As an artist, it fascinates me where inspiration or motivation to create comes from, and although I often say that inspiration finds us working, it takes something else to get us to work, and if I can put it into a word, it would be audacity.
Is audacity enough to achieve success?
I placed audacity at the bottom; it is what leads to motivation, then motivation leads to work, and the latter accumulates to unlock momentum and thus success.
In my humble opinion, audacity is the absence of the following:
- Fear of failure
- Fear of judgment
- Caring that people don’t care about our art
- Overthinking and being in our heads
- Listening to feedback too early
- Fear of vulnerability
- Overvaluing our day-to-day output
- Perfectionism
- Scared to be seen trying and learning
- People pleasing
- And many more destructive art habits
What do you need to succeed? Audacity.
Create even if all you have is your Audacity
Keep on carelessly creating. With all due respect, get over yourself and create, then share your art with the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re still learning; nobody thinks “Oh, you look like a beginner”, and nobody actually cares if your art sucks right now.
Your audacity is going to take you places you’ve only dreamed of stepping foot in. And I know it’s challenging. I am so aware that it feels weird to create when nobody is listening to what you have to say. That is your inner critic, alchemizing fear into silence. And your job as an artist is to alchemize your audacity into art.
You cannot make art that is ‘perfect’ anyway. Creativity is vulnerable and subjective, and fear is just part of your journey.
Read this : The artist’s fear of imperfection
Creativity isn’t a big act of God
God made creativity the result of thousands of little steps. Your steps to be specific, not those of the muses.
I love my myths, but creating requires you to step foot outside of yourself and hold onto your audacity. It’s not a miracle, not an act of God; you’re not born with it, and it’s not going to happen overnight.
You are the magic. It’s the small acts coming together through time. It’s the brush strokes forming a big painting. The short sentences forming a best-selling book. The needle points forming a gown for fashion week. None of the creative acts are one big block of something. All are little miracles made by you using your audacity and challenging your desire to shrink and hide in fear of being judged.
Conclusion
Enjoy creating, even if all you have is your audacity <3
