One Thousand and One Excuses

You want to create (a project / a story / a company / a doodle / a game / a fill in the blank) but…
…you just don’t have the time.
…you really need to solve some other problem in your life or reach some milestone first.
…your spouse frowns upon the time you’re taking away from home and family matters.
…it’s a really busy period at work.
…you don’t have the right skills. You definitely need to get a degree or a certification before you start.
…you don’t have good ideas.
...it's been done before. And well.
…you’ll never be more than mediocre anyway, so what’s the point?
…you scratched the itch five years ago with that other project and that’s enough.
…it’s late and you really want to get a good night’s sleep and start fresh tomorrow. You’ll definitely start tomorrow.

You finally sit down to create but…
…you realize you are staaaaarving (or need to let the dog out or forgot to color-code your tax returns).
…you can’t work in such a messy environment so you have to clean up first.
…everything you created the last few days is shit.
…you can’t focus today.
…you’re really not feeling inspired.

In fact, you’re in a funk.

Besides, why does it matter? The whole idea was dumb to begin with.

Actually you don’t even want to create, you are creative enough at work.

…

All these are excuses I’ve used or heard other people use to mask our fears. Which one is yours?

The fear is in proportion to the importance of the creative project to us. The more we care, the more we’re afraid to be hurt. To realize we’re not good enough. To be found lacking. To be criticized. To fail. To succeed. It’s so much safer to stay hidden than to be seen.

The real you wants to create. To express. To experiment. To learn. To grow.

Your ego is terrified. My ego is terrified. Every time I hit “submit” on a post it thinks you’ll think it’s stupid. The real me doesn't care. She just does what she needs to do.

You know the drill - awareness.

Are you going to let your ego get away with some excuse, or take action despite the fear?

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