burnout

[grumpygrady]

i found this over at Scalemotorcars and thought i would post it here
it was written by a gentleman called Hot Rod Coupe or jeff lol

I thought I would put this into the General Discussion forum rather than the tutorial section since it doesn’t directly relate specifically to model cars. I hope I don’t come off as a know-it-all for this kind of info, but it definitely helped me out. I just hope it can do the same for someone else who may be experiencing burn out and suffering unnecessarily in silence. It almost destroyed the hobby for me and I’d hate to see it do the same to a fellow modeler. It’ll be a long read but I hope in the long run, it will be worth it to someone.

The subject of burnout or Advanced Modelers’ Syndrome as I like to call it is very near and dear to my heart. Why? It’s because I suffer from said condition and it definitely wasn’t a minor case. I’ll share a few personal facts about myself here. I was fortunate enough to be able to get some therapy and it helped me a great deal. In fact, it helped me enough that I now look forward to going into the workshop and building. At one point, I didn’t set foot into the workshop for a full 6 months.

I literally stopped everything including the tutorials. When I did build, I couldn’t work for more than 2 hours at a time. I tried building different types of models, i.e. aircraft, Jeeps, figures, even a submarine. Nothing was helping until I spoke to my therapist about what I was feeling. Here’s what I had to do to be able to beat the dreaded beast of a syndrome.
The first thing I had to do was to figure out why building raised such high anxiety.

To make a long story short, I was actually sabotaging myself by constantly raising the bar and never being 100% satisfied with anything I did. That was o.k. for dentistry because the stakes were so dang high. (BTW, it’s burnout that usually leads a large number of dentists to quit, go onto other careers, or retire.) Once I got to a certain level of skill, I felt it was unacceptable to give anything less no matter how much anxiety it raised. I found I wasn’t building for myself but for others constantly looking for their approval and thinking I wasn’t getting it. Even when there were sincere compliments, I just thought folks out there were doing it to be nice and that’s typical of the burnout victim.

The second thing I had to do was to write down a number of rules for myself and highlight the important points that I had to follow to the letter if I were to succeed. Here they are.

When you feel stressed when building remember:
1. Build for yourself and only yourself, not for anyone else no matter who they are. --- The only exceptions to this rule are if you’re making someone a gift or you’re getting a hefty sum of money for your efforts.

2. Build what you and only you want.

3. Put into a model what you and only you want. If it stresses you out, leave it out. --- In other words, don’t add something to a model like removable wheels, removable spark plugs, or interior upholstery. Also, you’re not required to scratchbuild something if you don’t want to.

4. Build when you and only you want. Don’t push. There is never a deadline.
5. There are no set requirements. You and only you set them.

6. Any standards of building are set by you and only you. Never any other builder.
7. When a building session stops being fun, STOP. Always keep it fun.

8. When it comes to any type of contest, it is your and only your decision to enter. Look at it as simply a great place to meet other modelers and learn a few things and not a stress producer.

9. Never, ever allow yourself to be intimidated by what another builder can do. You have to realize that it took them years and a lot of hard work to get to the level they’re at. Some builders pick things up faster than others but if you give a technique the time it needs, you’ll succeed. No one is born with the touch. Trust me, I learned this first hand. No one says you have to duplicate what they do. Don’t forget, the best builders here are extremely generous with their knowledge and have no problem sharing said knowledge. You and only you make the decision to take advantage of that knowledge and add or leave out anything on your models.

10. Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do it. An example of this is what I did last night. In order to correctly upholster my deuce doors, I had to modify the hinge positions if I wanted to make opening doors. I thought I would make the hinge halves out of brass. One piece took me 3 hours’ worth of work and there are a total of 8 pieces. They’ll be exactly the same size as the plastic ones, open like the plastic ones, be as strong as the plastic ones since I won’t be playing with the doors and they’ll be covered with paint like the plastic ones. That would be 24 hours of work just to say I did it. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I could understand making them if I had scratchbuilt the body and door but it just didn’t seem worth the effort. I gave myself permission not to remake them and it doesn’t bother me at all.

Here at SMC, the emphasis is not just to have experts and “gurus” show off their stuff. It’s for everyone to show and strut their stuff no matter what skill level you are. It’s to see new things, meet interesting people, see some great stuff (like that hundred year old Model T kiddie car,) make friends and possibly learn some new things if you and only you choose to.
Follow these rules and you should be on your way to a more enjoyable hobby. I truly hope this helps someone and keeps them from quitting what we’ve all found to be a great and satisfying hobby. Thanks for listening.
i do believe that there is a few on here that are or are getting close to this ,as i was /am