The FOUR WORDS QUIETLY KILLING YOUR CREATIVITY

When all the labels, caveats and comparisons are stripped away, many creative blocks reduce to a single belief. Four words that tend to creep into our vocabulary, words that when combined can be lethal to our creativity and our creative potential.

I AM NOT ENOUGH.

Often, though, we don’t stop there. We weaponize these four little words further by adding our own particular variety of ‘not enough’. And we’re usually very generous about it too, not limiting ourselves to just one, we make a whole collection of them. A long mental list, of all the ways we tell ourselves we’re not enough. And in doing so, attack not only our creative identity and confidence, but our ability to access our creativity in the first place, because the language we’re using is blocking us from ever reaching it.

 Another not-so fun fact about the ‘Not-Enoughs’ – there’s an almost inexhaustible amount available to us – which is why, depending on the particular situation, we will keep finding more of them. In the spirit of shining a light on what might be blocking the path to your creativity, and bringing your blocks out of your blind spot, I’m going to share a few of the most popular ones. Ones that tend to crop up when we’re either working towards a creative goal, trying to maintain a creative practice, or simply thinking about our creative potential and the creativity we have available to us.

 Here they are…

 I am not talented enough. I am not imaginative enough. I am not clever enough. I am not experienced enough. I am not confident enough. I am not trained enough. I am not skilled enough. I am not brave enough. I am not capable enough. I am not special enough. I am not deserving enough. I am not committed enough. I’m not inspired enough. I am not inspiring enough. I am not lucky enough. I am not well-connected enough. I am not entertaining enough. I am not original enough. I am not young enough. I am not old enough. I am not productive enough. I am not resilient enough. I am not disciplined enough. I am not consistent enough. I am not funny enough. I am not interesting enough. I am not credible enough. I am not knowledgeable enough. I am not unique enough. I am not prepared enough. I am not good enough. I am not creative enough.

 Let me ask you this…

When it comes to your creativity, haven’t you had enough of not being enough?

Haven’t you had enough of selling yourself short by telling yourself, or perhaps anyone who will listen, all these limiting ideas and beliefs you have about yourself and your creativity. Which by the way is really no different from plastering any other unhelpful label all over yourself, over time having exactly the same effect, becoming your personal narrative and ingrained truth.

When we think we’re not enough (fill in your own particular variety here), we willingly take ourselves out of the race, we write ourselves and our potential off without ever reaching the finish line because we’ve told ourselves we don’t have what it takes to get there anyway. At best, and for those who persevere, we make the process miserable, slinging destructive weapons at ourselves at every opportunity, until eventually, yes, we might hobble through that finish line but as a bruised and battered version of our former self. Or at worst, we never make it, we give up and disqualify ourselves midway through, telling ourselves ‘It’s never going to happen, so what’s the point continuing’. We deliberately trip ourselves up to take ourselves out of the race. And that’s if we haven’t talked ourselves out of entering it in the first place. All the reasoning and rationalising, both inwardly and outwardly we seem to do, in order to justify our self-imposed limitations.  Doesn’t that seem strange to you? Choosing to protect and defend our limitations, keeping ourselves small, rather than fighting in defence of what we really want; our creativity and to use and contribute it so that we might be able to realise our creative potential.

 It was a chap called Jim Kwik who said;

“Fight for your limitations and you get to keep them ”

I hate to say it, but I’m going to, if you keep fighting for your lack of creativity that’s exactly what you’ll get to keep. Who wants that? I know, not you, if you’re reading this.

 So, the question now is this; what are you going to fight for? Are you going to fight for yourself, or against yourself? In favour of your creativity or against it? 

Personally, I hope you’re ready to shift your alliance and start fighting for yourself and your creativity and that the language you use, helps you to do just that because you will never feel creative enough, if you keep telling yourself that you’re not.