If you’ve been feeling like you’re clawing your way up a cement wall by your fingernails just to get through your to-do list, this conversation is for you.
I recently realized I was my own worst client.In this Creative Pep Talk, I’m sharing the three-word message I saw on the back of a truck that stopped me in my tracks—and how it helped me save my creative spark.
If you are a perfectionist struggling with burnout or the pressure to over-function, this episode is a “permission slip” to listen to what your own resistance is trying to tell you.
If you want a safe space to explore this way of being with others, the door to our next free Creativity Circle is open. (Don’t forget to confirm your subscription!) We meet again on April 25.
Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!
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Transcript: A Permission Slip for Perfectionists: Why I’m Letting Go (Overcoming Burnout)
Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. A couple of years ago, I was out on the highway and up ahead of me, there was a truck. And on the top of the truck, there were three words: Do not push. Now I have no idea what do not push means in the trucking world, but to me, those three words felt like a message. And the message was, do not push.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:38]:
Do not push anything that you’re doing in your life, because Lord knows everything in life feels like it is a push all of the time. Right? And in fact, I feel like our, our culture, our society tells us to push so hard all the time that we don’t even notice. Right? It’s like we spend so much time pushing that it becomes like the air we breathe. We don’t even notice when we’re doing it anymore. And if you think I’m about to tell you a story about this, you are correct. If you saw my last pep talk episode, you will recall that in that episode, I talked about feeling burned out and noticing that I had forgotten to play. And that I was gonna try to do something about that. And over the course of the last week or so, I have tried to address that.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:31]:
I have made more time for music. I have tried to figure out what form of play would best help me feel more like myself again. And I documented this for about seven days in daily videos on YouTube and TikTok. And then I realized that that was actually not helping. Putting myself under the microscope was causing more of the kind of stress that I was trying to undo. So stop doing that. And then I realized as I was getting this past week’s podcast episode together for a video that I felt like I was clawing my way up a cement wall by my fingernails. I just felt absolutely terrible.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:20]:
And I had been doing this since January because I’ve been trying this video experiment with the podcast. And I really love the idea of doing the podcast on video. Really, really love it. But what I hadn’t noticed, because it is so easy to push for so long that we don’t notice it, was how horrible it felt. I had noticed that I was starting to spend so many hours of my weekend on this that I was losing my weekend. But I hadn’t really paid attention to the feeling of that pushing and the feeling of clawing my way up that wall every weekend to get that episode out on video. Until I did. And as soon as I noticed it, I realized that it wasn’t so much that something was missing as that too much of something had taken over.
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:18]:
Too much pushing. And those words on the back of that truck popped back into my head. Do not push. And because this podcast is a one woman production. So whether you are watching this as a video on YouTube or listening to it on your favorite podcatcher, the woman that you are currently listening to or watching, yours truly, is the single solitary woman behind this show. That means that it all falls on me. But that also means that I’m not beholden to anyone. There is no one else telling me that I have to do this show on video but me, which means that I get to decide whether or not to keep doing it.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:04]:
And in that moment, I said, the return on all of this clawing myself up the cement wall has not been enough to be worth continuing to do this. And so you’re not going to be at all surprised to hear that I’m going to end the video podcast experiment. Now the pep talks will continue on video because they’ve always been on video, but the interviews will not. Though I may still release a short clip because that’s easy to do and that’s kind of fun. But the whole episode will not be on video. It’s just too much. It’s too much for one person. And if I’m going to tell you not to push and not to put super high pressure and expectations on yourself, it doesn’t do any good for me to do it to myself anyway.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:58]:
One of the things that I said in one of those short daily videos is that I am my own worst client. And that is true of any good coach, and that is true all the way back to when I was teaching. We always said that teachers were the worst students. And it’s true because as teachers, we knew all the tricks, and we were, you know, a highly skeptical audience. And as a coach or any other kind of mentor, it’s the same kind of thing. You already kind of know what you’re gonna hear from the coach, whether it’s somebody else or yourself. And that makes it really easy to not take it as seriously and to kind of blow it off. And that’s never more true than when you are your own client.
Nancy Norbeck [00:05:38]:
So I have to actually really, really do right by myself as my own client and as my own coach this time. And I have to listen. And I have to listen not only for those reasons, but because it was taking so much out of me that if I don’t listen, I’m going to end up hating this podcast. And that would be a tragedy because I adore this podcast. So both to set a good example and to save myself and to save my love for my podcast, that’s just how it’s going to be. But most of all, just watch out for the places where it’s super, super easy not to notice how hard you’re pushing, how high the expectations are that you’ve set for yourself. Because for me, it was really easy because I really love the idea. I still do.
Nancy Norbeck [00:06:23]:
If there becomes an easier way to do the video, I may explore the possibility again, but for right now it feels much, much better to say no. But when you’re in love with that idea, it’s much harder to see what it’s doing to you if it’s not working and to let go of it. Now in that moment, the answer was very clear. But until that moment, I didn’t want to give it up. And that’s where it becomes tricky. So take a look at where you’re hanging on to things that maybe somewhere on some level you know aren’t quite working for you. I thought it was going to get easier. It really didn’t over five episodes, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s been three months and the signs were clear.
Nancy Norbeck [00:07:07]:
So here we are. So if you’re looking for a permission slip to let your off yourself off the hook for something, this is it. And either way, we’ll be back with the interviews on audio, the pep talks will stay on video, and you know, you can always join me for a creativity circle. And I hope regardless that I’ll see you on the podcast next time on an interview or for a pep talk. And I’m glad that you’re here with me. See you then. If you’re tired of thinking about answering a creative call but never actually doing it, come join me for an hour and start feeling like yourself again. The follow your curiosity creativity circle is a safe, welcoming, and environment where we send the shoulds and inner critics off to summer camp where they’re kept busy rather than getting in our way.
Nancy Norbeck [00:07:59]:
You can find it at the link in your podcast app. See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade. If you like Follow Your Curiosity, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to tell your friends. It really helps me reach new listeners.