Breaking up with Burnout

How mindfulness will fuel your best work. Part 2 of a series on why our motivations matter for project planning.

Oct 03, 2024

Tilted is a free bi-weekly newsletter where we learn how to build fruitful creative projects. I’m a top 1% streamer on Twitch and lead product launches for startups at my day job. Tilted is my attempt to share all that I’ve learned to help you build your own fulfilling projects and ultimately live a life that feels authentically yours.

Welcome back to our three part series on why planning projects with intention matters.

In part one, we explored the all-too-common experience of starting projects that ultimately lead to burnout and abandonment. Burnout occurs when we fail to align the goals of our projects with how we want to live our lives. It makes sense—how can we find the energy and commitment to work on something when we don’t want the outcome it’s attached to?

But finding this alignment isn't always straightforward. Self-awareness can be elusive, convoluted by the social and societal pressures we encounter daily.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll focus on how to cultivate inner understanding with a mindfulness practice. It’s not always sexy, but practicing mindfulness is some of the most important work we can do in our lives. It is the key that unlocks answers within—offering valuable insights into who we are—which will trickle-down to our creative project ideas.

In simple terms, mindfulness is awareness. It’s a directing of our attention to the present moment, which clears clutter from our minds and allows us to observe and accept the way that we feel. By focusing on the present moment, we come to understand ourselves and our motivations.

In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn,

Mindfulness provides a simple but powerful route for getting ourselves unstuck, back into touch with our own wisdom and vitality. It is a way to take charge of the direction and quality of our own lives, including our relationships within the family, our relationship to work and to the larger planet, and most fundamentally, our relationship with ourself as a person.1

Mindfulness is essential, because without understanding who we are and what we want, we fail to have the information to live intentionally.

The projects we choose to work on are a reflection of all we hope to achieve. Through mindfulness, we gain the clarity to focus on what truly matters, ensuring that we invest our efforts in what brings us joy and lasting fulfillment.

Mindfulness Resources

A mindfulness practice can look differently for everyone. It’s not a one-size-fits-all, and definitely requires trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t.

The resources below are some that I’ve found particularly enlightening. They can help with understanding what mindfulness really is and how we can incorporate it into our lives.

Books

🌻Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn - If you want a deep-dive on mindfulness, look no further. This is an exceptional book on the foundation and applications of a mindfulness meditation practice.2

🌺The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz- A wonderful (and short) book on how to cultivate a life of peace and authenticity. It’s not about mindfulness specifically, but is a great tangential resource when reframing what we want for ourselves and our lives.

Guided Affirmations

When I’m needing a quick dose of inspiration and calm, one of my favorite go-tos is Deepak Chopra’s album of affirmations. I’ll usually play a track at random, and it’s a great way to recenter myself. It helps me to remember that I am abundant and live in abundance, and that I do not need to make decisions out of fear or stress.

The album is great for creating a space within myself where I can attune my ears to my intuition.

Gratitude

Gratitude isn’t exactly the same as mindfulness, but it’s incredibly important for accepting the reality of where we are today. Acceptance of ourselves allows us to have breakthrough insights on what we want to pursue.

Many folks offer recommendations for various gratitude practices. Mine is pretty simple. My phone reminds me once per day to express gratitude. I’ll say out loud whatever comes to mind—whether it’s gratitude for a yummy meal I ate, the miracles of modern technology, or a meaningful conversation with a friend.

The specifics of what we choose to be grateful for don’t matter too much. The importance lies in anchoring ourselves to the the beauty of the present moment.

Managing Our Expectations

Mindfulness, like most things, requires dedication and work. It is a freeing but difficult truth to realize the answers lie within ourselves. It means we must let go of instant gratification and commit to the winding path of self-discovery.

A mindfulness practice works over time, and it is only normal that we will ebb and flow through our practice. Some days we will find ourselves incredibly present and grounded, abundant with insight and peace. Other days our thoughts will race like a runaway train with no intention to stop.

Most of the time, mindfulness will feel rather normal and mundane. It’s a marathon not a sprint, so don’t feel discouraged if it takes time to be fruitful. Gaining clarity and confidence in our internal intuition is a life-long journey.

Stay Tuned for Part 3

Finding fulfillment starts from within. When we understand ourselves—what drives us, what excites us—we unlock the ability to work on projects that truly matter.

In the final part of this series, we’ll take our self-awareness and bring it to life. I’ll show you how to blend mindfulness with actionable strategies to brainstorm and plan your next creative project. Get ready to turn insight into action.

Until next time.

-Ari

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

The biggest red flag of this book is that Kabat-Zinn regularly quotes Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. It’s been a long time since I read Walden in college, but I remember finding it to be rather pretentious (if this is a hot take, well sorry). It’s pretty silly that Thoreau’s mom did his laundry and cooked for him during his two year solitude.