Move, Connect, and Create to Reverse Burnout

How do fulfilled people flourish amidst inevitable challenges and change?

Given the past few years of ongoing surprising global challenges, many of us have operated in fight-or-flight reactive patterns. That reactivity takes its toll. Our adrenals fatigue. Our cognitive bandwidth for problem-solving narrows.

We might feel on the verge of burnout. We might feel that we’re “losing our mind,” a bit because we’re just not thinking the way we once did. Is there a viable way to reverse burnout incrementally without latching onto simplistic solutions?

Perhaps revamping our view of creativity could make a difference. Why creativity? The conversations I'm having with people across industries suggest that what will get us through these times will be ongoing collective creative innovation.

So, consider the most prevalent misconceptions of creativity I hear among audiences and organizations:

• Myth #1: Creativity is the province of poets, performers, and painters.
• Myth #2: Creativity is genetically based.
• Myth #3: Creativity is for right-brained people.

So what is creativity and creative intelligence? At its essence, I liken creativity to our biological impulse to make something new, useful, and beautiful. Creativity is the innate capacity to generate and act on ideas and solutions that are novel and useful.

If you’ve come up with a new, useful idea to get your 8-year-old to sleep better, you’ve tapped that creative capacity. If you’ve come up with a new, useful solution to having more uplifting meetings that foster social connection, you’ve tapped that creative capacity. If you’ve come up with a new, useful idea that eliminated a big bottleneck from a process, you’ve tapped it, too.

Our creative thinking is a whole-brained activity influenced by at least three factors beyond the brain—our physical movement and exercise, our physical surroundings, our social dynamics, and our self-regard. Acting creatively has been as fundamental to our species' thriving over the millennia as has our capacity to experience wonder. The more you act creatively, the more you up your creative capacity.

The good news is we don’t have to sink while holding the world's weight and holding out for possibility. We don’t have to fight or escape from those challenges. We can up our wonder ratio in part by making subtle, incremental changes that improve our experience at work and in life outside of work.

Experiments: Up Your Innate Creative Capacity

I offer the following evidence-based ideas not as advice but as experiments for you to test.

• Hope scroll instead of doom scroll. Doomscrolling, as I've written about elsewhere, in essence depletes your brain's curiosity neurotransmitter dopamine and amplifies anxiety. If you feel compelled to watch the news or scroll social media, scroll for signs of hope instead of doom. From towns that invent their own money–including one near where I live in New York–to embracing "community ownership" to fight deforestation, such innovations can give you hope.
• When you feel stuck or burnt out, move. Even better, move away from a device and preferably outdoors. A 2023 study published in Thinking Skills and Creativity examined the impact of physical activity on creative thinking. The researchers found that acute physical activity, such as engaging in dance for 15 minutes, significantly improved originality and cognitive flexibility—key components of divergent thinking. These findings suggest that incorporating brief, creative physical activities into one's routine can enhance the ability to generate novel and useful solutions to problems.
• Seek surprise. When you feel as if you’re shutting down or spiraling in a negative loop, try taking one surprising action. One executive client puts on a song he’d never ordinarily listen to. He learns some of the lyrics. Why? Doing so trips his default neuronal patterns. It stimulates his curiosity, so he’s getting healthy dopamine doses. And the song–MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”–just cracks him up. Again, elevated mood points.
• Foster social connection. If you’re a manager or leader, you likely know the toll of ongoing social isolation especially among remote and distributed workers. At your next meeting, open with a question that encourages personal yet expansive reflection: When was the last time something blew your mind? When did you experience wonder recently? How did that affect the way you feel about what’s possible? Sharing at this level typically boosts moods, which is a key correlate in our ability to act more creatively, together.

You're not bypassing reality by fighting or fleeing from challenges. You're expanding your experience of reality by finessing and facing challenges with a little less reactivity and a little more creativity.