Monday, January 14th is International Creativity Monday. Its aim is to promote creativity in everyone, everywhere. Unfortunately, many people experience significant blocks to their self-expression.
Many of us are overly critical of our creative output. We look at what we’re doing and we feel that it’s just not good enough, and this makes us want to give up. If more of us are going to be creative we need to get to the bottom of these obstacles to our creativity and find a meaningful solution to the problem of being creatively stuck.
Every child starts out being creative. They dance around the house and sing at the top of their lungs. They make up amazing stories that they act out for their families. They draw and paint constantly, and they do all of it without any self-consciousness whatsoever. But then at some point, for many of us, the self-consciousness comes in and the creativity dries up.
There’s a voice inside our head – not a real voice but an inner monologue – that’s constantly telling us we’re not good enough, that we’ll never measure up and that we’re so incompetent we shouldn’t even bother to try being creative.
This is the “inner critic.” It pretends to be the voice of reason but in fact, it’s a malevolent force whose only purpose is to shut us down and keep us from being our best selves.
The inner critic isn’t something we’re born with. It’s the internalized voices of all the people we grew up with who were excessively critical toward us. It’s the voices of our parents, relatives, teachers, coaches and clergy.
Any and all negative messages we received while growing up become consolidated into this inner critical voice and when we’re adults, the voice plagues us with its constant negativity about our abilities and potential.
As well, the inner critic doesn’t allow us to acknowledge any of our abilities, accomplishments or successes. When we achieve something, it tells us that it was a “fluke” and that we won’t be able to repeat it.
If we make a mistake or experience a failure the inner critic insists that this is who we really are. In this way, it constantly reinforces our self-doubt and it undermines any confidence we might have.
When it comes to our creativity, the inner critic tells us that nothing we ever do is good enough, interesting enough or original enough. It tells us that we can’t draw; that our painting technique is simplistic and our sense of design is flawed; that we can’t carry a tune, our dance steps are clumsy and our acting is wooden. The critic harps at us constantly, making creativity seem more trouble than it’s worth.
What kind of messages does a child hear to cause them to develop an inner critic? The messages go like this: “You sure that’s a dog? It doesn’t look like a dog.” Or, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t draw. You won’t need it in med school.” Or, “Why did you make the people’s faces blue and their hands green? Those aren’t the right colors.”
The people saying this might not intend to squelch the child’s creativity, but that’s the result almost every time, and that’s why all of us start out dancing, singing, drawing, writing and acting but far fewer of us continue to do so.
Many of us who’ve stopped being creative have been made to feel self-conscious and inadequate. We’ve internalized all the perhaps well-meaning but ultimately creativity-crushing critiques we heard from adults when we were growing up.
When we do try something creative today, we feel like pretenders, about to be “found out” by those in the know. Even many successful artists, actors, writers, and musicians today are convinced that any day now, everyone will discover what a fraud they really are.
There’s a psychological pattern called “impostor syndrome,” in which a person is unable to acknowledge their talents or abilities and can’t give themselves credit for their accomplishments.
They constantly fear being exposed as a fake, convinced that they’re nowhere near as good as others seem to think they are. They figure that whatever success they have must be due to luck or having somehow fooled others into thinking that they’re legitimate.
The inner critic perpetuates this syndrome and the combination of self-doubt and being unable to acknowledge our own success makes it impossible for us to ever feel good about our creativity.
If we want to celebrate International Creativity Monday, we have to break free of impostor syndrome and silence the inner critic. We need to recognize that inner critical voice as the creativity-killer that it is and stop believing the lies it’s been telling us.
We need to trust in our abilities, especially if we’ve achieved a measure of success. And if we’re beginners, we need to remind ourselves that no-one starts off brilliant but with hard work overtime, it’s impossible not to improve.
We need to let go of perfection and see that being good is good enough. Being an artist means that sometimes our work is going to be amazing and sometimes it’s going into the recycle bin. If we can recognize that creativity is a process and not be so hung up on the product, our creativity will flourish.
We need to get away from people who repeat the same rubbish as the inner critic. We must avoid the judgmental haters who make us want to give up. The job of commentators should always be to encourage us to keep going.
We need to recognize that the only valuable type of critique is the type that empowers the artist to do better and never the type that humiliates the artist or fills them with despair.
The world is enriched by creativity. Artistic expression brings joy to the doer and the viewer. Creativity bridges gaps and brings people together. Creativity is at the heart of problem-solving in every sphere of endeavor. We need creativity now, more than ever.
Everyone is creative, deep down inside. If we stop believing the inner and outer critics who say that we’re never going to measure up, we can reclaim our innate creativity and who knows, maybe even makes something beautiful, now and then.
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