Overcome the Fear of Putting Your Work Out There
The fear of putting your work out there is a real problem many creative minds struggle with that prevents them from sharing their amazing work and creations with others. Does any of the following sound familiar:
“I want to write a book.”
“My dream is to start my own business.”
“My passion is to create.” [whether it’s writing, painting, drawing…etc.]
Maybe you have said you wanted to do one, or multiple of these things in the past. Or maybe it isn’t any of these specific examples, but you can make a lateral relation to the idea of wanting to do something new and putting yourself, and your work, out there.
So, you tell yourself that you will start….by doing research. That makes sense after all. How will I ever become successful at my new goal if I jump into it blindly face first? The problem we run into, however, is knowing when to stop doing the research and just begin the doing.
When beginning a new challenge, there is always so many things we can do that will prevent us from actually starting. We might:
- procrastinate with minute, unimportant tasks that make us seem productive. In reality, they are a hindrance to our productivity and our success.
- continue to research on the topic thinking that we are not yet ready, not realizing that there will always be more to learn, and eventually we need to jump into the deep end.
- psych ourselves out in our minds thinking we cannot do it and never even try.
All of these things are counterproductive to our ultimate goal. We are all creative beings and when we choose to share our creativity with others and put ourselves and our work out there, it can be an extremely powerful feeling. However, many people never experience this feeling because of the many feelings that come before it. Mainly fear.
Fear of Putting Your Work Out There
“How will others react?”
“What if they don’t like it?”
“Does anybody even care?”
All of these negative thoughts creep up into our minds when we feel anxious and scared. There are many different reasons we can experience fear.
When it comes to putting our work out there some common ones are fear of:
- the unknown
- rejection
- criticism
- failure
If you are a human being, you have probably encountered all of these fears, numerous times throughout different instances of your life. The fear can be at times so overpowering that it prevents us from following our dreams, pursuing our passions, and doing what we truly love (and were meant) to do.
The trick is to not let these fears consume you and prevent you, but rather to embrace these fears and tackle them head-on. Easier said than done, I know.
This is why for many of us, even if we take the first step, what I like to call the research phase, we never move past it. There is a huge level of comfort in the research phase. You are just gathering information at this phase. No actual action is needed. There is no risk of putting yourself out there; nobody even needs to be aware of what you are doing yet. This level of comfort leads to avoidance and causes you never to graduate onto the next phase, what I like to call the doing phase. This is when you will actually start to feel the emotions of fear and anxiety arise.
The Research Phase– The first step in the process of beginning something new. You are just gathering information about how to start and gain general knowledge. The problem with this phase is that we often spend too much time here.
The Doing Phase– Putting your research and other resources into action and actually taking concrete steps towards pursuing whatever it is you want to do.
Overcoming the Fear
When I decided to start this blog back in October, I had a lot of these same fears, just as anyone does when putting their work out for the first time in front of a potential audience of the entire world.
The truth is, I had the idea to start a blog well before my first post launched in October. I had done the research on how to start a blog and even purchased my domain back in the summertime. It took me about 4-5 months, after paying for my domain name ericgolban.com, that I actually took that next step and jumped into the doing phase and wrote my first article.
Why did I do this? Was I an expert on blogging by October? No. Not even close.
Did I become a wordsmith? Yeah, right.
Did Shakespeare himself come to me in a dream? He might’ve, I have weird dreams.
The truth is, I was still fearful. But I felt a sense of determination. I decided to embrace these fears and use them as fuel. One saying that has always helped me throughout my life:
If other people can do this, so can I.
It’s what I told myself the first time I attempted anything new like driving a car, playing a sport, and yes, when I started my blog as well. Believing in this powerful statement will help you achieve tremendous results and help you overcome the fear of putting your work out there.
So, if you are in the research phase or the I haven’t even tried to start yet phase, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and put your work out there! You don’t need to be at 100% before you begin something new. You can and should:
- Apply the 85% rule.
- Tell yourself that if others can do it, so can I.
- Take that leap of faith and just START!
Remember, you are depriving the world of your talents if you are not putting your content and yourself out there. 🙂
Best,
Eric
