Fear, Failure And The Mystery of The Creative Life

Those exceptionally wonderful words of wisdom come from Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly, a book in which I hold to extremely high praises.

Human happiness is a perplexing topic to delve into. It would seem obvious, but it’s not at all. And that’s why today’s special “untangling” blog post (based on an older Digital Glue Podcast episode — 2022) is an important on as we’re going to deconstruct fear, failure, and the mystery of the creative life. Then we’re going to put our digital glue selves on hold for the winter months so we can gear up some new “untangling” goodies for you for the first quarter of the new year – YAY to 2025! So, let’s not waste anymore precious time and dive right on in …

Deconstructing FEAR.

You can’t control your racing mind. And the more you focus on your fear emotions, the more powerful it becomes. It sometimes even consumes your entire being. This painstaking fear you’re feeling is like quicksand. The more you struggle and think about how afraid you are, the further you sink into it. We all get things wrong sometimes and we just need to accept that. It’s a part of the roller coaster in which we call this crazy lifestyle. That’s how we learn and grow … from making mistakes. They are nothing to be feared … trust me!

Being stuck due to your fears will only pull you down further and keep you feeling stuck longer. Instead of thinking “That will never work” or “I’m not smart enough to figure this out” or “They will never buy my offerings” …

Have you ever thought of the flipside?

Have you actually really tried? Or are you just too afraid?

Well, it’s time to be aware of your fears and conquer them. You must stop being afraid of failure, of taking risks, of being or feeling mediocre, of acceptance from your peers or followers, or maybe even your level of creativity. These are all valid fears and ones we all experience — entrepreneur or not — but the journey to excellence and success is marked by your ability to always be striving forward — towards growth.

So, try to think of things as “how can I (or my business) be the very best I (it) can be?” instead of losing yourself in the swarm of buzzing noise.

Simple. Short. Sweet.

You DO NOT need permission to be an entrepreneur. We are not born with fear, but we are, however, taught to be embarrassed of it. But that doesn’t have to be you … Be passionate about your business and don’t limit yourself. And just plainly stop asking for permission.

Don’t let “rules” define your success.

Just do what you do best and let the ways of the world take care of the rest. After all, you’re more likely to succeed if you’ve tripped and fallen a few times rather than if you’ve never tried!

As an entrepreneur it is up to YOU to decide what rules to make for your business. But even more importantly, which ones you feel comfortable breaking. You are the product of your own success. After all there’s a reason you decided to break free from your crappy 9 to 5 and become your own boss!

Resilience is the virtue that enables us to move through hardship and become better.

Oh, and if you want a quick refresher with some solid #Hacks, double back to a few episodes ago where we talked about just this … How to become a fear fighting troublemaker. I promise, it won’t disappoint.

Now let’s move on to something that goes hand in hand with fear by …

Deconstructing FAILURE.

I truly believe that everyone is born equipped to bless others with a gift only they have. Even though many people do what they do in the marketplace, only they can do it in such a way that can’t be duplicated. And by that, I mean YOU! We are all special unique snowflakes who are going to change the world. That’s why we land ourselves in the world of entrepreneurship in the first place. However, comparison strikes again …

We have social platforms constantly telling us how amazing everyone else’s businesses and lives are, but not our own, so we feel like utter crap and wonder where it all went wrong. How we failed not only ourselves, but the world.

The failure to meet our own expectations is not contrary to our happiness, argumentatively, that our ability to fail and still appreciate the experience that’s right in front of us, is actually a fundamental building block for happiness.

Plain and simple folks … shit happens!

Things go wrong. People frustrate us beyond belief. Mistakes are made and negative emotions arise. And that’s all fine and dandy. But this notion that we’re built to fail and not recover from it is something that’s a work in progress for many. So, the best thing we can do for ourselves in this straining moment is to LET GO of the imagined result; it’s not necessary. The fantasy and the dream are merely tools to shove you in the right direction. Failure is going to happen, but these are mere moments of learning and growing. They’re inevitable and you can’t stop them. So, don’t let them. Learn, adapt, pivot, and keep going.

So, I say to you … Raise your expectations. Don’t limit yourself to small, portioned goals. Create ridiculous standards for yourself, and then savour the inevitable failure … let the virtual ground crack and rocks crumble around you, because that’s how something truly amazing grows, through the cracks.

Procrastination, fear (in all its forms) and negative self-talk are not welcome at this table any longer!

Deconstructing the mystery of the CREATIVE LIFE.

As all of us creative humans already know, inspiration doesn’t always come easy every single day. Every creative individual I know — whether writer, design, or content creator — at one point or another gets what we like to call a “creative block”. It’s a sticky situation especially when you’re working at some hard deadlines and the creativity just isn’t flowing as you want or need it to. You are already creative, but now you must accept the challenges and keep yourself from paralysis when tested.

And Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic, puts it … “The real reason we don’t move creatively ahead is always and only fear.”

I honestly do not know one creative person who isn’t doing multiple things or aspiring to do yet another. This is the true path to being a creative individual. Our minds never stop, even when we’re sleeping (or trying to fall asleep).

Have you heard the expression, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else”? Well, it’s a book title, and I have also seen these words attributed to people other than the author of that book. The point is … what a true statement! It is all about setting goals, planning how to accomplish them, and staying focused. Which I know tends to sometimes go against the grain of living a creative lifestyle, but in order to get stuff done and reach certain milestones you must have strong and meaningful, yet realistic goals to provide yourself with enough motivation to get through #AllTheThings.

Without creativity and imagination, we embark on an extremely dangerous course of stagnation in this world because knowledge in isolation only reproduces past results. 

Repetition is certainly useful, but only to a certain degree. And action without innovation will eventually make our world highly unfulfilling and frivolous.

Great ideas do not arise from a chambered effort to expel our creative intelligence, but rather a highly extensive process of expressing our thoughts and energy without self-scrutiny. Which brings me to the mystery of it all …

We nerdy right-brain folk, tend to explore and reveal humanity despite that strong internal pull that demands perfection — and those ever-present thoughts and feelings that the rest of the world does too. Risk taking is imperative to the creative process because it pushes the boundaries and expands self-imposed limitations in exchange for a level anyone has yet to imagine.

Imagination is not only the unique human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. It is conceivably the most transformative and revelatory capacity; it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

So, here’s my personal list of tried n’ true tips n’ tricks for surviving those not-so-glamorous days in creative entrepreneur-land …

1. Daydreaming is essential.
2. Doing nothing just makes things worse.
3. When something’s not working, re-think it.
4. Stop normalizing your knowledge. You are, however, a creative expert for good reason. Own it!
5. Give yourself permission to experience new avenues.
6. Don’t create limitations, stay mindful, inspired, and informed — always.
7. Create time blocks for some creativity — on the daily.
8. Stop letting “SOS” (aka. shiny object syndrome) be the thief of your creativity — and joy of creating.
9. Break stereotypes by embracing people in the real world (aka. diversity).
10. Build accessible experiences and speak your mind against discrimination.
11. Redefine genders and race, and “normalcy”.
12. Welcome ideas that are different than your own.
13. Be self-accepting and use all your senses for creative work.

And last but certainly not least, which is also the golden key to living your most creative life, especially when faced with resistance …

14. Strive to be fearless (as mentioned earlier) and overcome perfectionism.

So, if you take away anything from this “deconstruction” of the creative life, please remember, imagination is the new currency. It is only with creativity and imagination that one can remove the limits of conventional thought. And that is why designers, programmers, artists, and creative business owners will eventually rule the world.