“Always act as if you are wearing an invisible crown.”
Being the bohemian gypsy queen that I am, and if you’ve ever met me you know, I can be a pretty opinionated gal. I am chock a bock with ideas and I like to share them with others! With friends or family, I can jump right into any situation or conversation and talk, chit chat, take lead or brainstorm any subject at all, but with others it can be a struggle.
As an Artist in a real life group of customers or other artists and creatives, I clam up! Yes, me. It’s true. I have difficulty talking to potential customers who come into my booth or tent, I shy away from teaching my craft, although I have been requested many times, and forget about speaking in front of my artistic peers. I will see the opportunity and truly want to put in my two cents, but my belly will begin to tickle, my heart will race, my eyes water- which is kind of funny, because my mouth dries up at the same time – and often I will watch that opportunity slip past me and on to the next person willing to stand and speak up.
Many Artists & Creatives find themselves in this mind set. Unfortunately for us NOT speaking up, NOT speaking to the customer, the studio owner, our peers, NOT giving our input or opinions actually stifles our creativity and smashes our confidence….regardless of how unabashedly we personally own our Bohemian Gypsy Queen-ness…(or King-ness!)
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint’, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” ~Vincent Van Gogh
This is by no means an uncommon occurrence in any social situation with regular people, but when we as Artists keep our awesomness hidden from the world by not speaking up or sitting in the back of the bus, we chip away at who we truly are at the core. No one wants that! Especially the wonderfully magical universe that bestowed this unbelievable gift upon us! Most artists beg off of speaking up because we are afraid of being judged, we believe others will see our vulnerability and see ..well who knows what they might actually see? More importantly – who cares? As we all learned in Week 9 -Judge Judy, we must not judge others, but we most especially must not judge OURSELVES!“It took me a long time to stop judging myself through someone else’s eyes.” ~ Sally Fields
It cannot be stressed enough that on our journey to Building Creative Courage how important it is that we show the world our incredible self-confidence – even though sometimes we don’t always feel it. When we forget our unbelievable awesomeness and we are worried what others will think we do ourselves and our gifts an incredible injustice. When we sit in the back of the room or do not speak up in discussions, it shows a lack of self-confidence, and if we are truly honest with ourselves….we must as Artists already possess a great deal of self-confidence simply to exist in the creative world, so let’s stop pretending we don’t. Let’s speak up and sprinkle some creative lovin’ on our confidence to help it grow!
““Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your belief in yourself.” ~Robert Collier
We are all artists whether we recognize it or not. Being an artist requires courage, strength and humility. Being creative requires that we express ourselves in work that some people will love and others will hate…this is the bane of our existence, as well as the bling! Sitting in the back, bowing to others in groups or meetings, not speaking up – we quash a bit of our creativity one tiny breath at a time. We do not want that to happen now do we?! Clap three times if you believe!! Come on now! Clap! Clap! Clap! Show me you believe!“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you are not.”
We have all been in the place where we see an opportunity to share or to speak up, we feel that tickle in our bellies and it scares us, just for a moment…that moment in which we hesitate just long enough to watch that twinkling of wonderful opportunity slip right past us to the next creative person who has more immediate faith in themselves. We have all also felt that deep pit in our bellies when we come to realize that the moment is gone forever. Which feeling would you rather have: The tickle of anticipation and a little fear rolled into one, or the icky pit down in our creative core for the missed opportunity? I say the tickle!! We must believe in ourselves, wemust look ourselves in the eyes, and we must give ourselves the incredible compliment of honest faith in our creative Evil Genius spirits!
By deciding to sit in the front row, making an effort to speak up at least once in any group discussion, standing tall, talking to our peers with the confidence we know must exist within us; we will become better artists and creatives, we will become better speakers, we will lessen that irrational fear of speaking up. We will build our self-confidence which in turn builds our Creative Courage – and isn’t that what we are here for after all?! Change your mind and you can change the world!“When people believe in themselves they have the first secret to success.” ~Norman Vincent Peale
This week don’t just try harder to speak up, look for opportunities to do so –regardless of how small. Yes we may feel the tickle, yes our mouth may go dry, our eyes my water, our voices may falter….we may even say the wrong thing and feel as if we made a fool of ourselves. But in the moments after speaking up, giving our opinion, talking to the customer or the gallery owner, that deep satisfying feeling of pure and ultimate power, confidence and belief in ourselves will outweigh any ‘pre-talk tickle’ we may have! Go forth and embrace the tickle!!
JeaneMargherite Meria Murray McMahon Schintgen
(that’s my name, don’t wear it out!)
Check me out in my other realms…..
- www.shimmerlings.com
- www.linkedin.com/in/shimmerlings
- www.facebook.com/shimmerlings
- www.twitter.com/shimmerlings
It’s 4 a.m. my time and I am on a quest to see a fellow friend in the rainy land of California….I hope that this post is well proofed and easily written, as I have not time to fix it until my return on Tuesday! Tickle Well My Friends…tickle well!! I’M OFF!!
