Adopting The Right Mindset To Become A Better Creative
Mindset.
Mindset is everything. It’s the characteristic that separates the winners from the losers. Those that become great at what they do and those that stay mediocre at best.
Having the right mindset doesn’t just affect your work, you also affect the people around you. Your family, friends, co-workers. You’ll know what I mean by right mindset because naturally you want to be around this person not knowing exactly what the reason is.
When you see someone doing awesome things, you may wonder “how?”
Yes, they’re probably talented at what they do, but I believe how you approach daily life, the type of decisions you make and your responsibility on the outcomes is all about your mindset.
You’ve probably heard the saying “hard work beats talent”. Is it a cliche? In my opinion, no—because hard work does. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
To even begin stepping in the right direction, having awareness on these next couple of points will get you prepared, armoured, and battle-ready. I like to think I’m about to suit-up, like Spider-Man. But seriously as soon as I became aware, I was able to create and share my work without fear on what the world will say.
This post can get really cheesy or really practical. Let’s see how this goes.
Know That To be Exceptional You Need To Work
You can start by creating work you enjoy. Whatever that may be, then apply yourself again and again. Learn the basics, practice deliberately, refine your process, practice after the day job, squeeze in some reading, say no to watching Netflix—I could go on.
The concept is easy, but takes tremendous effort to grasp. There is no other route. You just need to work. Heck, I'm even editing this post in between the day job, during lunch. There's absolutely no excuse.
I know some may argue “I can’t work unless I’m inspired”.
I strongly believe any step is forward progress. If there was a tried and tested path to become successful, we’d all be there by now. So begin creating—work.
Know That Self-Doubt Is Normal
You may realise after going at your creative endeavour for a while, you’ll begin doubting yourself. There’s so much beautiful, eye-orgasmic work all over the internet (Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr etc) and the irony, your inspirations will work against you.
It will seem never-ending, that the hours you put in are not contributing to any results and you begin to question yourself “Am I really good enough?”
This is where your mindset will challenge how serious you are about reaching your goals, how eager you are to overcome the “safe side” of your brain, the part that’s telling you to settle, that you should take the easy path and stay stagnant. The struggle is important, the fear is important.
How I overcome any sort of tribulation, is simple…
“If you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right ”
–Henry Ford
Know That You’re Going To Turn People Off
This one was tough.
I’ve had to step away from people so I could work on my business and work on my craft. Some people understand, other’s won’t understand, but I’ve realised it’s inevitable. People will be turned off.
You're going to disappoint people—oh well.
If you find yourself struggling to progress because the people around you don’t share the same mindset or the same values, either get them on board or step aside. If people are not on board, it’s just better to go after your own thing. They might understand, maybe they will or they won’t.
Either way, you are better off working towards your goals, anyone who’s not helping you get there is time taken away from your goals.
Turning people off also means that hey, not everyone is going to like what you do. Listen to them.
Feedback is needed and the criticism will in fact boost your growth. If negative feedback does come your way, listen to what's being said because that may open something you never considered (it's a no-brainier, but for trolls you simply do not entertain them)
Everything mentioned here is down to how you respond. You are not responsible for other people’s actions except your own.
This post was a bit of a struggle. It’s hard to put into words how my own mind works, honestly I’m still trying to figure out why I think what I think. What I’ve written, is what I could articulate thus far into my journey.
As always, I hope there was something useful for you to takeaway—the headers are the three takeaways in this week’s post. But next week I’ll be back with my regular three practical actions! I appreciate you for reading. Many thanks for stopping by!
Connect with me @jaytenart