It’s something that all of us as humans deal with frequently: self-doubt. We often struggle between staying in our comfort zones where it’s safe and taking risks and facing the unknown. I, for one, have a long history of avoiding situations where the odds lean more towards failure. Anyone choosing the path of a creative entrepreneur must battle this tension regularly and make the choice to move forward again and again in order to be successful.

Does It Ever Go Away?

I recently came across thoughts on fear and self-doubt from two well-known creatives, Jeremy Cowart and Paul Jarvis. It was interesting to read/hear how these established and successful creatives still grapple with fear and how they choose to deal with it.

Photographer Jeremy Cowart shared this on his Facebook Page:

A few days after reading that post, I listened to the The Portfolio Life podcast. Jeff Goins interviewed Paul Jarvis about Balancing Creativity and Business. I highly recommend listening to the entire episode to hear all of Paul’s thoughts, but here are a couple of my favorite nuggets:

I’ve kind of wrestled into my brain that if I’m scared I can do things anyway.

Fear and action can exist in parallel.

See a theme here? Self-doubt and fear never really go away. No milestone, recognition, or achievement will erase the nagging “little buddy.” We just have to make up our minds to take a step, and another… and another.

The “F” Word

“But… what if I fail?” Well, that’s pretty much guaranteed. And, yeah, it’s hard for me to hear, too.

Vulnerability researcher and best-selling author Brene′ Brown states:

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

So once we can come to grips with the fact that failure is inevitable, but nothing at all will be achieved without trying, I think that next step looks a little more feasible. It’s definitely something I’m struggling to work on each day.

Is self-doubt holding you back? What’s one thing you can do this week to move closer to one of your goals? Let me know in the comments or give me a shout on Twitter! I’d love to hear about it!