Fears To Get Over In Order To Become A Successful Artist

At the end of every week I'd like to take the chance to reflect back on things that have helped me in my career and will hopefully help anyone else going through some of the same struggles I did when I first started.

I Wasn't Always Doubtful: Getting Over Your Fears

When I was younger I was very outgoing and talkative, My parents said that a lot of adults would comment on how intelligent I was, I attribute that to my openness and willing to talk to anyone that was willing to listen. As I got older though something changed, I don't know how or when it happened exactly but fear and doubt crept its way into my life and I got very quite. Whatever the reason, I was becoming fearful of making mistakes and second guessing myself, I was to afraid to take any action in fear of making the wrong decision.

Noticing these things in myself I started looking for inspiration and ways I could change. These are the things that helped me to make the changes in life that was needed in order for me to move forward. I hope by sharing them they can help others who may be struggling with the same fears and doubts.

I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Getting Over Your Fear of the Unknown

When I first got out of school I was lost, I was trying to figure out my next move and was trying to see what others were doing. I was hyper focused on trying to find out what the best path was to becoming successful in my field but it seemed like there were no concrete answers.

That's when I started following Casey Neistat, if you don't already know who this youtuber is I'd be very surprised. In the unlikely case you don't I recommend you give him a watch. Casey is very inspiring and a great person to look up to, especially if you want a great example of what conquering fear and not listening to Haters can do for your career.
The thing about Casey I find inspiring is his story of how he got into vlogging. It was his outlook that helped me push myself to put myself out there. Watching him definitely inspired me to stop trying to follow some set path and just go for what I felt was right.
Don't always look for someone to tell you how to do things because sometimes no one has the answer, so tread new ground and don't be afraid to explore the unknown.

In this clip I think Casey Describes this point best.

What If I Mess Up: Getting Over Your Fear of Failure

“Failure isn’t a necessary evil. In fact, it isn’t evil at all. It is a necessary consequence of doing something new.”
― Ed Catmull

I was too afraid to take action because I was afraid of making the wrong decision. This was obviously a problem because I ended up not doing anything at all.
I started reading a book that gave me one part of the puzzle that really struck me, and in retrospect seems pretty obvious but is a good thing to be reminded of, the book is called Creativity, Inc.
This Book is a great read and taught me a lot and I would Highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet, it's all about how Pixar started and about managing Creativity. One of the major lessons for me was that failure is part of learning and we shouldn't fear it but except it as a part of our growth.
But don't take my word for it, Will Smith I think sums this point up nicely!

What If I Just Suck At It: Don't be afraid to suck!

Similar to the fear of failing once I had started moving forward, pushing myself to try new things, I started to worry that what I was doing wasn't good enough. I would look at my work and think it looked terrible. I've talked to many people and the majority seem to give up, my one friend even went on to say that he just wasn't born with the skills.
I don't believe this is ever the case, it takes time to develop skills and hone your talents. I've watched many inspirational people and they all talk about how when they started they were terrible and didn't have a clue what they were doing, but with consistency thats how you get better.
The Youtuber Peter McKinnon has a great video on this. Another Great Youtuber to check out especially if your into photography!

These lessons have helped me immensely in my career so far and have been freeing to learn and follow. Even people you respect didn't start out being as good as they are now. We often don't see the effort that goes into someones success, just the outcome of that effort.

So go out and get Creating!

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Final Thoughts

Hope everyone who reads this finds it useful, or have found some new Youtubers to follow!

As I get into Blogging more I'll start sharing what I'm doing at the offices at Quantum Capture, Check out our website here. The QC team is working on some interesting projects and I'll be starting some developer diaries to document our progress.

Please Share if you liked and Comment Bellow,
I'd love to here what others are working on in the community so feel free to share your stories as well!!