Creators will be judged no matter what they do.
Writers…
Musicians…
Entrepreneurs…
Anyone who creates anything for a living faces judgement. And usually criticism.
But you’ll also get judged for doing nothing.
“If you could have, why didn’t you?” is the other question we all face.
You’ll get judged for doing nothing. You’ll get judged for doing something.
So you might as well do SOMETHING.
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he could do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”
–Henry Ford
In what areas do you doubt yourself?
What is the resistance telling you right now you cannot do?
Write it down; call it what it is. “Notice and name” as the folks over at Precision Nutrition like to say.
Don’t judge yourself; don’t feel guilty. Just say what it is. Then start asking why.
Why are you afraid?
You might find the answer surprising…you might also find that you have no answer and, perhaps, no reason to fear.
What one thing could you do right now to move away from the fear? What change do you desperately want to make but are too afraid to take the first step?
You can do it.
“Until thy feet have trod the Road
Advise not wayside folk.”
–Rudyard Kipling
What is Kipling’s meaning? Should we not correct others when they do wrong, unless we ourselves have done the same wrong? I don’t think so.
I think Kipling is speaking of empathy, the skill of attempting to feel what someone else is feeling, of putting oneself in the shoes of another.
Most people react when they see someone acting in a way with which they disagree or do not understand. We see a parent fail to harshly correct a child for misbehaving, so we assume the parent is inept or irresponsible. A person resorts to drinking as a coping mechanism, so we call them a wastrel, a drunk, or a fool.
But what if you put yourself in place of the parent, or even the child? As the child, how would you prefer to be corrected? With harsh words and physical punishment, or through a one-on-one conversation used as a teaching moment? Would this not grow trust and improve the relationship? Perhaps the parent had a painful childhood she does not wish to repeat with her own offspring, so she chooses to react with restraint.
Look at the alcoholic, a type of person with which I have had more experience than I wish to remember. Perhaps he grew up in a violently abusive or neglectful household; perhaps he saw friends and innocents killed in a horrifying warzone. Yes, alcohol will not heal his wounds,nor is it a healthy way to cope. However, to judge and condemn without the same experiences of that person, or at least without empathizing with him, is an ineffective way to interact with the person. Empathy and understanding would go much further towards helping him to recover were he willing.
This is not to say that you should not try to help others find the right path, but how it is done can make all the difference.
Moreover, until you have put yourself in the place of another, how can you be sure that the other person is wayside and not yourself? Were you to empathize with them, you might come to find that your paradigm, your view of the world, is incomplete or inaccurate. We would all like to believe that we are objective and rational, but more often than not we fail at both.
Choose empathy before all else. You might then be in a position to influence others in positive ways. And if not, you have still become a better human for the attempt.
Wheat doesn’t grow out of the ground, ready to grind into meal for the creation of bread. It comes with a bunch of extra stuff you don’t want in your loaf. You must first separate the chaff from the wheat.
The same is true with ideas: good ideas don’t just happen. If you wait to have a good idea, you will never have any ideas at all.
You won’t know the difference between a good idea and a bad idea if you have no ideas.
Ideas are simply ideas; let them flow through you, without judgement. Afterwards, you can determine the ones that might work from the ones that definitely won’t.
Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe below to receive updates as soon as they post.
Nathan's Blog 