I’m writing a new book. But there’s a problem: I can’t write it.
I’m already 5,000 words in and I’m still not confident that I can complete it. I know this is a lie I’m telling myself, but it doesn’t make the lie feel less real.
We all our lie to ourselves sometimes.. We make excuses. We come up with rationalizations for why we aren’t doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We have a skewed view of our own personality.
It seems as though creatives suffer from delusion more than any other type of person. Creating is emotional. It’s difficult to “see,” your work for what it truly is.
I’m having difficulty doing this right now. Maybe this entire post sucks. I’ll let you be the judge.
Staying grounded in reality will help you go far both your creative and personal life.
It’s impossible to eradicate the lies completely. But the more honest you can be with yourself the better.
Here are some of the most common lies creatives tell themselves:
“I deserve to be seen/heard/noticed.”
Creatives often feel like it’s their God given right to be noticed. We all carry a sense of entitlement. Is this longing to be noticed merit based? Of course it isn’t. We feel we deserved to be noticed because we bled for our project.
If a project you labored over doesn’t go over well with the market it’s your fault. Don’t try to play the “they don’t get it,” card.
If I write something and it doesn’t go over well I blame the readers. After the delusion subsides I realize that it’s on me.
It’s never them. It’s almost always you. You have to earn attention.
“I Suck/ I’m Amazing”
I swing back and forth between thinking I’m an awesome writer and thinking I’m an awful one. It’s hard to be objective about yourself. You’re not as bad as you think you are. You’re definitely not as good as you think you are.You’re somewhere in the middle.
If you do the work you’ll continue to get better, but you’ll never be an accurate judge of where you are on the spectrum. Don’t measure yourself by talent level. Measure your work by your level of effort.
“Successful Creatives Are Lucky.”
I read a blog post from a writer who has been doing a great job of building his audience and promoting his work on Medium. The post was about how he went about garnering a large amount of views.
He made a publishing schedule for himself, wrote like a mad man for a year, and now he’s one of the most popular writers on Medium.
Here’s one of the comments someone left:
“I was expecting more from this article. My take-away was ‘Write a lot of high quality posts.’ That alone does not drive traffic. You can consistently write fantastic articles, but how do you get eyeballs on your page? Would love to know THAT secret.”
Actually, that is his secret. People don’t like hearing this. They want the magic pill to success.
They look at someone more successful than they are and conclude they have “12 secret herbs and spices,” that they’re not sharing with people.
The recipe for success is simple. Do great work, actively search for people who will like it, and repeat the process a ridiculous amount of times.
Go back and look at Jon’s first couple of posts. They didn’t have a lot of recommends. He didn’t just come out of nowhere.
I’ve been guilty of coveting other people’s success without really looking at the extreme amount of work they did to get there. There are no secrets. It can all be summed up in a simple to say but difficult to do way.
Figure it out.
I remember when I wrote my first couple of posts on Medium. The views per post ranged from 0 to 5 — abysmal. I was butt hurt about it.
“Medium is a shit platform,” I thought to myself. I gave up for a while.
One day I came back to Medium and decided I was going to figure out how other writers were succeeding. I noticed the majority of the ones who were succeeding were writing for “publications.”
I found a publication I wanted to write for, found their post submission guidelines, and submitted a post to the editor.
He rejected it, but welcomed me to send in another one. So I did. It got accepted. Since then my readership has been slowly and steadily growing.
Now that I’m trying to take things to the next level, I have to keep my eyes open for ways to improve.
You have to stop whining if you want to get anywhere in life. Especially if you’re pursuing a creative career.
“Everything’s Already Been Done.”
Creatives can try too hard to be original. This keeps them trapped in “analysis paralysis,” mode. They look for something that’s never been done before.
Are there still some creative secrets to be found? Yes. But you’re better off trying to take what’s been done before and make it unique to your own personality.
Facebook wasn’t the first social network. Google wasn’t the first search engine. Uber wasn’t the first feaux taxicab network. Many of the great philosophers borrowed from their predecessors work.
Some of the things we find innovative and creative are usually a remix of something older. Everything’s been said, but you can say it again in your own way. Everything’s been done, but you can create something with a new twist.
“I should be further along by now.”
You want your Pulitzer Prize handed to you tomorrow. You want your 10,000 copies sold and New York Times Best Seller stamp. You want your top 10 rated podcast on iTunes. You want your art exhibit to be flooded with buyers. You want your Youtube Chanel to go viral.
And you want it right now.
Wanting things to come easily is human nature. But instant gratification is on steroids in today’s society.
Back in a world filled with gatekeepers, it was truly difficult to impossible to get noticed. You had to be both exceptional and lucky to have widespread recognition.
I consider myself lucky to be living in the digital age. There’s more opportunity to succeed than ever before. But I can’t expect it to happen right away.
I’ve been writing for one year — not nearly enough time to be great and deserve accolades. I have another 9 to go before I deserve that.
No one’s viewing your work? Good. That’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to suck sometimes; otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it.
I’ve been there. I’m still there. Compared to other writers I’m nobody. But as of right now, I’m still down to do the work. I’m continuing to remind myself to live in the real world, put my head down, and execute.
I don’t deserve anything.
Neither do you.