I’ve been a Creative Director for 20 years but something has changed. Bored, burnt out, or is it confidence?
Part of THE DEEP STUFF — questions senior creatives ask when confidence, direction, or relevance start to shift.
I write these pieces as a coach and a former creative director. I work with experienced creative leaders who are navigating confidence loss, change, and the pressure to stay relevant. No platitudes. No fridge magnet philosophy. Just saying what I hear.
This is one of the most common questions I hear from senior creatives and one of the most misunderstood. Loss of confidence is often assumed to be the problem, but at this stage of your career, it’s rarely the root cause.
What you’re most likely to be experiencing is friction between who you’ve become and the role, environment, or expectations you’re operating within.
Here’s how to tell the difference.
Loss of confidence shows up as overthinking decisions you once made in a heartbeat. You hesitate, you question your relevance. You feel like a lesser more cautious version of your self.
Boredom. This shows up as low energy (not to be confused with anxiety). You feel like you are going through the motions, things feel predictable, safe. Boredom often gets mislabelled as confidence simply because both share a drop in enthusiasm.
And then there’s burnout . You feel emotionally exhausted, intolerant, detached from the work you once cared about. Burnout erodes confidence indirectly. When you’re depleted, your thinking narrows and self-doubt creeps in.
Or could it be you are simply ready for change? This tends to be the signal we miss. You’re restless, but not from fear or negative energy. This feeling comes from a sense that the role no longer fits you. You question meaningfulness and direction.
Here’s a question…
Do you distrust your ability or the situation you are in? It’s not a coach’s place to presume, but for the purposes of this piece, I’m going to hazard a guess that with your level of experience, it’s the politics, pace, expectations and compromises, rather than your ability.
That’s not confidence loss.
If you mislabel boredom, burnout, or transition as “lack of confidence”, you risk fixing the wrong thing: you push harder when you need space, force motivation when you need clarity. You stay stuck when you need to re-orientate.
This is where coaching can be powerful. It gives you a structured space to think clearly and challenge assumptions. A space to make some decisions, based on what is right for you now, not the person you were 20 years ago.
If you like this mini series and have a question you don’t mind being answered publicly (no names obvs) get in touch by email jude@theshapeshifter.co.uk
Discover more thinking from THE DEEP STUFF — the real questions senior creatives ask.