Shownotes
Why is it so hard to create after a long day? In this episode of Create Anyway, we explore the real reason so many artists struggle to stay consistent—and it’s not laziness.
If you’ve ever felt too exhausted to create, battled burnout, or questioned your discipline, this episode will help you understand the relationship between energy, creativity, and rest. Learn how to build a sustainable creative practice even when life is demanding.
This episode is for artists balancing full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and the desire to create something meaningful without burning out.
1. You’re Not Lazy—You’re Depleted
- There’s a difference between avoiding your art and not having the energy for it
- Mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion all impact creativity
- Many artists mislabel burnout as lack of discipline
2. Creative Energy Is Not Infinite
- Creativity draws from the same reserves as your job, family, and responsibilities
- If you give everything away during the day, nothing is left at night
- Recognizing your limits is part of sustaining a creative life
3. You Don’t Need Full Energy to Create
- The myth: “I need a full tank to make something meaningful”
- Reality: small, low-effort creative acts still count
- Showing up at 30% consistently beats waiting for 100%
4. Rest Is Part of the Process
- Rest isn’t the opposite of creating—it fuels it
- Stepping away can lead to better ideas and clearer thinking
- Burnout kills more art than failure ever will
5. Build a Life That Supports Your Creativity
- Systems > motivation
- Creating routines that respect your energy levels
- Protecting time AND energy for your art
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Transcripts
Some days you want to create.
Speaker A:You think about it all day.
Speaker A:You have ideas, and you even tell yourself tonight's the night.
Speaker A:And then you sit down and nothing's there.
Speaker A:Not because you don't care, not because you're lazy, but because you're exhausted.
Speaker A:This is one of the hardest truths for artists.
Speaker A:Your desire to create doesn't always match your capacity to create.
Speaker A:If you don't understand that, you'll start to turn on yourself.
Speaker A:You'll call yourself inconsistent, undisciplined, a fraud.
Speaker A:But what if the problem isn't your commitment?
Speaker A:What if the problem is that you're running on empty?
Speaker A:So in this episode, we're talking about tension between creative energy and exhaustion and how to keep creating without burning your life down in the process.
Speaker A:Hello, friend.
Speaker A:This is Timothy Kimo, Brian, your head instigator for Create Art podcast, where I use my over 30 years of experience in the arts and education world to help you tame your inner critic and create more than you consume.
Speaker A: series that I started back in: Speaker A:And energy is a very touchy subject for me because I struggle with energy and that's partially due to my condition, which is relapsing, remitting Ms.
Speaker A:But there's also another aspect of it too, not only a physical aspect, but a mental aspect where we put ourselves out there for all these things in our life, our family, our career, our social life.
Speaker A:And at the end of the day, we've got no energy left.
Speaker A:So today we're going to talk about that and how you can do better with that.
Speaker A:So let's start off with the elephant in the room and the number one thing that can really impact you in this and that's the simple fact that you're not lazy, you're depleted.
Speaker A:See, if we change our mindset, if we change our vocabulary on that and really identify what the issue is, it's not laziness, it's depletion.
Speaker A:Now, there's a difference between avoiding your art and not having the energy for it.
Speaker A:I just want to make that really clear.
Speaker A:If you're avoiding it, then that's one thing.
Speaker A:But a lot of us struggle with having the energy to do it.
Speaker A:And I can tell you right now that is something that I, you know, deal with all the time.
Speaker A:We got to think about our mental and our emotional and physical exhaustion and how that can impact our creativity.
Speaker A:Now, if you have a lot of things going on in your life, mental wise, it may just be so confusing.
Speaker A:And, you know, you have a lot of poles against you.
Speaker A:The emotional side, you might be going through some stress, you know, with your family or with your job.
Speaker A:And emotionally, you're just strung out.
Speaker A:The physical side, that's usually what I'm dealing with.
Speaker A:Usually the mental, but most likely the physical side of it, you just don't have the energy.
Speaker A:You're there for everybody else, but you're not there for yourself and your creativity.
Speaker A:And many artists mislabel burnout for a lack of discipline.
Speaker A:So we're really, you know, shooting ourselves in the foot with this.
Speaker A:It's not a lack of discipline.
Speaker A:It's controlling and managing our energy wisely and making sure that we're taking time out for ourselves to do the things we want to do, which is created.
Speaker A:That's why you're here with me today.
Speaker A:The next point I want to bring up is creative energy is not infinite.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:It's not this big warehouse that you have somewhere that you can pull on, and it is always replenishing yourself.
Speaker A:That creative energy that you have, that spark inside you is not infinite.
Speaker A:It needs to be fed.
Speaker A:And creativity draws from the same resources as your job, your family, and your other responsibilities.
Speaker A:So if you're really out of balance with that, creativity is not going to have the resource it needs to draw upon.
Speaker A:You know, if you give everything away during the day, then there's going to be nothing left for you at night when you're doing your art or if you do it in the morning or something like that.
Speaker A:So maybe you need to adjust when you're doing this, and when we recognize these limits that we have, it's all part of sustaining a creative life.
Speaker A:If we are really in tune with ourselves, we can go, okay, I can do something, you know, 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at night.
Speaker A:You know, let my family know, hey, on Sunday morning, I'm going to be doing this, and I need time to do that, and I need quiet or I need a space to do that.
Speaker A:There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker A:And a lot of people feel that they're being selfish with it, but you're really expressing yourself.
Speaker A:You're really setting up those boundaries that you need to set up.
Speaker A:Next up, we're going to be talking about you don't need full energy to create.
Speaker A:You don't have to have a full tank of gas in order to start a trip.
Speaker A:You can start a trip, and then when you see you're running towards empty, you can fill up right there in the interstate.
Speaker A:So you don't have to have that big old inspiration spirit descend upon you and you're all energized and you're good to go.
Speaker A:Sometimes you just need, you know, something small that is low effort for that creative act to count.
Speaker A:Now, if you're showing up 30% consistently, that beats waiting for that 100% energy level to show up.
Speaker A:And you may never get to that 100% energy level.
Speaker A:Trust me.
Speaker A:I'm a dad of twins, and I haven't had 100% energy since they were born.
Speaker A:Heck, I didn't have 100% energy, but before they were born, because I had other things going on in my life.
Speaker A:I had, you know, a brand new marriage.
Speaker A:I was a stepdad.
Speaker A:I was in a brand new part of the country for me.
Speaker A:So if I was to wait for that full energy to.
Speaker A:To appear out of nowhere, which it doesn't, that doesn't happen, I would have never created anything for the past, I don't know, 12 years.
Speaker A:So if we can just show up, maybe 30%, maybe 20%, maybe 10% is all you can give.
Speaker A:Maybe you can only do, you know, paint one color on a portrait or do, you know, one chapter out of a book every month.
Speaker A:Whatever you need to do, you need to be in tune with your body, with your mind, and with your emotions.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So that way you know how much energy you can devote to it.
Speaker A:And if it's just a little bit, that's fine.
Speaker A:And I'm not saying to, you know, be resentful towards all these other poles in your life because you can't, you know, find the time to create.
Speaker A:That's not what I'm saying either.
Speaker A:I'm just saying we need to find the ways that we can inject this into our life so that way we can express ourselves through our creativity.
Speaker A:And that's what we really need here.
Speaker A:We need your creativity no matter what discipline you do.
Speaker A:All right, now we're going to get on to the fourth idea that I want to bring to you here.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:Rest is part of the process.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Taking a nap, not doing anything, watching a TV show, playing a video game, being mindless.
Speaker A:Like that is necessary.
Speaker A:You know, rest isn't the opposite of creating.
Speaker A:It actually fuels it, and it provides that energy and that fuel that you need in order to create.
Speaker A:And sometimes when we step away and think about the big picture, that can lead to better ideas and clearer thinking.
Speaker A:You know, sometimes you got to put down the pen or the paintbrush or whatever it is, or the baton or the guitar, whatever you're creating with, sometimes you just need to step back and go, let me think about this for a minute and just clear out the cobwebs.
Speaker A:The thing I don't want to have happen to you is burnout, because that kills more art than failure ever will.
Speaker A:Burnout is something that you can get your arms around and avoid at all costs.
Speaker A:Failure, that's something that's out of your hands.
Speaker A:That is something that's really out of your hands.
Speaker A:If it doesn't speak to other people, you don't know until you put it out there.
Speaker A:And then once you do put it out there, okay, you failed at it.
Speaker A:But you still have energy to continue to do something and to adjust it.
Speaker A:If you don't put it out there, if you don't make it, how can you improve upon it?
Speaker A:Foreign.
Speaker A:So to tie this all in together, this is the thing that if you've missed everything else, if everything else doesn't apply to you, this is the idea that you need to think about, and that's building a life that supports your creativity.
Speaker A:You know, if we create systems in order to do our art, in order to practice our art, that's better than having the motivation to do it.
Speaker A:If we're setting ourselves up for success by saying, you know what?
Speaker A:I'm only going to do this for a half hour every day.
Speaker A:Great, then do it for a half hour every day.
Speaker A:You know, that little bit is going to help you out.
Speaker A:If you create a routine that you can incorporate into your life, into your daily routine, then you're going to be more than likely able to do it.
Speaker A:It's like, you know, exercising or it's like learning a new skill.
Speaker A:We've got to have these routines in there that also respect our energy levels.
Speaker A:So if at the end of the day, you have absolutely no energy whatsoever, then maybe you create earlier in the day, maybe you create on your lunch hour, or maybe you create before everybody wakes up.
Speaker A:Maybe you wake up a half hour early and start your creativity then.
Speaker A:But we want to respect our energy levels, and we don't want to be doing it when we're out of energy.
Speaker A:And we want to protect that time and energy for our art.
Speaker A:So we need to let people around us know, hey, listen, this is the time that I'm going to be creating.
Speaker A:This is the time where I need some quiet so that way I can do what I need to do with my life.
Speaker A:And that's a great lesson to show your spouse, your kids, if you have kids, others around you that you are setting up that boundary and you are prioritizing your emotional, your mental and your physical health in order to protect that energy.
Speaker A:So that way you can create your art.
Speaker A:Because again, we need your art in this world.
Speaker A:All right, well, that's all I have for you here today.
Speaker A:I do want to thank you for listening in.
Speaker A:And if you got something out of this, by all means, share it with a friend.
Speaker A:If you're listening to it on your podcast app of choice, there's usually a share button there.
Speaker A:Send it on over to them.
Speaker A:Maybe they need to hear it.
Speaker A:Maybe you already got it.
Speaker A:You already do this, but your friend doesn't, or your kid doesn't, or your spouse doesn't.
Speaker A:You can relate this to not only your artistic practice, but to everything else in your life.
Speaker A:So feel free to go ahead and share it.
Speaker A:If you have commentary on this or if you have ideas for shows, or if you'd like to be on the show, email me [email protected] I'd love to hear from you and love to know what you're doing, where you're at speaking about sharing the show.
Speaker A:I do run another show.
Speaker A:It's called Find a Podcast About.
Speaker A:You can reach it at findapodcast about xyz.
Speaker A:And that's where I help my listeners over there.
Speaker A:Find the next binge worthy podcast and outsmart the algorithm.
Speaker A:I also run a business, it's called TKB Podcast Studios.
Speaker A:And that's where I help my clients lead through the noise with quiet professionalism and start up their own podcasts.
Speaker A:You can find that@tkb podcast studio.com all right, like I said, that's all I have for you here today.
Speaker A:I want to thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker A:I can't wait to hear how you're going to apply this to your life.
Speaker A:So go out there, tame your inner critic.
Speaker A:Create more than you consume.
Speaker A:Take a nap if you need to.
Speaker A:After this one, you probably need a nap.
Speaker A:I know I do.
Speaker A:Go out there, make some art for somebody you love.
Speaker A:Yourself.
Speaker A:I'll talk to you next time.
