Fighting Through Self-Doubt as an Artist

Photography Tips

Do you ever suffer from creative self-doubt? You’re not alone!

Most of us feel our work is inadequate at some point or other, or that we can never be good enough no matter how hard we try.

In this enlightening short video, Simon Cade explains his own thoughts and feelings on all the reasons why we shouldn’t be artists. It’s a kind of crippling perfectionism that robs us of our ability to even try, because the reality of our work will never match the brilliance of the imagined piece:

Cade talks about his procrastination, wasting time instead of being creative, and the excuses his brain conjures up for it. He says he feels he’ll never be as good as someone else in the same field, that it’s already been done, that it’s too complex, too obvious, too pretentious, or too shallow. What if he’s already made the best thing he’ll ever produce, and it’s all downhill from here on in?

Does any of this sound familiar? It does to me!

If this all sounds seriously depressing, keep watching until the end. After listing the reasons not to be an artist, Cade talks about how he would like to create as children do. Kids just enjoy the process and don’t stress about what other people think. He notes how kids just throw paint at a page to see what the colors do, because…why not?

Just feel the fear and do it anyway is the message to take away from this video, and that’s something we can all apply to our own creative work.

“I’d like to be as carefree as a child painting a page with delight.”