“I’ve been a Creative Director for 20 years but lately something has changed. I don’t know if I’ve genuinely lost confidence or, if I’m just bored, burnt out, or ready for change?
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 a creative 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 start telling the difference.
Loss of confidence shows up as overthinking decisions you once made in a heartbeat. You hesitate, you question your relevance. In short you feel like a lesser more cautious version of your self.
Now let’s take 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 - you’re understretched. Boredom often gets mislabelled as confidence simply because your enthusiasm drops.
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. This isn’t about capability — it’s about capacity.
Or are you feeling ready for change? It tends to be the one we miss. You’re restless but not from fear or negative energy. You get a sense that the role no longer fits you. You question meaningfulness and direction.
So my question to you is….
Do you distrust your ability or the situation you are in? No preconceptions that’s not being a coach, but for the purposes of this piece, I would hazard a guess that with your level of experience it’s the politics, pace, expectations and compromises.
And that’s not confidence loss.
Bottom line is 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 — giving you a structured space to think clearly, challenge assumptions, and decide what confidence looks like for you right now, as opposed to the confidence you had at 20.
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.