Investing in Self-Care as a Creative Professional
Today, I am here to convince you to invest in yourself — to invest in self-care.
If you knew me at all, you’d know that I’m amazing at giving advice, and have a PhD in ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ but I promise, I’m working on it.
Before we jump in, let’s put some things into context: I come from an architecture background where life was all about all nighters in the company of AutoCad and amazing cup noodle dinners and a movie.
Nobody in the architecture field ever spoke about self-care. And I adapted very well to this lifestyle. It came easily to me. Pulling all nighters while I worked on my design and still managing to be awake and alive the next day was easy. After all, I was young back then.
Things didn’t change a lot when I decided to transition to another field of design – UX/UI Design. I knew deep in my heart that my passion lay more in creating experiences in the digital realm than the physical and I was motivated to get going. Around the same time, which was in 2018, I met Dennis Kohl, the CEO and Founder at Inheaden. I joined the team after proving my worth through a logo design, one that you see to this day.
When I joined Inheaden, it was a small group of very passionate, smart and hardworking people that essentially worked day and night to make it big. However, in this already small group, I happened to be the only designer on board. Almost overnight, I went from someone just moving away from architecture to a design advocate trying to set a foundation of design at this startup.
Now, for anyone that has ever worked at a startup, especially in the very early stages of inception where you’re just trying to survive, you know that self-care is a luxury and usually the absolute last thing on your mind. At least that’s how it was for me. I believed in the mission at Inheaden and so I hit the ground running and buried myself in setting everything up.
And boy did I work hard! In the midst of working on the design foundation of the company, I had to help with client presentations, client projects, building a portfolio to market our services, and consult with every team member on all things design. The tasks piled up immensely. I was overloaded, overworked and constantly exhausted.
And I always asked myself WHY?
After the cycle repeated itself over and over, I said enough is enough. I set aside some time and upon conducting some deep introspection in the midst of the beautiful Himalayas – you should realize this is a joke because if you knew me at all, you’d know I’m actually allergic to hiking – I boiled my issues down to 3 main reasons.
Saying yes to others but never to myself.
Invest in Self-Care – this can be interpreted in so many ways. Everyone brings their own experiences and perspectives to this topic. For me, the first thing I had to do was say Yes to myself. Say yes to going to the gym instead of working over hours, say yes to cooking a meal instead of ordering in and most importantly, say yes to spending time with loved ones instead of sitting alone at my desk completing a task that can wait till tomorrow.
Saying Yes to yourself is the most important aspect of self-care because putting ourselves on the back-burner while we face all the other challenges the world throws at us is the easy thing to do. Putting your well-being first doesn’t come easy but it is certainly worth it.
The ‘feeling guilty when I shouldn’t’ conundrum
Here’s an interesting question: what do you do if your self-care somehow makes you feel worse? I have only been a designer by profession since my design studies but I have been a designer at heart since I was 5 years old. I always enjoyed creating new things, working on arts and crafts and when I was old enough to use a computer, I learned various design softwares from Photoshop to Illustrator.
Somewhere inside, I am still that little girl. My guilty pleasure is browsing through Product Hunt and finding new tools and softwares I can learn. I love reading design books, browsing through Pinterest and collecting inspiration and finding new ways to solve design problems. But all these things that brought me joy, also made me feel very guilty.
I felt guilty when I indulged in design during my time off. Because I wasn’t able to distinguish between design I do for work and the design I do for myself. That boundary seemed blurry to me, and it made me feel like I was never really switching off and giving myself the time to recharge before a fresh bout of work.
What helped me the most was understanding that when you’re truly passionate about something, it doesn’t feel like work. You don’t indulge in it because you think it’ll further your career or improve your career prospects. You do it because it makes you feel good. You feel fulfilled and happy and recharged.
I started approaching design outside of work as a hobby and passion. I indulged in learning tools and skills that might never benefit my career but provided me with a sense of pride and fulfilment. And this bifurcation has allowed me to feel passionate about design both inside and outside of work.
Hustling without patience
Another thing to be wary of is hustle culture. A quick google search will give you the following definition of Hustle Culture – “Also known as burnout culture and grind culture, hustle culture refers to the mentality that one must work all day every day in pursuit of their professional goals.” I don’t have to tell you twice that this isn’t sustainable.
A startup is likely to have a culture that resembles hustle culture. After all, startups are known for being passionate, driven, agile, and fast moving. But the difference between a successful and unsuccessful startup can often be in their mentality and attitude towards concepts like hustle culture.
For example, Inheaden is passionate, driven, agile and fast-growing. But we understand, intrinsically, that change takes time. It takes time to see certain results, it takes time to grow sustainably, and that burning out for short term gains will make us suffer in the long-term. And our plans are for the long-term.
And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being passionate- in fact, passion is an amazing driving force for any business or job. However, passion must be accompanied with discipline and patience in order to be fully leveraged to your advantage.
And this is something very important for us to understand. I know most of you here are incredibly talented and passionate individuals. Most of us believe deeply in something, a vision, a mission, a purpose. My vision aligns with the vision at Inheaden – Empower Ideas. And I still go above and beyond when it comes to making this company a success. I show up, participate, and work consistently, day in and day out.
But just as I show up for work, I try to show up consistently for myself. Day in and day out because what I learn and invest in myself during my time off, be it directly or indirectly, makes me who I am and empowers me to empower others. My creativity is recharged by the time I spend away from my desk, taking in the world around me, learning new things, meeting new people and creating new experiences.
The life experience we bring to the table almost never comes from just sitting at the table.
As you can see, self-care for me is not about completely shutting off and not even thinking of anything design but rather, integrating my personal passions to empower myself in all aspects of my life.
By choosing work-life integration instead of work life balance, I overcome the panic and anxieties associated with being strict with myself but rather, allow myself the flexibility to cater to my work 100% when absolutely necessary and on the flipside, cater to myself 100% when I desire. Work-life integration has enabled me to be kind to myself and helps me go easy on myself when I order in 1 night after a long day at work.
Identifying these 3 learnings and having these values be an intrinsic part of our organization was important in order to avoid a culture of ‘win a battle, lose a war’. Sometimes, it’s important to remind yourself of the long-term goals and not burnout while you chase short-term gains.
This becomes key when you are also leading a team. You then have a responsibility to protect and empower your team. It is important to ensure that your bad habits and stressors don’t trickle down to your team. But also to be kind to yourself and to your team if they do because at the end of the day, it is important to recognize and be proud of the fact that we are all human. To be human is to be empathic, to take life with its highs and lows, to lean on each other and to lift each other up.
When you have this transparency and communication within your team, it enables better understanding and a closer relationship with a foundation in empathy and kindness.
In the end, the most important pillars of self-care are saying yes to yourself and being kind to yourself. Reminding yourself that sometimes, even just starting something new is good enough. Staring at the blank canvas is usually bound to give you anxiety but the second you decide to draw that first line, it empowers you to get into a flow, a flow as natural as the air around you. And when it comes to self-care, this flow and flexibility will only help you.
OR you can completely disregard everything I just said and be like our Chief Cuddle Officer Nova, who just loves to lay on the couch all day and not have a care in the world for anything but herself!
Thank you for reading!
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We are a fast-growing tech startup headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Incepted in 2017 by 4 co-founders, we now have a team of 20+ experts in Information Technology (IT) and Digital Product creation. As Europe’s first Tech Angel, Inheaden supports startups or small businesses by providing them with the tech strategy, assets, and maintenance they need to thrive in today’s digital era.
