When I was younger, I use to be huge into magic!  Loved it!  I loved that feeling of watching someone do a trick and being totally blown away and feeling stumped trying to figure out what the heck just happened.  I wanted to be that guy.  So I got magic kits, books and would ask too many annoying questions at magic stores.  I learned one that quickly became my favorite trick. It was called, “The Disappearing Handkerchief”

The Klutz Book of Magic

It was simple to do and you only needed a fake thumb that matched your skin tone to hide the handkerchief.  So…you know, fairly common.  I got pretty good at it, but then when it came time to actually perform, I had this inner-battle that it wasn’t good.  The fun with magic is being tricked.  And when I was doing a magic trick, I wasn’t being tricked.  So I felt like it wasn’t good.  I would ruin the trick by saying, “Aw never mind, just forget you saw anything.”  I felt like, because it wasn’t impressive to me anymore, it won’t be impressive to anyone else.  I also felt like a fake.  Even if I did the trick well, I was scared that I was going to be found out.  Like I needed to be a professional magician in order to perform anything.  I didn’t feel like I knew enough and my audience is going to figure out that I’m not good at this.  So I stopped doing magic tricks.

If you do video or design or create something that has a message behind it, it can feel like this.  You pour so much into your work and look at for so long that what you’re creating becomes dull to you.  Or you’re frustrated with your project because you don’t feel like it’s any good, or you don’t feel like your any good.  You feel like your audience is going to figure out that you don’t actually know what you’re doing.

It’s important to push these thoughts aside.  From one creative to another, let me tell you that  THIS IS NORMAL.  You can’t grow if you don’t push past this.  Honestly, you might actually suck.  I look back at old stuff I’ve created all the time, and wonder, what the heck was I thinking!?  But I’ve gotten better because of it.  Everybody starts something not being perfect at it.  It takes work and practice.  So don’t stifle your story or hoard it from the world because you don’t think it’s good enough.  People still deserve to see the trick.

Ta Da!  (Sorry, I couldn’t help it)