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How do you deal with bad cyclic burnout?

For some odd reason I burnout very frequently, or more like I get so brain dead that I literally cannot even come up with an Idea of what to do, let alone act on it. It feels like when I even try to start I get so exhausted that I have to lay down.

It always happens after I'm the most productive, but my down time feels so much longer than the time I get to create. I'd say I have at least 4 days to a week of productivity, and about 2 - 3 weeks of burnout. It's nuts.

The cycle repeats, though it can vary wildly in how long each part is.

I'm starting to get hella annoyed since I haven't drawn a thing in over a year and I was finally getting back into the groove at least doodling daily, just to be derailed hard.

I was thinking that I just lack creativity, but it became this catch-22 of "I have to actually draw with purpose and make things that I enjoy" and "I am so fucking tired that even opening a sketchbook or cleaning makes me want to take a nap / drop into a dead sleep".

What are your thoughts?

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  • This might not apply to you but its worth a shot.

    IMO we as humans were never supposed to get immense motivation BEFORE an action. Its supposed to come after you see the results of your work.

    That said, you keep coming up with excuses you cant create:

    1. Too tired
    2. Ideas aren't good enough
    3. Not in the right mindset
    4. What I make won't look good anyways

    You need to alter your perspective because that is what is holding you back. You could draw despite all of those reasons above, but you CHOOSE not to.

    I don't want to make it like a pull yourself up by your boot straps thing, I only say its a choice you are making so hopefully you will realize that you could just choose to draw.

    Even if what you create is devoid of creativity, is unoriginal, does not represent you, and just plain looks bad, its still better to have created something and throw it away than to have created nothing.

    Also any strong emotion can result in beautiful art, whether its a positive emotion or negative. Most people just want to see emotional honesty in art. Nothing wrong with how you feel, other than you preferring feeling a different way at the time.

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