
Extending Sympathy and Asking for Help in Navigating Fear and Failure
Week 9, Day 4ย of The Artist's Way
Today, let's practice acknowledging our fear and dissolving it with compassion.
CREATIVE U-TURNS (cont.)
In dealing with our creative U-turns, we must first of all extend ourselves some sympathy.
Creativity is scary, and in all careers there are U-turns. Sometimes these U-turns are best viewed as recycling times. We come up to a creative jump, run out from it like a skittish horse, then circle the field a few times before trying the fence again.
Typically, when we take a creative U-turn we are doubly shamed: first by our fear and second by our reaction to it. Again, let me say it helps to remember that all careers have them.
A successful creative career is always built on successful creative failures.
The trick is to survive them. It helps to remember that even our most illustrious artists have taken creative U-turns in their time.
Have compassion. Creative U-turns are always born from fearโfear of success or fear of failure.
It doesnโt really matter which. The net result is the same. To recover from a creative U-turn, or a pattern involving many creative U-turns, we must first admit that it exists. Yes, I did react negatively to fear and pain. Yes, I do need help.
Once we admit the need for help, the help arrives.
The ego always wants to claim self-sufficiency. It would rather pose as a creative loner than ask for help. Ask anyway.
Faced with a creative U-turn, ask yourself, โWho can I ask for help about this U-turn?โ Then start asking.
(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 156-158)
Read the following affirmation out loud with purpose and intent:
I acknowledge my fears and ask for help when I need it.
I extend myself compassion in my creative journey and understand that U-turns are a normal part of the process. I remind myself that even successful artists have had creative failures, and it is important to survive them. I admit my need for help and ask for support when facing a creative U-turn.
download printable affirmation card
Choose an artist totem.
It might be a doll, a stuffed animal, a carved figurine, or a wind-up toy. The point is to choose something you immediately feel a protective fondness toward. Give your totem a place of honor and then honor it by not beating up on your artist child.
“Learning is movement from moment to moment.”
โ J. Krishnamurti
What is a creative “failure” you have survived and learned from?
Share in the comments below ๐ or in The Artist's Way private community comments.