Jessica
Now that I’m on the other side of my Positive Psychology final (woo-hoo!), I can reflect a bit more about my topic. I know that sounds backwards, because reflection should happen during the academic process, but I’m thinking about my topic in a different way now.
For my final, I focused on work engagement. Psychologists began identifying work engagement out of the research on burnout. They wanted to find a positive experience that was the inverse to the negative experience. They determined that engagement is a positive, work-associated mental state that includes three factors:
- vigor: the energy and mental resilience that one brings to a task
- dedication: one’s alignment with a role, organization, and/or task
- absorption: the focus and concentration that one brings to a task, similar to flow
In my final, I focused on the implications of engagement on the work environment, but I wonder about engagement’s implications for a creative practice.
As I think about it, I’ m curious about the potential for vigor in a creative practice, especially if the artist has demonstrated vigor in other areas of life. As I mentioned, the corollary to engagement is burnout. When someone has burned out, this person experiences exhaustion (the opposite spectrum to vigor), cynicism (the opposite spectrum to dedication), and becomes less effective at the work. If a person is engaged in professional work, exhibiting vigor, can this vigor translate to a regular creative practice? Or does this person use up all the vigor on the work and become exhausted in the creative practice? I guess my question is: Does vigor build on itself or do we have a finite amount to use?
Of course, it’s no surprise that I’m asking this right now. I’m at the end of a very hard week, professionally, academically and creatively, and I’m exhausted. I have exhibited very little vigor in these main areas of my life. Luckily, I’m starting a full week of vacation (right now, as a matter of fact), so I have time to replenish my energy. But as I look forward to the last push towards summer, which can be a very difficult time of year at my workplace, I’m hoping to maintain my energy, both professionally and in my creative life.
For those of you out there who work and create, do you find that your energy is “used up” in one sphere, leaving you nothing in the other? Or have you found a way to build your energy in both parts of your life? I’m curious to find if anyone has found the magic bullet for spreading their energy out equitably.
