It can be hard to put ourselves out there.
If you create art,
It can be difficult to put your art out into the world.
Our ego can pipe up,
Our inner critic can surface,
Trying to protect us.
Thoughts might include some of the old favorites.
What will people think?
Or what if they hate it?
Or what if it's terrible?
There are many ways to question these thoughts.
But first,
I want you to imagine something you love.
Something that started as an idea,
Which could be pretty much anything.
It could be a song,
A movie,
A painting,
A favorite outfit,
A car,
An amazing recipe,
A beautiful piece of furniture,
Anything.
Now imagine for a moment that the creator of that thing let their inner critic talk them into not sharing that thing with the world.
Meaning you never got to enjoy it.
How unfortunate that would be.
We all have an inner critic.
Often it wants to keep us safe,
But usually that means it's keeping us small.
Because it wants to protect us from some possible harm.
We can name our inner critic something funny.
Maybe Scaredy Cat Sarah,
For example.
I can say,
Scaredy Cat Sarah,
I appreciate your concern,
But I'm going to move forward with this venture.
I appreciate you looking out for me.
Be compassionate with your inner critic.
You can think of this inner critic as an actual person.
Picture them as your identical twin,
Sitting on your couch,
And they're telling you not to do something or maybe you shouldn't.
You can say,
Thanks for coming,
I really appreciate your support,
But I think it's time for you to head home.
Imagine that they're at your birthday party and you're just kindly asking them to leave.
If you're having those negative thoughts,
Like what if this is terrible or what if people don't like it,
That kind of thing.
You can think of three possible situations.
The best case scenario,
The worst case scenario,
And the most likely scenario.
Most of the things that we worry about never happen.
The best case scenario is everybody loves it.
The worst case scenario,
Everybody hates it.
The most likely scenario,
Some people might like it,
Most people probably won't see it,
Etc.
For any creative aspect,
It's subjective,
Right?
I might like a movie,
You might not like it.
Same things for books,
For art,
For music.
It's all relative.
Some people like different things,
And that's okay.
But just keep in mind,
It all adds to the value.
It's all going to be liked by someone.
So please,
If you're making something,
If you're creating something,
Please share it with the world.
