I burned out. Here's how I recovered.

- This video is sponsored by Audible. And for a limited time, you can get over 50% off three months of Audible by using the link in the description below to sign up. So just to let you know right up front, this is going to be a little bit easier video, especially compared to the last video. But I think what we're going to talk about today doesn't need a super bombastic approach and it certainly doesn't need a thousand different camera angles. So what I want to talk about today is burnout. And the reason I want to talk about it is because in 2019, I went through a period of real burnout.

I was

burned

out creatively, I began to take a very cynical approach to how I viewed my work and, in some cases, how I viewed my life. And it was different than any year before. I've definitely been through stressful periods before, but this year, around May, maybe April, I got to a point w

here

things just weren't going well. I was viewing my work in a very negative light, and part of the reason was that I felt trapped by the work I had built for myself. And it was kind of funny because no one was telling me to do what I was doing.

Everything I do on a daily basis is something I decided to do since I have my own business and yet I felt like t

here

was no way out. But, with the help of other people and some better decisions I've made since those months, I've been able to get out of that burnout and regain some of that creative energy and fire for life. and for my job that I used to have. So what I want to talk about in this video is, number one, how I

burned

out, but number two, and more importantly, how I overcame that burnout.

Because I think a lot of people go through this. Especially since we constantly put higher and higher expectations on ourselves. And I think this is partly due to the influences that we all have, the Internet and social media. We often feel a lot of pressure and that can lead to burnout. But I think it's something we can definitely overcome. So in my case, I felt exhausted by my schedule. I was posting a lot of content and as you probably know if you've seen a lot of my content, I'm really not happy with making the same type of video over and over again.

I like to find something new and innovative I can do with each piece of content I create. But I also have a schedule to keep. And to pull back the curtain a little bit on how my business works, as you probably know, I have sponsors on most of the videos I make. And things have gotten to a point in recent years where sponsors were booking several months in advance, meaning I had deadlines and some sort of schedule that I would stick to. And I'm a person who tends to bite off more than I can chew. I get overly ambitious, especially when it comes to what future Tom can do, because in my head, future Tom isn't burdened by all the countless pending tasks that present Tom has to do.

So I will happily saddle future Tom with many, many, many commitments. And it got to the point where I had four videos a month, sometimes five, scheduled months and months and months in advance. And like many entrepreneurs do, I started to build a team. So now not only my livelihood was at stake, but other people's as well. I felt that if I reduced the amount of content I was producing, I would be letting my team down in a very tangible way. As a result, I felt like I was trapped. And months and months and months went by where I was, you know, blowing deadlines, feeling creatively exhausted, and always telling myself, next month, I'll work harder, next month, I'll just be more efficient.

And this is always my preferred solution for everything. I just think, you know, if I'm having a hard time right now, if things are stressful, it's my fault because I've been ineffective and I just need to work harder next time, in the next month or so. And there is some truth in that. (laughs) I think a lot of these mental prisons we put ourselves in are built on a foundation of at least a grain of truth. As if it could really be more efficient. But that's not always the crux of the problem. There is often something more fundamental that needs to be addressed.

And in my case it was the number of commitments I had. Because I have the desire to make everything I create of high quality and often have different innovative elements or, you know, because I often learn something new and want to incorporate it into everything I do next, I just can't publish the same thing. amount of content that other YouTubers may have. That's how I got out of my exhaustion. And I know this is not a very structured video, but I'm speaking from the heart. So number one, and this may not be as practical for some people, but I took a break.

I went on vacation with my girlfriend. And unlike most vacations I've taken in my life since becoming an adult, I made this a real vacation. I did everything I could to eliminate work from my life. I have a great team and they were able to take care of some things. We were able to work ahead to get things done ahead of time. And I was able to really relax. But much more important is that I reduced my commitments. I had a conversation with the guy who runs my agency and asked him if he would help me move things around to have a slightly shorter schedule.

And when I did that, something really amazing happened. I immediately started having ideas again. I immediately became interested in things that would normally bother me. Like when a new project crossed my agenda or something that I might want to get interested in, as part of my burnout, I would just flail around because I felt like that would take up too much of my time and I already had it. There was so much going on that I couldn't even pay attention. The moment I committed to reducing my schedule, I began to have a more open perspective toward new things.

I had a lot of that interest in life in general coming back. And the interesting thing was the way my agent had moved things around, he made it so that I still had to make four videos in June, and the reduced schedule wouldn't start until July, so I still had a full month of the same workload, But just knowing that my schedule was going to open up and that I was going to have more room to breathe in the near future, took a lot of pressure off me, took a weight off my shoulders. So if you're in a place where you're feeling burned out, I think the first thing you need to do is figure out how you can reduce the number of commitments in your life.

And this is really very difficult. I put off doing this for so long because, again, I felt like I literally couldn't. I felt like I had to maintain my content schedule because otherwise I wouldn't be able to pay my team what they deserved. And the reason I felt that way is because I didn't have a concrete, accurate picture of everything that was going on. I just had this kind of ethereal feeling that if I stopped working as hard as I was working, then everything would crash and burn. And I think a lot of people have this fear.

So here's what will probably be the most practical tip in this video. When you realize you need to reduce the number of commitments in your life, sit down, write them all down, and see exactly what you're going to sacrifice. So in my case, my big fear was not making enough money to pay my team, but I hadn't really sat down and done the math. So I opened my big spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my entire business and finances. I don't do a crazy in-depth month-to-month budget on this basis, but I do put in average income numbers, average expense numbers, and this gives me a pretty accurate estimate of how much will be left at the end. end of the month, after everything is said and done.

So, I tore up that spreadsheet and changed the number of videos I made per month from four to one to see what I would do. And I think putting it at one would have left me in the red every month, so I bumped it up to two and interestingly enough, with two videos a month, my business would have started to break even. So I wouldn't have saved any money, but I would have been able to continue paying my salary and I wouldn't have had to cut anyone's salary. And I would have cut my salary before I cut anyone else's salary.

But I wouldn't even have had to do that. And that was a very different image than the one I had in my head before. I thought, if I stopped working as hard as I'm doing now, everything would crash and burn. No, if I stop working as hard as I'm working, then everything will slow down. Which is a much more desirable future. And once I had that data, I realized I could actually slow down. The role was not going to end. It would just grow a little more slowly. So get straight to your priorities. Be willing to make some sacrifices and get as much information as you can about those sacrifices.

A couple more things I did. Number one, I had to realize that not all the content I create can be on exactly the same level. And I think a lot of artists struggle with this, but there are also a lot of artists that completely understand it. There are bands that make, you know, crazy albums with whole orchestras, and then on the next album, they remove it, go back to having just four people in the band, guitar, bass, drums and a singer and that's it. . And that's fine. There is an ebb and flow in the amount of craziness they put into each piece of art.

I struggled with that. When I make a video like our morning routine, which took me five full days of work, I start to feel like every video I make in the future has to be this good, crazy, technical and demanding. Otherwise, I'm not working to my full potential. But that's just not how it works. We don't always have to do exactly the same thing at the same level. Finally, and this is a bit more of a philosophical question, I have taken more seriously the knowledge that there will never be a magic moment when I have achieved enough success to allow me to slow down.

That does not exist. But I think I'm not the only one who has that, like a thought in the back of my head, that if, you know, if I do this and this and this, then I'll take a break, then... We'll slow down. But that's not how it works. You know, when I was 25 I thought that, but I got to 28 and accomplished a lot of what I wanted to accomplish when I was 25, and now there are a thousand more things I want to accomplish. So again, I'm okay with slower progress because in return I get a better work-life balance.

I have less chronic stress and I also have time to dedicate myself to things that are really interesting. Things that probably would have been aggravating to me because I was so overwhelmed just six months ago. Now, those things are really interesting again. And one of those things is actually music, which is why I took the time to build this new studio and set it up for music production. Lately I've been practicing a lot more with the guitar and piano. And I've also been reading a really excellent book called "How Music Works" by David Byrne, who was one of the founding members of the band Talking Heads.

It's a fantastic book, I'm really enjoying it. And you can listen to it on Audible, by visiting Audible.com/thomas, or by texting Thomas at 500-500 on his phone and signing up. And you might want to do it soon because, for a limited time, you can get three months of Audible service for just $6.95 per month, which is more than 50% off the regular monthly subscription price. Of course, Audible has the best selection of audiobooks on the Internet. They have all the best sellers, a lot of really obscure titles, they have biographies and science fiction books. In fact, they have many books on music science.

And each month, you get a credit good for any audiobook title in their library, plus two Audible originals you can't get anywhere else. So once again, if you want to get started and get three months of Audible at over 50% off, visit Audible.com/thomas or text Thomas at 500-500 on your phone to sign up. Thanks as always for watching. Hopefully you find this kind of rambling video helpful. Honestly, I've had a lot of trouble getting over this burnout and it took a lot of conversations with friends and people I trust and who love me to get through it.

I hope you find it useful to know some of my experience. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so right there to receive notifications about new videos that appear on this channel. Otherwise, you can watch a couple more videos here and here. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you in my next video.