Creativity And The Artist-overcoming The Biggest Fear Of All
“What’s stopping you?”
That’s one of the most powerful questions we can ask someone when they say they really want to do something in their lives but just can’t quite commit to taking the action.
The answer is often surprisingly clear and simple. Sometimes the person will say “Er, well, nothing!” and just that moment of clarity and realisation will set something off inside them and spur them into the action they’ve been putting off for so long.
When this happens, it’s fantastic to see that “light bulb moment” and the following beaming smile and flurry of action.
Most of the time though, the answer’s more than “nothing”. And it nearly always involves some fear or set of related fears.
Here are some examples you may relate to having experienced in your creative life:
1. I want to: write a novel about my experiences growing up in a small town.
What’s stopping you? I don’t know if I’ll have enough interesting material, or be able to recreate the characters I knew well enough.
2. I want to: experiment in composing electronic music.
What’s stopping you? I’ve only ever written songs on a guitar before. I wouldn’t know where to start, or how it would turn out.
3. I want to: start photographing in black and white rather than colour.
What’s stopping you? I don’t know much about black and white photography. You have to know about all sorts of elements I don’t know much about.
In each of these examples, and a thousand other scenarios we could highlight, the one thing stopping you from taking the next step of action is in fact exactly the same.
More than that, it’s probably the single biggest fear and reason why people don’t create more.
So what is this fear?
I might not be any good at it.
As simple as that.
Once we realise this, that most of the time we don’t have a whole series of complicated and intertwined fears and doubts, that they can all be summed up as “I might not be any good at it”, we can start to deal with it and overcome it far more effectively.
Just imagine for a moment that you had experienced all three of the above examples. At the same time. (Quite the Renaissance Artist aren’t you..?)
Instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the doubts and concerns detailed in the examples, just say:
“I’m scared I might not be any good at it. But I’m going to do it anyway and give it the best shot I can.”
If you say this each time, then quickly take action towards giving that best shot, then you become simply unstoppable. Nothing can stand in your way.
Try this technique each time you feel a fear about creating. Remember, the more you do it, and the more you realise how often it returns to the same fear, the easier it will become for you to carry on and create anyway.
Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a FREE twice monthly ezine for people who want simple and powerful articles, tips and exercises to help them unleash their creative talents. Sign up right now and get your FREE “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook, at www.CoachCreative.com
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