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Ep 149 Career: You're underpriced because you're under confident. sdgates
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Ep 139 Career: The Hard Truth About Creativity’s Role in Business Today (and Yesterday) sdgates
Ep 43 Creativity: Understanding and breaking through creative slumps
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Show notes
Creative professionals inevitably hit slumps—periods of low creativity, motivation, or leadership. This episode breaks down why those slumps happen and what you can do to break free.
1. Recognizing the Slump
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You’re not alone: Slumps affect creatives at every level—even the most experienced.
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Three-part structure:
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Types of slumps
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What causes them
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How to break them
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2. Two Major Slump Types
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Creative Slumps: Challenges in idea generation, execution, or feeling creatively stifled.
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Leadership Slumps: When you struggle to guide, motivate, or inspire your team.
3. What Triggers Them
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Lack of Self-Awareness: Often, slumps creep in gradually without you consciously realizing it.
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Repeated Routines: Sticking to known patterns helps in the short term—but eventually feels stale.
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Isolation: Operating solo limits your perspective and hinders fresh thinking.
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Weak Inspiration Habits: As your work evolves, so should your sources of inspiration—and many don’t adapt.
4. Strategies to Break a Slump
Below are practical, sustainable actions to help reignite your spark:
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Strategy |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Review & tweak your process |
Deconstruct workflows; don’t consider any step sacred. Evolve as needed. |
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Introduce fresh perspectives |
Talk with people outside your field—photographers, chefs, etc.—to stimulate new thinking. |
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Connect with industry peers |
Honest conversations with others in your situation normalize struggles and reveal solutions. |
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Experiment with tools |
Switch up apps or frameworks (e.g., moving from Evernote to Milanote) to see things differently. |
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Cultivate creative pressure |
Set hard deadlines with consequences to activate creativity under pressure. |
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Empower your workspace |
Design a studio that mentally signals “creative work only”—separate inspiration (visuals) from logic (whiteboards). |
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Schedule inspiration days |
Regularly engage in non-work activities—museums, walking, conversation—to refresh your creative process. |
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Protect your happiness and well-being |
Identify the 60–70% of what fulfills you in your job and find other activities to fill the rest. |
5. Sustaining Creative Health
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Small, consistent change > sudden overhaul: Like dieting, your creative habits should evolve gradually.
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Maintain balance: Don’t just fix slumps—stay ahead of them with daily routines and personal accountability.
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Leadership ripple effect: If you’re a leader, your slump affects your whole team—so self-care matters for everyone’s sake.
6. Final Takeaway
Creative and leadership slumps are normal—what defines you is how you handle them:
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Cultivate self-awareness
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Diversify your tools, people, and media
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Nourish the creative “machine” inside you
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Understand your personal happiness equation
These aren’t just fixes—they’re foundations for a resilient, ever-evolving creative life.
Next Steps:
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Identify your slump type(s): creative, leadership, or both.
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Pick 2–3 tactics above and implement them this week.
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Join the conversation on Facebook: search The Crazy One Podcast and share your experience.
If this episode resonated with you:
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Subscribe & review your favorite podcast app
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Join the community on Facebook
Time is your most precious resource—thank you for spending some here with me.
Until next time… keep questioning. Keep creating. Stay crazy.
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