LIFE AFTER 40: CREATIVE CAREER BURNOUT

Lyn Edwards
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read
3 stages of burnout: weary sceptic, frazzled nerves, the walking dead. Illustration by niece — Malia German

Hi! Welcome to life after 40. I am Lyn Edwards (neé German) . I used to be a NY city slicker afraid of the outdoors. After moving to Boulder, CO in 2000, I quickly learned to love all things outside. Snowboarding in winter and cycling, hiking, and camping in summer became my normal. I started my career in NY as a graphic designer and was so inspired by the outdoor life in Boulder that I switched careers to apparel design for activewear. I had so many ideas about how to improve Women’s product by making it cuter, more comfortable, better fitting, and just overall more appealing to women.

I have designed apparel at many brands in different sectors of the active industry: yoga, golf, snowboarding, hike/trek, travel, cycling, and run. Some brands have succeeded, most have not. Fashion is fickle, people are more fickle, so many more affordable brands have come on the market that have under-cut the full price, full featured, performance brands. Unless the brand really stands for something besides just selling clothes, like Patagonia — it’s simply uninspired.

Anyhow — I’ve decided to take a leave of absence from working for just one brand @ a time. I’ve set my own career path too closely to the livelihood of the brands I work for. I need to spread the risk out a bit more. The more space I take physically and mentally from the industry and certain brands I have been involved with, I realize that I was eternally burned out. I wasn’t progressing, I wasn’t learning. When your head and livelihood are so wrapped up in a brand, you don’t see the forest for the trees.

The apparel industry is in a massive transition, with fast fashion, internet startup brands with nothing to lose, wholesale/retail dynamics shifting, and retailers going out of business every week. There is no standard operating procedure anymore.

I heard a great quote that inspired me recently: “A vacation will not cure burnout, only a weary soul. Education is the cure for burnout, it will increase passion by learning something new”.

My goal for 2017 is to try new things, try new ways of working, and to put energy behind creative projects and passions that I have been experimenting with for years. Perhaps I can help you or your company get out of a rut, or take a fresh look at your business or customer?

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Apparel + textile Designer, in a life transition after 40 years in this world.

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