Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back
This is a guest post by Adrian Lance, who is an intern at Desperation Leadership Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. As a part of DLA he works with the annual Desperation Conference and co-leads a discipleship group within the program. You can connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.
The number one thing that suppresses creativity is shame and a lack of vulnerability. Simply put, it is the fear of failure. This fear is so common in our culture and it can easily hinder the creative flow.
This fear of failure is nothing new and as humans we have become so comfortable with it that it seems normal and okay. However, when we stop sharing our thoughts and ideas becasue we do not think they are good enough, we begin to limit our creative potential.
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If a musician were to stop practicing his or her instrument due to a fear of playing the wrong note and then years later go back to play again; they may have a lot to relearn and practice in order to play as well as they once did. The old saying “practice makes perfect” remains true. Don’t let fear of failure limit your creative potential.
This fear can be rooted in a few different ideas. Let’s look at just one of these thoughts: “I am underqualified to share this idea.” This is sometimes the most common lie that we as artists can believe. I am currently interning at a church of around 8,000 people and in one of our staff meetings we recently had a “creative challenge.” During this challenge we were all split up into groups of ten and in these groups we each had to share an idea on how the church could be “even better if…” Everyone had to give an idea and the top twelve ideas each won $100 with the best idea of those twelve winning an additional $400. Needless to say, the prize was motivating.
During that excercise there were many great ideas that were shared and some even implemented into the way our church runs. The point of this excercise was to take risk and to let our ideas be known. The first step to getting past the fear of failure is to just try.
Trying to do something new can be difficult but if we do not try how will we ever know if it works or not. Creativity is all about vulnerability, and with vulnerability there is risk. Not every idea is a success.
In a recent sermon my pastor told a story about his son and one of the memorable moments of this story was a great quote that came from it: “There are no failed experiments, only new discoveries.” When we fail we must not let it keep us down but instead we should look at it as a new discovery.
A great example of this is Walt Disney. He was actually fired from a newspaper for lacking imagination. He later started several businesses, all of which failed and left him broke. Today the Disney corporation brings in millions of dollars every day. This is just one example of how pressing on through failure led to great success.
Do not let a fear of failure or shame keep you from being creative. When you have a creative idea, put it into motion and do so without fear. As Vincent Van Gough once said “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
What fears have held you back in your creative life, and how have you dealt with them?
