them go

Everything here, a million times yes. Burnout is telling yourself "it's just a short break", and then telling yourself "just give it another few months", and then thinking (hoping) "yeah I'll start again *this* year", and it turns into every year, until you realize an entire decade has gone by. Sometimes the solution is to just make some slop. Fun slop. I'm still learning.

this video just helped change my brain chemistry

Social media haunted me down into despising art so much, I used to love drawing and use it as a coping mechanism, but the never ending death threats and hatred I got everyday made me just panic hearing or remembering drawing, I hate all of my art now and I cannot look at myself or my art anymore, it's so sad, I'll never forgive who have treated me awfully like this including myself, I am no better than those people for hating my own art from the get go.

Just wanted to say not only does the topic hit the spot, the simple but expressive drawings also had me cracking up, loved this, thank you 😂❤

I feel I'm in a good place rn, but I need to always watch out for my tendencies to overwork and trying to be more and more productive to the point to create a burnout. This video is a good warning even if you're a little far from burning out. Thanks!

ya it has become painful to even attempt drawing. i really wish i could rewire this

I drew so much back in school, when it was my outlet for..being burned out in school. This was over 8 years ago. Since then, i took a break..and never really returned. My brain sees it with so many expectations that I'm scared to even try again. Well done putting my life experiences into such a fun video.

There is a Buddhist saying “expectations cause suffering”. I think you hit the nail on the head here, we spiral with a number of unrealistic expectations, we spend valuable energy on things that we trick ourselves into thinking are important… but really aren’t. “Perfect” is the enemy of “good enough” and all that. Thanks for another great video Mattias 👏

I've felt this way about art for such a long time. I'm taking a very long break and pursuing other hobbies at the moment, and hoping to one day get into therapy. I still have some drawing ideas I want to see completed someday with full effort and polish, but it's not going to be soon. Thank you for putting my very vague, exhausted feelings into words with this video.

Delaying analysis until *after* you do the thing? Ah. Genuinely hadn't thought to try that out. (Always love a vid from your channel)

Why must you hurt me this way

I have seen SOOOO many videos about this sort of thing, but none talk about it so pointently and relatably as yours. Also I love that you gave actionables immediately. They way you quantified comparison by level of importance really just broke a lot of my mental blocks on the spot.

It is nice to hear something other then "you're getting older".

This is even better than the war of art

This video was incredible. While I do like drawing, for me this applied to my biggest passion: writing and game dev. Lately I have been so burnt out and trying to plan to avoid burn out and only burning myself out further. When you talked about things becoming an obligation, I felt that! I was, and probably always will be, at my best when I was just having fun and not thinking too hard about anything. Just doing it. And I like how you say take as many breaks as you need. Sometimes I recovered burnt out the best when I stepped away, indulged in other things I love, and then come back often sharper since sometimes what I indulged in during my break did have subsets that polished my skills for my main passion. This video was just great, I think it really encompassed what burns us out and what keeps us in a burn out state, which I had not seen a lot of people talk about before.

This is me, but with calligraphy. I love making calligraphy, but I’ve gotten to the point where I just the thought of sitting down at my drafting table to write fills me with dread and anxiety.

I actually really needed to hear this. I've been putting off drawing recently to handle other things without really bothering to reason why except "I'm tired" or "maybe some other time when I don't have to do ___ soon". I know I'm probably not gonna do that huge project I've created and weighed over myself in my head immediately, but now I feel like some weight has been lifted just barely enough for me to reach for that pen and paper a bit more often. and I will, because that's how I started drawing. by just keeping my supplies and ideas near and not built up with anticipation. thank you, sincerely.

Thank you for this. And it scales far beyond only creative activities. So, again, thank you!

I’ve been learning Japanese for about half a year now, and despite loving the language I’m afraid to get into it again because I don’t know where to start. This video came at just the right time!

Lifedrawing! You don’t have time to have that negative thought, and since it’s quick, there’s little expectations. My favourite was fashion ‘lifedrawing’

Oh my gosh, I finally found someone putting what I feel into words that make sense! I'm into game development, been working on a few games and every time I stop midway because of needing art. I've even tried to use badly made temp art but I don't even feel like doing that much. I thought I had grown to hate drawing. But I still love to make a sketch once a week. Yet it's so hard to even get a pixel sprite done much less an entire animation or scene. Never thought that I might be suffering from burnout, especially when the burnout isn't due to art itself.

I’m glad I found this video. It has such a beautiful message, and it can extend to many things other than art

Yep, exactly that. I've been worse about it, but I have another big art project coming up in a few months and I'm already feeling anxious. Gonna try and use this as a comfort video.

Thank you so much for this video! Loved the part about prioritizing, exactly what I don't find easy to do in daily life. Makes sense it works that way too for "problems" related to for hobby/art/work, it's overwhelming and freezes you in place.

Literally saving this in my Mental Health folder because I am struggling with burnout after working full time and taking classes at night to (hopefully) change careers. I know I know the skills at this point, but now I am TERRIFIED of doing the work, where before I felt hope. Thank you so much for the singularly most helpful burnout recovery video I have found so far.

I relate to this all too well I have trouble approaching, and in turn, learning any hobby because my immediate thought was that I had to do it to "survive," basically. When in reality, I shouldn't make something like that my job. What I do to provide food on the table may need to be separate from can bring my own sense of personal freedom. I'm currently at a point where I'm taking a break until I can approach hobbies with a healthier mindset while trying to appreciate myself more. I'm definitely too analytical and tend to get overwhelmed easily by a lot of things in life (mostly my own thoughts), but I want to accept myself despite this. Anyway, another great video as always. You really keep us thinking lol

Man, this is true for me in art, but also for me in life in general. Got lots of insight into my life from this, great video!

Yes. I took an art course thinking that I would get over it, but instead I used the experience to reflect about how I feel about art, which ended up releasing repressed emotions, and now it's even harder to draw

I hopped on RU-vid because I wasn't feeling up to writing right now. I'm glad this was recommended on my home page.

This video made realise I was burned out. It's crazy how this topic is discussed so often in the art community and I've only now put the two and two together.

I appreciate this video so much, you cannot believe how helpful this is to my situation. From 3:50 onwards paralyzed me. Spoke to my core something fierce. Thank you so much.

I used to love playing chess and now even the thoughts of chess makes me bored and enjoying chess have become impossible

haha, I do not only have this vicious cycle with drawing but I guess it helps to become more conscious of it thx for the video!

I needed this! Right...NOW!!! You so poked the needle in the right spot! Thanks! Take home for me: stop setting the bar too high but increase bit by bit by keeping it fun and engaging...thanks...

so glad i saw this at this point in my life. i feel like im finally exiting burnout from art after being in it for almost 2 years and this was just what i needed to hear. thank you!

I feel like my brain was taken out of its skull and the contents that were shaken out of it became this video. Good golly I needed this, this is exactly how I’ve been feeling about everything for so long but for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why. You just went out here and described most of my current problems word for word. I cannot thank you enough for this video, I needed this change in perspective so badly.

"if you can be happy being yourself doing nothing, you are probably in a good place. Not afraid to do anything." My new mantra.

Your videos are unskippable , love the way you layout your stories and thoughts!!!

Damn, i've been searching for answer since i was a child, and it's just.. burnout? The answer is so simple yet relatable, I can't stop crying

for some reason when people say negative things about things i like doing, sometimes i just stop doing it

I haven't drawn in years and think thise video is going to hit hard for me because of this... which is why I'm also procrastinating on watching it, which I feel like might be a bit ironic.

Love how this applies to all creative hobbies ❤

My depression almost feels like being burned out on anything and everything all the time and so for no treatment, medicine, mindset or lifestyle change has worked. Screw that disease.

I somewhere heard that burn out happens if you try again and again but don’t get back what you invested. I love the idea of making my own comic. I talk a lot about it and at some point I planned a lot for it and even started to draw the first half of the first episode. But then I realized that I made a bunch of mistakes and by changing it, I would have to throw away a lot of work I already have put much time into. I know mistakes are natural and I should do it for myself and not for others. But back when I started working on it I had people catching up with me regularly, asking how far I’ve gotten last week and so on. Now, these people are gone and it feels lonely to work on a project nobody really knows about. I should believe in my own story the most but I don’t know if I can…

Just, like, thank you so much for this. I feel like it’s everything I’d learn in the CBT session I can’t afford.

if a video could become a poster, I would cover my whole apartment with this one

I really needed to hear this. This video kept showing up in my suggested videos, but I was so stressed out it gave me anxiety to actually engage with the video. But I'm ready now, and I am here. Thank you.

this is literally the best video on youtube by far, thank u sm for this

This video is so good! It could apply to pretty much anything too, not just art. Really helped me reconsider how I think about and work through the burnout that I've been dealing with for about a decade. Thank you for this!

Get out of my head! But thank you. This is exactly my process with my novel. Really needed this buddy. Cheers!

I don't relate to everything discussed in this video, but it's been good at opening my mind to figuring out what's stopping me from doing my own hobbies

This video read me harder than I’ve ever been read before and I am baffled and shocked that is coming from stick figures

I'm mostly work burn out. High expectations from work & less personal/family time affects the things I love to do the most which is reading comics & drawing.

That was a lot of value for a 9 minute video. I'd literally pay you if I had any money.

The secret...