A short first-person monologue (YouTube video) about the speaker’s struggle with fear around creating and publishing work. The speaker references Seth Godin’s book The Practice and interviews, describes personal values (calls themself a “life changer”), explains that coaching revealed self-imposed rules were blocking them, and resolves to remove rules and simply show up — labeling that act as art.
Are you ever afraid to, like, put something out because you're. You just want it so bad to feel like a piece of art that.
You just don't think it's gonna count? Like, you'll do it, but you're just afraid that it. It's just not actually going to be art. So I woke up this morning with this feeling in my gut that I wanted to make something, that I wanted to put something out there. And I think I was afraid that it just wasn't gonna mean anything or maybe that it wasn't going to mean enough. Whether that is to me or to you or to whoever I'm trying to prove something to.
I don't really know. And that fear, it almost kept me from showing up today. But luckily I'm here. But the truth is that it's kept me from showing up most days, if I'm being transparent. A lot of times, this fear, I don't know if you get this, but it's like when we want to make something and put it out and we just want to show up. We just want to show up so bad, but that fear just stops us. And we have a thousand excuses that can get in our way and just make us not do the thing that we know we should do, right? So I haven't read it yet, but I've been looking at Seth Godin's new book, the Practice. I'm sure I'll be talking about it on here, but in his interviews, if you haven't watched him yet, the one he did with Marie Forleo is really good. He also did a podcast interview with Kathy Heller on the don't quit your day job podcast. But he talks about the practice and what it means to have a practice. And he talks about this idea that showing up.
And showing up in the way that I want to, right? Like this. My goal is to help creatives change the way that they see their worth. And when I work with clients to help them take their creativity and turn it into a brand that means something to them and to other people, you know, nothing really is more rewarding than seeing that transformation. And still it's so hard sometimes for me.
To show up in the way that I tell my clients to show up. It's so hard for me to be. Show up authentically and open. And what he says in the Practice is that.
The practice is the most important thing. The practice is just doing that daily work, that thing that we know.
Is going to sometimes be great and sometimes be average, and we don't really get to choose the difference. And I love that concept. He says that if we're going to have a creative business, that we are doing a very selfless act. We're doing a very generous act to show up and try to help somebody. And that in and of itself actually creates a lot of weight for me. And so, you know, when I woke up today and wanted to put something out, these fears got in the way again.
And.
I'm what I call a life changer. And I don't mean that in, like, any sort of egotistical way at all. I have a quiz that you can take. I've put a link for it in the description. But there are life changers, there are helpers, and there are feelers, and these people have certain values that they just do really well naturally. So my natural values are motivating and inspiring people and trying to build community. And that's what I love to do. That's what, like, really feeds me as a creative person. And so I try to lean heavy into the stuff that I make because it fits those values. Again, you can check out the quiz. Maybe you'll get something from it.
If, you know, if you go through it, I actually walk you through, like, how you can take those values and use them to grow your own, like, and build something from it. But, you know, knowing that that's the thing that I love to do so much, and then having this fear was really difficult to grapple with today, especially for some reason. I had a call with my coach, and we realized that what was holding me back wasn't really fear.
As much as it was the rules that I had put into place. It was.
You know, this idea that I needed to prove something to someone else or I needed to prove something to me. And so I put these rules and expectations on it. And, you know, I need it to be just right. And so today in this video, I'm taking away the rules. I have no expectation for me in this moment except to show up. And right now, that feels scary. It feels like I'm going against all the things that I think about because I'm not editing this. I'm not strategizing anything more than having a few notes. I'm not overthinking the title. The thumbnail is just going to be a photo that I take. Like, I do so much strategy in my work that right now, for me to be able to.
Act as the person that I encourage you to be, I'm having to start again at step one and take the rules away and just show up. I have to just show up. And that's actually really difficult for me. And I'm going to. Actually, I'm not supposed to say it's difficult. It's a challenge for me. It's a challenge. And. And so I'm going to try this again tomorrow. And.
The title here is, does this count as Art? And I think I'm going to count this as art because I believe great art makes you feel something, and I don't know if it's made you feel something, but I know that right now I'm showing up as much for me as I am for you. And I hope that you can do the same thing with your stuff, that we can make something that. That helps us to show up for ourselves and for somebody else, because we know that it can be beneficial for both. And this brings me a feeling. It brings me feeling of fear, of excitement, of.
There'S some joy here. There's a bit of shame for not, like, showing up as much as I wanted to recently. And although for great reason, it still. There's all these feelings. And so I'm gonna count this as art. And.
Yeah. And I'm gonna try to show up again tomorrow, and we're gonna do this again, and I'm gonna see what happens. So if you want to show up with me, I hope that you will. You don't have to show up for me, but I hope that you'll consider showing up for your people today as you watch this. And I hope that you'll go and you'll make somebody feel something just by getting a little bit vulnerable with who you are and what you're going through. I'm sending you so much love right now. Thank you so much for being here, and I'll look forward to seeing you soon.
