• By Daniel Robledo

🔥 Why Creating Content Burned Me Out (And My Plan to Fix It)

read time: 05 minutes

Welcome back to The Checkpoint, a newsletter where, every Monday, we pause, reflect, and level up our lives.

☑️ Today's Summary:

• Why I’ve been feeling demotivated about creating content (spoiler: my motivations got a little toxic).
• The science behind motivation and how it impacts long-term success in creative work.
• How I’m rebalancing my reasons for side hustling to find more purpose and joy.

🎢 The Side-Hustle Rollercoaster: When Motivation Gets Messy

Hey Reader!

I’ve been in a funk with my content creation lately, and I finally figured out why: my motivations got seriously messed up.

Looking back, I started out making silly Minecraft videos just for fun, then moved to Twitter threads to keep myself accountable and keep learning as a game developer. But somewhere along the way, my motivation got tangled up in a bunch of toxic reasons.

Here’s the hard truth: lately, the only reason I’m creating content is to build a business out it. And that’s draining the fun out of it since I'm not seeing results.

🔍 Why Motivation Matters (According to Science)

Turns out, I’m not alone in this struggle. Researchers have been studying motivation for decades, and they’ve found that the type of motivation you have can make or break your long-term success.

According to Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), motivation falls into two categories:

1. Intrinsic Motivation: Driven by internal satisfaction—like passion, curiosity, or a sense of purpose.
2. Extrinsic Motivation: Driven by external rewards—like money, status, or recognition.

🧠 Why Extrinsic Motivation Can Be Toxic

When I looked at my reasons for creating content, I realized they were mostly extrinsic. And that’s a problem. Studies show that when you’re driven by extrinsic rewards alone, you’re more likely to feel anxious, stressed, and eventually burn out (Poch & Martin, 2014).

That hit me hard. No wonder I was feeling so demotivated. I was creating content for the wrong reasons.

🎯 My Four Motivations for Creating Content:

1. 💸 Money: I want to quit the 9-to-5 grind and provide a decent lifestyle for my future family. Not looking to be rich, just want freedom from the corporate hamster wheel.
2. 🧘‍♂️ Lifestyle Freedom: I want control over my time—no more stand-up meetings at 9 a.m. because “that’s how we’ve always done it.” I crave the freedom to work on my own terms.
3. 🎨 Ikigai: This one actually feels good. My ikigai (reason for being) revolves around creating, guiding, and teaching. Content creation hits all three, which is probably why I loved it when I started.
4. 🏆 Recognition (The Toxic One): I'm not scared to admit this, but part of me craves validation. I’ve been chasing recognition, hoping people will see me as hardworking or talented. This is something I have accepted from myself and I try to canalize it toward something positive

🔄 What’s Wrong with This Mix?

Here’s where the science comes in again: Extrinsic motivations (money and recognition) are powerful but risky. They can get you started, but they won’t keep you going long-term. In fact, studies show that extrinsic rewards can actually decrease your intrinsic motivation (Poch & Martin, 2014).

And that’s exactly what was happening to me. I started out with intrinsic motivations (curiosity, creativity, and a desire to teach) but got lost chasing external rewards. I was burning out because my internal motivation had been drowned out by my craving for recognition and financial success.

🔧 Recalibrating My Motivations: The Experiment

I realized that side hustling is a long-term game. If my motivations aren’t positive, I’m just setting myself up for burnout.

So here’s my plan:

• Balance All Four Motivations. No more obsessing over money or recognition. If I keep them balanced, I’ll stay happier and more motivated (hopefully).
• Switching from Recognition to Contribution. Instead of chasing validation, I want my content to genuinely help people. I want to contribute to others’ lives, even if it’s just one person. If I'm going to be people-pleasing, I'd better make a good use of it.

🎯 The Science of Contribution and Purpose

There’s solid science behind this idea too. Research shows that people who focus on contribution and purpose experience higher levels of satisfaction, creativity, and long-term motivation (Baumeister & Vohs, 2002).

By shifting my focus from recognition to contribution, I’m not just changing my mindset—I’m setting myself up for long-term success and fulfillment.

🚀 What’s Changing:

I’m not quite sure about the details of what's going to change with my content but it would probably orbit around:

• Focusing only on YouTube. Right now, I’m burning as much energy on tweets, Instagram reels, and threads as I am on actual videos. It’s exhausting.
• Changing niche. I'm starting to realize that the personal development meets game development niche may not be very promising. So, I'll try to come up with other angles to give to my videos (if you have something in mind, don't hesitate to reply to this email 😁)

🎯 My Plan Moving Forward:

I’ve boiled it down to three options:

1. Keep creating content (but with a healthier mindset).
2. Try a different business model.
3. Stop trying to create a business.

After a lot of thinking (and some tough questions from The Road Less Stupid, a great book btw), I’ve chosen to go all-in on content creation. But I’m setting a hard deadline: late June.

📊 How I’ll Measure Success:

• Objective Metrics: Views, subscribers, and comments.
• Subjective Metrics: Do I feel motivated? Am I happy with the effort I’m putting in?

I’m excited—and scared as hell. But that's a good thing (I guess).

✍️ Week's Quote

“ To witness secrets sealed, one must endure the harshest punishment. — Pale King

❤️ Favorites Of The Week

👀 All About Crunch

I just uploaded the third video on my crunch-video series (that no one seemed to care tbh). In this last video, I try to explore how to handle the terrible situation of being the only one in your team deciding not to crunch. Learn more

Thank you for being here every week, Reader.Talk to you soon <3