staying inspired when you're shadowbanned

I often find myself talking about creative slumps and burnouts, when we find ourselves less inspired to create, but what happens when our creativity isn’t the problem? What if it’s platforms changing their algorithms or audiences moving to new platforms, or reasons we don’t even know—but we can see the results: our work isn’t getting a response. This could be on social media when you’re getting less views and engagement or in a shop when you’ve been selling steadily and suddenly everything dries up. How do we stay positive and continue to create when it feels like we’re throwing our best work into the void?

Start by focusing on what you can control: your creative work. We don’t get to choose whether 50 people see our work or 5,000. We can’t change or control that, so instead of focusing on everything going wrong, the best place to put our energy is into things we can control. This isn’t the time to let your quality slip or to stop creating unless you need a rest. If you still have creative energy and ideas, go for those with gusto. Focus on the work itself instead of the reach it might receive. Try to hone your craft or improve the quality, or focus on the satisfaction of a finished project that is well done. Go back to what inspired you to be a creator in the beginning—the joy of creativity..

Use this time to experiment or work on passion projects. Often when your work is getting fairly steady views or sales, you tend to fall into a rhythm of creating what is working. Everyone likes flowers, so you’re posting/making flowers. You could be tired of flowers, but you stick to flowers because “flowers” are working. When they stop working this is the time to try all those other ideas you pushed to the back burner because you weren’t sure they would get a good response. It’s an opportunity to find a new passion. What makes you excited? What’s something you’ve been meaning to try or capture? Now is the time to do it because you don’t really have anything to lose.

And in the end, this is just a season. Don’t let a few bad weeks or even months define your whole year. We don’t get to choose our challenges in life, we only get to choose how we respond to them.

All the best,

Rebecca