- This video is sponsored by Audible. And for a limited time, you can get more than 50%
off three months of Audible by using the link in the
description below to sign up. So just to let you know up front, this is gonna be a bit
more of a strip down video, especially in comparison
to the last video. But I think we're gonna talk about today doesn't need a super bombastic approach and it certainly doesn't need a thousand different camera angles. So, what I wanna talk
about today is burnout. And the reason I wanna
talk about it is that, in 2019, I went through
a period of true burnout. I was creatively exhausted, I started to take a very cynical approach to how I looked at my work, and how I looked at my life in some cases. And it was different than
any year before that. I've definitely gone through
stressful periods before but this year, around May, maybe April, I got to a point where
things just were not good. I was looking very
negatively towards my work, and part of the reason
was that I sort of felt trapped by the work that
I had built for myself. And it was kind of funny
because nobody was telling me to do what I was doing. Everything that I do on a daily basis is something that I decided to do since I run my own business, and yet, I felt like
there wasn't a way out. But, with the help of some other people and with some better decisions that I've made since those months, I've actually been able to
come out of that burnout and get back a to of that creative energy and just that fire for
life and for my work that I used to have. So what I wanna talk
about in this video is, number one, how I burned out, but number two and more importantly, how I got passed that burnout. Because I think a lot of
people go through this. Especially as we constantly
put more and more expectations on ourselves. And I think this is partly due to the influences 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 that
we can definitely get over. So in my case, I felt burned
out because of my schedule. I was putting out so much content and, as you probably know if you've
watched a lot of my content, I'm really not content to do the same kind of video
over and over again. I like to find something new
and innovative that I can do with every piece of content that I create. But I also have a schedule to stick to. And to pull back the curtain a little bit on how my business works, as you probably know, I have sponsors on most videos that I do. And things have gotten to the point over the past couple of years where sponsors would book out
several months in advance, meaning that I had deadlines and I had kind of a schedule
that I would stick to. And I am 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 is not burdened by all of the myriad to-do items 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 out months and
months and months in advance. And as a lot of entrepreneurs do, I had started to build a team. So now, not only was my
livelihood on the line, but other people's livelihoods
were on the line as well. I felt that if I were to scale back the amount of content I was producing, I will be letting down my team in a very real tangible way. So as a result, I kind of felt trapped. And months and months and months went by where I would, you know,
push up against deadlines, I would feel creatively exhausted, and I would always tell myself, next month, I will just work harder, next month, I'll just be more efficient. And this is always my go-to
solution for everything. I just think, you know, if I'm having a tough time right now,
if things are stressful, it is my fault because
I have been inefficient and I just need to work harder the next time around the next month. And there's some truth
to that. (chuckling) I think a lot of these mental prisons we put ourselves in are
built on a foundation of at least a kernel of truth. Like I could actually be more efficient. But that's not always
the crux of the problem. There's often something more fundamental that needs to be addressed. And in my case, it was the
number of commitments that I had. Because I have a desire to
make everything that I create 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 make afterwards, I just can't put out the
same amount of content that certain other YouTubers can. So here's how I got out of my burnout. And I know this is not a
very highly structured video but I'm just kind of
speaking from the heart here. So number one, and this
may not be as actionable for some people but I did take a break. I went on vacation with my girlfriend. And unlike most of the vacations I have taken in my life
since becoming an adult, I made this one an actual vacation. I did as much as I could
to cut work out of 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 in advance. And I was able to actually relax. But much more importantly, I cut back on my commitments. I had a conversation with
the guy who runs my agency, and I asked him if he would help me move things around so I would get down to a bit of a sparser schedule. And when I did that, something
really surprising happened. I immediately started to get ideas again. I immediately started to
become interested in things that I would normally get agitated about. Like when a new project
came across my plate or something that I would
maybe wanna get interested in, as part of my burnout, I
would just get agitated because it would feel like that thing would take too much of my time and I already had so much going on I couldn't even pay it any attention. The moment I committed to
cutting back my schedule, I started to have a more open
outlook towards new things. I had a lot of that interest for life in general coming back. And the interesting thing was the way that my agent
had moved things around, made it so that I still had
to do four videos in June, and the cut down schedule
wasn't gonna 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 I was gonna have more breathing room in the near future, it took a lot of pressure off of me, it took a weight off my shoulders. So if you're in a place where
you are feeling burned out, I think the number one
thing you have to do is figure out how you can cut down on the number of commitments in your life. And this is really really tough. I put off doing this for so long because, again, I felt
like I literally couldn't. I felt like I had to keep
up my content schedule because otherwise I wouldn't be able to pay my team what they deserved. And the reason I felt this way is I did not have an
accurate concrete picture of everything that was going on. I just had this sort of ethereal feeling that if I stopped working
as hard as I was working, then everything was
going to crash and burn. And I think a lot of
people have this fear. So here's what's probably
gonna be the most practical piece of advice in this video. When you realize that you need to reduce the number of commitments in your life, sit down, write them all out, and see exactly what
you're going to sacrifice. So in my case, my big fear was that I was not gonna make enough
money to pay my team, but I hadn't really sat
down and done the math. So I broke out my big
spreadsheet that I use to track my entire
business and my finances. I don't do crazy in-depth budgeting on a month to month basis on this, but I do put in average income numbers, average expense numbers, and this gets me a
pretty accurate estimate of how much is gonna be left
over at the end of the month, after everything is said and done. So, I broke that spreadsheet out and I changed the number of videos that I was doing per month, from four to one, to see what it would do. And I think putting it to a one would have put me in the red every month, so I brought it up to two, and interestingly enough, at two videos a month, my business would have
started breaking even. So I wouldn't have been saving any money, but I would have been able
to continue paying my salary and I wouldn't have had
to give anyone a pay cut. And I would have cut my salary before giving anyone else a pay cut. But I wouldn't even have had to do that. And that was such a different picture than what I had in my head before. I thought, if I stopped working as hard as I'm working right now, everything is gonna crash and burn. Not, if I stopped working
as hard as I'm working, then everything is just
going to slow down. Which is a much more palatable future. And once I had that data, I realized that I could
actually slow down. The role wasn't gonna end. I would just grow a
little bit more slowly. So get straight on your priorities. Be willing to make some sacrifices, and get as much data as you
can on those sacrifices. A couple more things that I did. Number one, I had to
come to the realization that not every single piece
of content that I create can be at the exact same level. And I think a lot of
artists struggle with this, but there are also a
lot of artists out there who completely understand it. There are bands that do, you know, crazy albums with entire orchestras, and then on the next album, they'll strip it back, they'll go back to just
four people on the band, the guitar, bass, drums,
and a singer and that's it. And that's fine. There's this ebb and flow
to the amount of craziness they put into each piece of art. I struggled with that. When I make a video like the
one on our morning routine, which took me like five
full days of work to make, I start to feel like every single video I make in the future has to be that good and that crazy and
technical and effortful, otherwise, I'm not working
to my full potential. But that's just not how it works. We don't always have to
do the exact same thing at the exact same level. Finally, and this is a bit
more of a philosophical thing, but I've taken more seriously the knowledge that
there's never going to be a magical moment where I have attained enough success that I will
just let myself slow down. That doesn't exist. But I believe that I am
not alone in having that, as like a thought in the back of my head, that if, you know, if I just
do this and this and this, then I'll take a break,
then I'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 I
have accomplished a lot of what I wanted to
accomplish back when I was 25, and now there's like
a thousand more things I want to accomplish. So I've just become, again,
okay with slower progress because in exchange, I get
a better work life balance. I have less chronic stress and I also have time to pursue things that are really interesting. Things that I probably
would have found aggravating because I was so overwhelmed
just six months ago. Now, those things truly
are interesting again. And one of those things is actually music, which is why I have taken the time to build this new studio and set it up for music production. I've been doing a lot more guitar practice, piano practice, lately. And I've also been going through a really excellent book called, "How Music Works" by David Byrne, who was one of the founding members of the Talking Heads band. It is a fantastic book,
I'm really enjoying it. And you can listen to it on Audible, if you go over to Audible.com/thomas, or by texting Thomas to
500-500 on your phone, and signing up. And you might wanna do that 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 normal monthly subscription price. Of course, Audible has the best selection of audio books on the internet. They have all the best sellers, lots of really obscure titles, they have biographies,
science fiction books. They have lots of music
science books actually. And every single month, you get one credit that is good for any audio book title in their library, plus two Audible originals that you cannot get anywhere else. So, once again, if you wanna get started and get three months of
Audible for more than 50% off, go over to Audible.com/thomas, or text Thomas to 500-500
on your phone to sign up. Thanks as always for watching. Hopefully, this kind of rambling video is helpful for you. I've honestly had a lot of trouble getting over this burnout myself and I had to have a lot of conversations with friends and people that I trust and that
love me to get over it. So hopefully some of my experience is helpful for you to hear about. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that right there, to get notifications about new videos that come out on this channel. Otherwise, you could check
out a couple more videos right here and right here. Thanks again for watching and I will see you in my next video.
Every piece of content in this channel is gold. I'm a web developer and the many recommendations he gives and practical advice have been a huge help in a field where continuous studying is a must.