There's a special kind of burnout that comes from spending eight hours a day hunched over a soldering bench, squinting at tiny components while your back slowly transforms into a question mark. I know this burnout intimately. We're old friends.
So when I finally decided to sign up for Rover and landed my first dog-walking gig - I thought it would just be a fun way to make a few extra bucks. What I didn't expect was hose daily walks would become the creative reset button I desperately needed.
Here's the thing about taking a break from the bench: it sounds counterintuitive when you're trying to build a business. Shouldn't I be more focused, not less? Shouldn't every hour be monetized and optimized? But somewhere between neighborhood walks and the salt air hitting my face, I realized something crucial. My best ideas don't come while I'm forcing myself to work. They come when I'm not working.
The pressure to turn every creative impulse into a paycheck is suffocating. When your creative work is your only income stream, every project becomes weighted with financial anxiety. Will this sell? Is this good enough? Am I fast enough? That voice never shuts up. But walking a dachshund for twenty bucks? There's no performance anxiety there. There's just me, the pooch, and the Pacific breeze.
Plus, there's something grounding about having a completely different routine. A schedule that gets me out of my studio, into the sunshine, breathing actual fresh air instead of flux fumes. My mood has improved. I'm sleeping better. And I'm more excited about my actual creative work because it doesn't feel like the only thing keeping me afloat.
So here's my unsolicited advice: if you're burning out on your creative work, find something completely different to do. Something low-stakes. Something that gets you moving and breathing and away from your workspace. It doesn't have to be dog walking—it could be anything. But give yourself permission to step away from the bench. Your creativity will thank you. And who knows? You might end up with a cute dachshund friend in the bargain.
Browse my Postcard and Photography Archive to see more snippets of coastal life.