Creativity is soul work, but what if your soul gets crushed? You absolutely love to take pictures, to paint, to sing, to play music and at some point someone tells you that you are no good at it. It happens to many of us, it happens a lot and it crushes so many creatives' spirits. It could have happened 20 years ago or it could have happened more recently, but somehow, someway this message became internalised. Even if you thought at the time that this person was wrong, a little voice inside your head keeps coming back asking you: "What if he or she was right and I am no good at this at all?"
I know from experience that starting to believe this little voice can have a huge effect on your life. You start playing small, you might stop sharing your work, you shy away from talking about it, you can't feel proud of your work anymore and you get scared of moving outside your comfort zone.
One person's opinion became your inner critic and an opinion that was given in a few seconds, becomes the message you send to yourself for what can last a lifetime. You start to feel that perhaps you should just give up, you'll never be good enough. The thing that gave you such joy has become a source of frustration.
The point is however that you need to become very deliberate in choosing whose opinion will count. You can't let one person's opinion of you become the reason why you don't feel happy creating anymore. You can't have your confidence depend on someone else's opinion. Decide whose opinion counts and whose does not. I trust very few people with an opinion about my work, because I need to be sure that they have a similar view on the world as I, before I can consider listening to what they have to say about my creations. You see, if they see the world in an entirely different way, they won't want to create like I do and of course they won't like what I do or they won't understand. We all have our own way of looking at this world. Be sure you don't mistake people who have the same view on the world with people who create in the same niche. People from your "tribe" as I call it, are people who have the same kind of outlook on life, a similar (yet always unique) story to tell, they respect the way you see the world, they understand. People who are in the same niche could well be in this niche for entirely different reasons than you and to be honest....there will always be quite a few who feel threatened and then start to put you down.
Don't give away your confidence and your power to the opinions of those who don't have your best interest at heart. Don't even make the opinions of loved ones or dear friends so important that they can make you decide to give up the thing you love to do. The thing is that no one has the right to make you feel bad about where you are on your creative path and you are the only one who can deny them that right, because you are the one who can decide to simply not care about the opinions of those who don't have your best interest at heart.
Be mindful that some people will claim to have your best interest at heart and they might even believe that they do, but they might still be crushing your dreams. They had their own experiences, their own personal history and their way of looking at life, but they....are....not....you
Be aware that this voice in your head saying that perhaps this person was right and you should not keep doing what you love to do, is just a way of your mind to protect you from getting hurt. It has somehow connected creativity with getting hurt and this is what makes you loose your joy in creating. There is really nothing to protect you from. It is just your ego that might sometimes get bruised, but nothing essential can ever be hurt by the opinion of someone else. Your soul feels crushed, but it is actually not...It is just that how someone sees you, has become the way you see yourself. It nothing but a repeating thought pattern and thoughts are just that....thoughts. You can believe them or not. The moment you stop believing the voice that keeps repeating a hurtful comment from someone else, is the moment you become free to enjoy creating again.
In my class Your Vision, Your Story I will challenge you to find out what your vision is and give you the tools to translate it into images that convey your unique vision, which will give you the confidence to trust your own way of seeing, will make your photography more creative and free and inspire you to follow your curiosity
