“Creativity and I are the only ones who will be making any decisions along the way.”

Fear, your inner mean girl, self limiting beliefs -- whatever you want to call it, they are all an inevitable part of the creative process. On this episode we discuss signs of when fear is taking the wheel, what it may be saying, and what to do about it.

When The Inner Critic Takes Over

When thinking about the relationship between fear and creativity, Elizabeth Gilbert says it best in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear:

“Dearest Fear: Creativity and I are about to go on a road trip together. I understand you’ll be joining us, because you always do. I acknowledge that you believe you have an important job to do in my life, and that you take your job seriously. Apparently your job is to induce complete panic whenever I’m about to do anything interesting—and, may I say, you are superb at your job. So by all means, keep doing your job, if you feel you must. But I will also be doing my job on this road trip, which is to work hard and stay focused. And Creativity will be doing its job, which is to remain stimulating and inspiring. There’s plenty of room in this vehicle for all of us, so make yourself at home, but understand this: Creativity and I are the only ones who will be making any decisions along the way. I recognize and respect that you are part of this family, and so I will never exclude you from our activities, but still—your suggestions will never be followed. You’re allowed to have a seat, and you’re allowed to have a voice, but you are not allowed to have a vote. You’re not allowed to touch the road maps; you’re not allowed to suggest detours; you’re not allowed to fiddle with the temperature. Dude, you’re not even allowed to touch the radio. But above all else, my dear old familiar friend, you are absolutely forbidden to drive.”

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But, how do you know when your inner critic is taking over?

For Jackie - Reorganizing, reorganizing, and more reorganizing as a clear sign or avoiding something
For Adriana - Googling new art supplies and going down a rabbit hole rather than painting

How does the inner critic present itself? What is it saying?

For Adriana - Analysis paralysis because there are so many ideas, too many decisions to make, you have to take risks to grow, but it feels vulnerable to change.
For Jackie - Overcompensation, to make up for the feeling of not being enough, which leads to constant cycle of burn out

Now that you recognize it your inner critic, what do you do about it?

“Stop shoulding all over yourself”
- “I should be here,”, “ I should have done that”," “I should focus on X,Y,Z”… the downward spiral of our inner critic can be exhausting!
“Focus on the verb not the noun”
- Rather than focusing on “being an artist” just make art
When in doubt… Just make more art! Even when you inner critic is yelling, you need to go through the bad art to get to the good stuff. So just keep making art!

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