Creatives Not Machines
“Creatives” is an umbrella term generally used to describe artists, writers, musicians, actors, photographers, filmmakers, and pretty much anyone in a creative field. We sit down at our desks, creating, only to finish it and do the same thing again, the next day. A cycle. A vicious cycle. It’s like we are pressing a start and stop button in our minds. But in reality, the only things that have a start and stop buttons are machines, and creatives are not machines. As young creatives, we often mistake ourselves for machines. Somewhere along the line, the lines between the two get blurred. We think that we have to be producing quality content, constantly, to be a good creative. We have been conditioned by a culmination of societal and peer pressures to think in order to be good at what you do, you have to always be doing it. In these vicious cycles of toxic hustle culture and not respecting our body's signs and messages that it's time to stop, creatives lose what made them love creating in the first place.
Hustle culture and productivity culture can be large contributors to creatives treating themselves as machines. During the Corona Virus Lockdown, people have found themselves with more time than they are used to. Due to productivity culture, wherein we feel like we always have to be doing something conducive and productive, we exert and pressure ourselves into using the extra time to hustle and work rather than restart, refresh and relax.
Social media also flaunts our favourite celebrities and even people we know, adopting new hobbies and using this time to do things they haven’t been able to do before, making us feel a sense of pressure to be doing the same. We see so many people around us doing things traditionally labelled as productive, and we notice that we aren’t doing anything particularly productive, causing us to panic and force ourselves into a cycle of work and pressure, which together create stress and worry. However, productivity is subjective and truly differs from person to person, so solely because something is not traditionally viewed as productive, it does not mean it isn’t.
In addition to this, the over-promotion of hustle culture during the pandemic, also adds a level of extra weight. Hustle culture emulates the idea that we should always be doing something that is good for us in the long-term and views rest negatively and as a form of slacking off. Phrases like “hustle harder” and “hustle bring the dollar” plastered onto bags, books, Instagram posts and more, all reflect a toxic notion of constant work, which isn’t good for anyone’s mental health. During this time especially, resting and taking a break couldn’t be more important and succumbing to idealistic notions of hustle and productivity culture, will only lead to creatives treating themselves as machines, even further.
Admittedly, I have found myself on 3 AM rabbit holes, frantically searching ways in which I can get rid of the writer’s block I’m facing. Every time I do this, I’m greeted by the same four or five tips, just worded differently, but a question that I have failed to ask myself, is how have I reached this point? How have I reached this point where I don’t have anything to write about? As a GenZer living in a world where something I have an opinion on, is happening just about all the time, it’s strange to me that I face writer’s block. Reflecting on it, I didn’t reach that point of “writer’s block” through not having any ideas, but simply because I have exerted myself so much, to always be producing something new, fresh and qualitative, that I lost my passion and love for writing and creating along the way, causing me to resort to the internet. Creatives can find inspiration in anything they want, but when we reach that point of “writer’s block” or “creatives block”, often it’s a sign that we have lost the ability to find inspiration in everyday things because we have gotten too carried away with the end product and making sure it’s better than anything else we have done, that we forget about the journey. Forgetting about the journey is what catalyses creatives like me to fall down those late-night rabbit holes, searching for inspiration, when in reality, we aren’t giving ourselves enough time and space to enjoy the process where the inspiration will come to us, naturally.
What we tend to overlook is that although there are external factors putting pressure on creatives, to constantly be creating, the biggest perpetrator and factor, tend to be ourselves. We put the pressure on ourselves to always be producing work because it has been inbuilt into our mindsets that to be a real creative and a good creative, you have to always be creating. Some of the best creatives in the world have taken years to finish their pieces and although that is unrealistic for most creatives, it’s important to understand that being in a field where the world is your inspiration and anything can be made into an art form, you step back and press pause. It’s imperative that we don’t exert ourselves too much because if we do, we will lose what made us love creating in the first place. We will lose our passion and love for our forms, and even though I can’t imagine losing my love for creating, it could happen without us even realizing it, catalyzed by an overload of pressure, exertion and stress.
Creatives are not machines. Machines are not creatives. We do not have an off and on switch that allows us to keep on creating even when we can’t. The world would be so bland without passionate creatives and the importance of creatives in the world is so huge, that even in times like these with COVID-19 presenting an ever-present threat, the majority of us have turned to creatives. We have found solace in movies and cinema brought to life through actors and filmmakers, or found comfort in hearing the latest music from our favourite artists, or we have vivaciously devoured books written by our favourite writers, all creatives. The lines between creatives and machines are distinctive. Don’t blur them. Creatives are important. Creatives are not machines.