Sustain

Definition

Preserving your energy, your attention and your balance in an environment designed to capture and scatter them; establishing a sustainable relationship to creation, to metrics and to public exposure. The creators' graveyard is full of talent: this thread carries the competency nobody teaches, and which explains most abandonments.

Components

• Attentional self-knowledge: spotting your triggers for distraction and your conditions for focus
• Protective rituals: solicitation-free stretches, chosen disconnection, protected creative time
• Relationship to metrics: measuring yourself without judging yourself, refusing the tyranny of the daily number
• Exposure: absorbing public criticism, separating the person from the work
• Sustainable rhythms: a pace that can be held over time, owned pauses, creative seasons
• Warning signs: recognising the markers of burnout, in yourself and in others

The four levels

1. N1 Discovery Lower secondary · complete beginner

   Is able to identify what captures and scatters their attention, and to trial a personal rule of digital hygiene.

   Evidence of assessment

   Carry out a week of self-observation and test a chosen rule, with a review.

2. N2 Application Upper secondary · advanced beginner

   Is able to put in place lasting rituals protecting their attention and their energy.

   Evidence of assessment

   Present rituals in place for at least a month and the effects observed.

3. N3 Adaptation Tertiary · junior professional

   Is able to regulate their relationship to metrics and to exposure, and to hold a sustainable pace of creation.

   Evidence of assessment

   Keep a creative-energy diary over thirty days and identify their drivers and their energy leaks.

4. N4 Orchestration Experienced professional

   Is able to last without burning out over the long term, and to look after the creative health of a collective.

   Evidence of assessment

   Document their sustainability practices over twelve months and a prevention scheme put in place for a team.