Multiple Talents, Multiple Passions, Burnout

Many multitalented people feel inspired and energized to pursue multiple creative projects, often at the same time. One potential downside is physical and emotional burnout.

Jennifer Westfeldt wrote, produced and acted in “Kissing Jessica Stein” and “Ira & Abby.” For her new movie “Friends With Kids,” she not only wrote the screenplay, acted and produced (along with other people, including her long time partner, actor Jon Hamm), she also directed the “two-year, round-the-clock endeavor” as a Los Angeles Times article describes it – not an uncommonly demanding schedule for movies.

“I must have been crazy to have donned so many hats,” Westfeldt said. “It made good sense for me to direct it, since I was involved in every aspect anyway. But I’m not sure I’d ever do it again.”

Burnout

The image above comes from the post “When Life Loses Its Meaning: The Heavy Price of High Achievement” by Sherrie Bourg Carter, Psy.D. on her blog High Octane Women.

She quotes this passage from the 1980 book, “Burn-Out: The High Cost of Achievement” by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger, who was, she says, the “first person to describe the syndrome known as burnout”…

Continued: Multiple Talents, Multiple Passions, Burnout

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