It’s so easy for us to overlook the gifts we already have. The gifts we were born with or the skills we’ve taken the time to develop. It’s the easiest thing in the world to disregard all of our knowledge and experience and feel like imposters for trying to do the things we love. We feel like we don’t know enough yet or there are already a thousand people already doing that thing, so why bother trying. Just know that there are people less qualified than you doing the things you want to do simply because they’ve chosen to believe in themselves.
It’s so important to just get on the road. Create that workshop, finish that song, write that blog post and then step back from it and celebrate the fact that the critical perfectionist lost. Not only did you get started, but you finished something.
Seeing what you’ll do better next time or what thing resonates for you or what gets a response from your audience are all important. But how about celebrating the fact that you’ve allowed yourself to finish something? What if we vow to make that little celebration a part of the process? As I say this to you, I say it to myself.
One thing I’ve found with my conversations with all of these successful creatives is that we pick up things along the way that can fuel our creative life. Whether it’s Tashara Forrest, whose early job skills as both a counselor and HR manager now inform running her entertainment agency or Catharine Wood, who eventually found that studying design was helpful when planning her recording studio years later - it’s so important to note that no experience is ever truly wasted. The experiences, skills and knowledge that we pick up along the way can have a useful place in our creative careers if we let them.
