You can’t bear the thought of getting on another bus, plane or train. You couldn’t care less about your website or what’s happening on social media. You don’t want to take in new sights and learn anything new about the world. You just want to sit there. Why won’t everyone just leave you alone for a while, so you can get your head straight? Back off, world. Why is all this such a struggle? What the hell are you doing with your life?
The more demanding the activity, the uglier the burnout feels – and with travel burnout it can manifest in all sorts of way, from obsessive over-planning and an inability to let the small things go, right up to the biggie – ‘I just can’t do this anymore’. Heaven has become hell, and you’re trapped in the middle of it.
Since blogging usually involves a certain amount of healthy introspection, many travel bloggers aren’t shy about sharing when they hit the wall. Yesterday Jason Castellani, of the popular blog 2Backpackers, joined them. In a post entitled “Why I might stop travel blogging” he candidly expressed his disillusionment with a lifestyle that was proving too tough, before saying that while he believed it was possible to make a career as a professional travel blogger, he wasn’t sure if it was worth it on a personal level. (For a sense of how supportive the online travel blogging community can be, it’s well worth reading the comments – and his post also sparked offers of sympathy and advice on a thread on the Facebook group set up for travel bloggers by Gary Arndt).
Burnout is an ugly thing to endure. But what about to read?
As travel bloggers usually pride themselves on their subjectivity, taking advantage of the self-publishing freedom to express a personal opinion, doesn’t this freedom to be subjective apply when they write about burnout? Where is the line between an honest portrayal of how someone is feeling on a particular day and a post that looks like it’s presenting a negatively judgemental viewpoint? The latter charge was flung at Nomadic Matt by his detractors when he published a post under the name “The World Is Boring”, seemingly born of travel burnout.
In Christine “Almost Fearless” Gilbert’s case, she and her husband both burned out together. They’ve now chosen to base themselves in Chiang Mai, Thailand while they get their stamina back. (Further thoughts on this topic from Christine here).
…I was getting tired too. I’m not some long suffering wife who is taking one for the team. Twelve countries and 30+ cities in a year is a lot of travel. With a baby. While working. And filming a documentary. And while my first instinct is to push through — that doesn’t make it the right one — there is actually no cure for travel burnout. You have to chill out for a bit. That’s it. Everyone gets burned out eventually, it’s just a fact of life — travel is demanding physically and emotionally. You just need a little time to decompress.
One of our contributors, Diana Edelman, has also suffered burnout, or as she calls it “travel fatigue”. She managed not only to turn it around, but also to put the experience to good use by writing some tips on how to recognise the symptoms and recover.
If writing about travel burnout – and being honest about how it colours everything inside your head – is a side of a travel blogger’s subjective model of writing about the emotional experience of travel, is it to be encouraged more? Is it just another part of being brave enough to let your readers in? And by not acknowledging it when it happens, would travel bloggers be withholding an important part of the reality of travel from their readers?
Anyone who undertakes a demanding job suffers from burnout in some form. It’s a sign that something is out of balance, but it’s rarely a sign of failure. Highly successful people learn to work to the limit of their abilities and energy, skirting the edge of burnout as they go. One emergency, one unusually long string of late nights, and they’re over-extended, fried and need to recuperate. As Christine says above, it’s just a fact of life – more than that, it’s a fact of business.
So why not be honest with your readers (and yourself) when it happens?
Post Revisions:
- 20 December, 2011 @ 5:42 [Current Revision] by Mike Sowden
- 13 December, 2011 @ 8:08 by John O'Nolan
- 13 December, 2011 @ 8:08 by John O'Nolan
- 27 October, 2011 @ 11:29 by John O'Nolan
- 27 October, 2011 @ 11:29 by Alastair McKenzie
I think it IS a topic worth writing about. I mean, if you’re a serious travel blogger, your goal is to get potential travelers to turn to you for advice and expertise. As stated, travel burnout is real and DOES happen. So why not present it as a possibility to potential travelers? They certainly have a right to know about the good as well as the challenging parts of travel, right?
I think there’s a right way to approach the topic, though. Diana’s post on recognizing the “signs” and recovering is a good example. Travel burnout IS real, but it doesn’t have to ruin traveling.
I think there are two issues here: travel burnout and blogging burnout. The two may overlap, but they aren’t one and the same.
Also, there are different types of “blogging burnout”: In some cases, it might be the equivalent of writer’s block (“I’ve run out of things to say” or “I’d rather go surfing”), while in others it might be a pragmatic response to traffic or revenue (“Why should I work so hard when only 500 people a month are reading my blog?” or “My travel-blogging income is less than my travel-blogging expenses, so maybe it’s time to find a more lucrative outlet for my writing or photography.”)
Yup, I reached travel blogger burnout. It was because I missed my goals I set out for, it was because my traffic numbers weren’t growing, it was because I was working more than I ever have, it was because I started more blogs to make up for a lack of income, it was because I wasn’t becoming creative enough to make a change early enough, it was because I saw others excelling with brilliant ideas and I didn’t feel qualified enough and lastly it was because my family needs more from me. I guess when it all seems to hit at the same time, it’s sometimes to much to handle for us.
I couldn’t agree with you more Mike concerning the outpouring of advice and mutual feelings by fellow travel bloggers. Often we write for the non-travel blogger, but my article was written for the travel blogger and man did they respond.
If you haven’t reached this point yet, it’s for one of these two reasons 1) you haven’t traveled enough 2) you haven’t blogged enough. Every traveler who has done both for many months on end reaches this. Is it an appropriate emotion/feeling to have? Absolutely!!! Is it something to blog about? That’s really questionable.
I think the most important thing to remember, no matter your topic, is to ask “who is my audience?” As Jason has pointed out, many travel bloggers end up writing for and commenting on other travel bloggers. However, those who travel with us and those who don’t lead a life of full time or long term travel may not care that we burn out. Is it something that is real? Absolutely! Is it something readers care about? That’s something each blogger has to answer for themselves based on their audience.
Many people will appreciate the honesty and vulnerability that travel bloggers share in their writings. For me, it’s one of the essential things I try and communicate – especially when it comes to weaknesses and imperfections. There is a way to do this delicately to share your struggles without alienating those who read, follow our adventures, and don’t fully understand (or may not even care).
Dealing with travel blogging burnout is normal. Handling it on a blog should be done with honesty, transparency, and careful consideration for the readers who travel with us.
I have to say, when I was in the middle of my burnout, I definitely wrote about it. I didn’t do it a lot, but I touched on it when it was fitting. My audience is a mix of bloggers and travelers, and I think the travel burnout is something very real. By NOT writing about it, I think I do a disservice to my readers. They read my blog to learn more about long-term traveling, and ignoring the fact that burnout happens can hurt them. I know when I was going through it, I didn’t even know it was such a thing. But, the support I received from others, both travelers and non, really helped me get through it.
I agree with Durant, that there is a difference between travel burnout and blog burn out. BOTH are preventable IMHO. I wrote how we prevent both ( despite traveling as a family non-stop now while blogging for going on 6 years).
http://www.soultravelers3.com/2011/08/how-to-prevent-travel-burnout.html
We’re not dependent on our blog for income at all, so that certainly helps since so few make much money from travel blogs. That allows me to take long gaps without posting, write short posts, blogging ahead for months sometimes – giving more freedom. Fast travel, daily blogging, heavy social media etc would wear any one out soon…even more so as a family. Long term blogging while constantly traveling is not as easy as some think.
I think this is a great topic to talk about for travelers as well as bloggers. Why not, indeed?