Burning Out As An AFOL...

I have been a Lego Star Wars fan since day one. As in 1999. I have seen a lot of personalities and talented people come and go. Hopefully I can provide some advice, so that you never have to face this grisly fate...

Mace Windu Re-takes Ryloth...

The Issues...

So as I said I have seen talented people come and go, photographers and artists like myself, MOC builders and of course sellers/manufactures. Of course I can't speak much to the manufacturing side of the fandom, so I will stick with what I know, the creator side of things. One of the main issues I see in the Lego space is limitations, creators often limit themselves in various ways. I think a list of 'don't do's' is probably the best way to illustrate this...

• Have a posting schedule, don't create or stick to a posting schedule. This is a slippery slope towards making this hobby feel like work. I only get into photographing minifigures and creating Youtube shorts when I want to. I recommend this approach, it's supposed to be fun, best to keep it that way.

  
  

• Thinking too much about the money, obviously the Lego hobby can get pricy fast, but there is a budget for everyone with Lego. In my early days, I would focus my attention on one work at a time, this can be a good strategy and will help to grow your collection over time. It also won't be too regrettable if it turns out that the hobby isn't for you.

  
  

• Chasing views and numbers. This is often always detrimental to the hobby, it leads you down the road of doing things you aren't passionate about, in order to draw a larger audience. An example for me would be Instagram Reels, I hate making Reels, I do simple ones now and then as experiments and sometimes to promote the store. But I don't waste a lot of time on them because I don't find them fun. Regardless of what they supposedly do for reach.

Lego Diorama Set, "Do or do not, there is no try."

The one thing that all of these points have in common is try to keep the Lego hobby enjoyable. It is all supposed to be fun, if you find yourself not enjoying the hobby it is time to ask yourself 'why'. You will probably find yourself realising you have limited yourself in some way, it has happened to me in the past and that's when it's time to take a step back, and try to introduce the fun element again. Hopefully this helps, may the force be with you...