Your Fear is Boring

I remember reading the line, your fear is boring, in an Elizabeth Gilbert book entitled Big Magic. (If you haven't read it and are interested in digging into creative living, I highly recommend it.) 

It struck me pretty hard - Gilbert was talking about all of her fears and how for so long they had defined her life - and then she realized that everyone else also had the same exact fears and that her fear was probably the least interesting thing about her...but she had defined herself by that? 

I share this with my students and yet every year, the fear of sucking comes out loud and clear. 'I wrote the song, but I think it's bad....I didn't finish the song because it was bad....I couldn't start because I thought it wouldn't be any good..." For me, these have become like 'the dog ate my homework' - boring. Because you know what? We ALL have the fear that our art/work/creative output won't be any good. 

Here's the thing though.

If we let that be loud, then we often stop even trying to make things. We stop being curious. We just plain stop. 

But what if we didn't? What if we said, "I'm going to make things and I'm not going to worry about if they're bad or good? I'm just going to create." What if we change the goal line and instead of asking that we make something good, we ask if we can just make something? What might happen then? Might we discover new and exciting elements of ourselves? Might we find some joy that we thought was long gone from our childhood? Might we write or create something that we LOVE? 

Yes. 

Because that's really all artists do. They just KEEP MAKING THINGS. LOTS OF THINGS. Until they land on something they like. Until they can discern how they really feel, until they find their voice, until they have gained the skills and understanding of their work and themselves that they want to share with the world. 

Isn't that awesome? 

So, how can you step into your creativity? How can you be bold? Write a bad song...and another...and another...until you really figure out what you want to say the way you want to say it? How can you lean into the fear and move past it into new and exciting spaces? 

Dare ya!

Kat