Here’s a thing that’s true for writers and non-writers alike, and also true for very young people and very old people and everyone in between: People don’t need you to be better than you really are. They’ll take you exactly as you are right now. Your job is to get out of your own way, to stop trying to seem better and rediscover your curiosity instead, to stop grinding your gears and throwing off sparks and second-guessing everything you do while judging the way everyone else does everything, and just FIND NEW WAYS TO DELIGHT YOURSELF.

Heather Havrilesky

Self Doubt — Doing Difficult Things

1. Use the support available to you. Talk, don’t shut off, communicate. Things grow out of hand when they're not addressed and the people around you are there to help you.

2. Take a deep breath and calm down. Have faith in what you’ve been immersing yourself in and separate that from the nerves and doubt.

3. Run over the essentials. Refresh your knowledge and perspective. Synthesise into the simplest idea.

4. Remember that anyone could draw, theoretically. It’s just hard and requires continually being assaulted by failure. Saying “I can’t” means “I’m not going to try”. What else are you going to do? Try. Keep a growth mindset.

5. Take a step back and cut off sources of saturation and distraction. Limit your sources of input while you reassess and distill.

6. Stop comparing yourself to others. Honestly just don’t look at other people’s work or their bios or their skillsets. There are times for tunnel vision; this is one of them.

7. Get out of your head. Try to objectively assess the hard skills you need and take the emotion out of it. Make a plan to develop them.

8. Don’t make any extreme decisions.

The daily routine of most adults is so heavy and artificial that we are closed off to much of the world. We have to do this in order to get our work done. I think one purpose of art is to get us out of those routines. When we hear music or poetry or stories, the world opens up again. We’re drawn in — or out — and the windows of our perception are cleansed, as William Blake said. The same thing can happen when we’re around young children or adults who have unlearned those habits of shutting the world out.

∆ Ursula K. Le Guin 

Be aware of your space

Do I know my place in the world? Am I aware of the space I occupy? What do I understand by space? I feel in sync with the space around me? What is left over, what is missing? When was the last time I took my time to look around? Can I exercise observation? In what spaces do I transit? How do those spaces make me feel? I live where I want to live? Do I touch the earth? Do I feel physical?

• Do a research about the place you’re living currently: search it in google maps/earth, Why the street have that name?, it was always a place for living? What was before? Who or to whom did it belong? What materials is it built from? What it was before humans take possessions of that place?
• Observe trough your window, when was the last time you take your time to really observe it? What you see? What you feel about what you see?
• Go for a walk around your street or block and take notes (visual or written) about what you see, the people, the plants, the signs, houses-buildings, the noise, the smell, the weather, etc. If an object of the street resonates with you, take it.
• Observe your spaces where you transit: your room, your studio or working place, the living room, etc. What you feel in these spaces? It feels yours? What is left over or what is missing?
• What are you today? Observe yourself and your day, be consciousness about: 1 smell, 1 flavor, 1 texture, 1 color, 1 sound. - Do something with that info: a poem, write a list, make a story, paint something, draw something, take a photo, etc. (repeat anytime you need it).