As this new year continues on, I find myself feeling a little more creatively stuck. I have so many ideas whirling around in my head on what to write, make a video about, or even turn into a podcast episode. However, that feeling of “I can’t pick what to work on first” has caused the decision paralysis to kick in. 

My love of writing has been around since I first started reading and fell in love with the idea of writing out stories. It’s been the easiest creative method for me by far (besides photography). Now that I’m committing to making this blog, so many ideas are trying to cram through the doorway at once rather than ordering themselves in some sort of line. It’s tricky getting them in a row. Almost like herding cats while trying to keep them out of trouble. Throw ADHD into the mixture and the doorway becomes smaller while the same amount of ideas cram their way through. 

While fear of failure keeps me frozen to the spot, it’s also a small fear of succeeding. The unsure feeling of what it is going to look like when it finally gets traction. It’s funny how not many people talk about the fear of succeeding. Feels like not too many people will understand as the concept of failing is much more relatable. I am a scared of succeeding as it almost feels like the pressure will increase and the stakes will become higher, but that’s also the fun part. Yes there will be pressure, but it’s to see how I can improve my creative works. The stakes being higher? Leaves less room for failure while at the time being able to be grateful I have the space to fail and find out what actually works for me. 

As I’m learning, success is nothing to be scared of because there is so much opportunity in it the same way there is with failure. Since the movie came out, all I can think about is that scene from the Disney movie Meet the Robinsons. The family is at the dinner table and Lewis (brought into the future as a kid by his son Wilbur), is attempting to fix the peanut butter and jelly gun that Carl (the robot) is using. Lewis thinks he has it fixed, but when it gets activated again, it jams and explodes with peanut butter and jelly covering everyone and everything in the room. Lewis starts to get upset and apologizes, until the family starts celebrating his failure. It’s a heart warming moment that conveys the message it’s okay to fail and don’t let it stop you. 

There are so many lessons to learn from failing and there are also lessons to be learned when one succeeds as well. These are the lessons not many people talk about. Mindsets are so focused on “I failed, I can’t do this” rather than “I failed, so what did I learn?” Another motto than came out of that movie was “keep moving forward”. 

That’s what I’m intending to do here. I have failed at tasks like these in the past, but there are lessons that I didn’t pick up on at the time. I’m learning from them now and happily learning while continuing to move forward in my creative self. I put too much pressure on making my article “just right”, I’ve got the opening paragraph written for an article only to delete it because it feels like no one will care, and I’ve over edited videos/podcast episodes because it felt like I wasn’t able to get anything right. Now, I’m going to keep it simple. If you see mistakes or little mishaps on my content, trust me I’m aware they are there, but I’m no longer letting it stop me from sharing my creations. Imperfection can be better than perfection because it helps show that the people behind the screen or the camera or the microphone are real people doing their best just like you.

Hopefully this little tidbit of knowledge will help you as well and you’ll come back to see what my next adventure is. Until then, safe exploring everyone.