Creative Bulletin n.337

Ten days ago, my girlfriend came to join me in Lisbon. I told her, “I’m really tired from work, so let’s take a few days to relax. I’m not even going to open my laptop.”

The shadow. On the third day, we got food poisoning (yes, I know, kind of ironic in Portugal 😅). Once we recovered, we rented a car and drove around the area (which is beautiful). But after a few days, we realized we were somehow even more tired than before. We genuinely started wondering how people manage to travel for weeks at a time.

Clarity. One morning, still drained from the food poisoning and all the traveling, I realized I just didn’t have any energy left for anyone. And that’s when I saw what was happening pretty clearly: I was looking for a kind of fake peace of mind. That feeling of, “Come on, let’s forget about everything for a few days and then it’ll all be fine.” But the reality is very different.

We’re going through a really difficult time, and things will only be okay if I actually take the steps to make them okay.

🌈 Creative takeaway: more consistency, less “peace of mind”

I want to say this to all creatives working on projects of their own: let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that taking a few weeks off once a year is going to fix our stress and exhaustion. It only really works when we leave without too many worries on our minds in the first place.

Instead, we need to get better at being consistent: taking an hour every day to read, go to the gym, or walk in nature. Our peace of mind comes, and will always come, from doing what we love and doing it well, not from stepping away from it ❤️

With love,
Matteo

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