“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”Sylvia Plath
In today’s podcast episode I would like to address the topic of self-doubt and how it can affect your creativity. Self doubt can be defined as the lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities.
Everyone experiences this at some point in their lives – for a variety of reasons. And often times, the root cause is only the chatter in our own minds. Self-doubt has the ability to stop you from expressing yourself creatively and preventing from enjoying an activity or new creative endeavor. How many times have you told yourself that you just weren’t good enough to join a particular class? Or to learn a new skill? A skill you know nothing about but yet you have convinced yourself that you will not do well. How do you know this if you have never tried?
How to do overcome self-doubt. A few things you can do is
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Join an in person group and/or class
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Join an online group and/or class
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Stop looking at other’s work and comparing to yours
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Stop beating yourself up over having self-doubt
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When you find yourself self-doubting, stop and take a deep breath. Walk away from what you are doing or about to do and do something totally different. Watch TV, go for a walk, sit in silence, cook, clean, do something to get your mind off your negative state.