I’m going to be really frank with you- I did not know what to write when I sat down to plunk out this article. I kept thinking of ideas, and then not even getting past the first two sentences. I felt like everything I was writing wasn’t good enough. I needed to write something deep, profound, and groundbreaking. Here I was, mere moments before it needed to be done, and I just didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t satisfied with my work. My mind wandered into thinking I’d been writing too many articles about music reviews lately, and for some reason it wasn’t good enough for my brain. It wasn’t what I should be writing. But suddenly it hit me, a deep realization, an intense, GROUND SHAKING question:
Why shouldn’t I be writing these things?
Okay, not that ground shaking- but still. Why not? I enjoy them. I know a lot about them. I know how to write about them in an organized way. So what’s wrong with it? I shouldn’t write it because it’s not what I think other people want to read? This is a phenomenon that I see often in myself and in other creators. Barring ourselves from doing certain things because we don’t think it’s what other people would want or what’s popular or what will make our work ‘worthwhile’. We fall into a rut of creating things to fit our ‘brand’. We find ourselves cornered by a need to make what we can guarantee approval and admiration for. We let our art be overtaken by outside expectations. But the truth is
It’s not our art if it’s done for other people!
It’s not our work, it’s not our authentic creation if we made it purely for consumption. Anything you make and put your time and energy toward to create should have a piece of you in it. It’s always easy to tell when someone’s whole heart isn’t in a piece.
So I encourage you, if you’re struggling with this, to take a moment and look at what you’re making and ask yourself: is this me? Am I having a hard time creating because I don’t know what to do or because I won’t let myself do what inspires me? Do I have to produce something perfect right now or is it okay to just create? I know it’s a hard thing to do sometimes. It can become really difficult to make things for yourself when you get accustomed to other people seeing what you do and giving their input. You start to question yourself and your passions. You start to ask yourself if other people’s approval is more important to you than what you want to put out. I can tell you that what I’ve repeatedly had to learn over and over is that putting out the work that is on YOUR heart- creating the piece that reflects what YOU wanted to put your heart into- will always be the best option. At the end of the day, there will always be people who genuinely love the work that you love to do. You will get the satisfaction of both paths just in creating work that is authentic to your vision and what you want to do.
This probably seems like a really deep take to pull from my wanting to write music reviews, but I think this small thing led me to this big realization. I needed to remind myself of this, and to push myself to write something that was really on my heart rather than trying to be ultra profound or writing something that would impress people. That’s how I produce my best work. If you needed to hear this too, I hope it helped you in some way! Go out and create things that fill your heart with joy!