If your idea feels a little scary to share, that’s often a sign it’s actually yours.
CREATIVITY
WHAT THIS MEANS
Fear of showing something usually tracks how much of you is in it. Work assembled from safe, borrowed choices carries no risk, because there is nothing personal to be rejected. The nervous feeling is a rough measure of exposure, and exposure is what makes something recognisably one person’s rather than anyone’s. It is not a reliable measure of quality, only of ownership.
Notice the thing you keep not showing anyone. Share it with one person you trust rather than posting it, which is enough to break the seal. Pay attention to whether the fear was about the work or about being seen, since those need different responses.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Does your scariest idea feel scary because it is yours?
MORE IN CREATIVITY & ORIGINALITY
- You don’t have to go viral to matter. Ten people who really get your stuff is a real audience.
- Rock and hip-hop were both called noise by adults once. New sounds usually get dismissed before they get copied.
- If someone tells you your art is “too much,” some of your audience is looking for exactly that much.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.