Becoming the Alchemist of Your Creative Life

How to name, shame, and overcome the resistance every creator feels

You picture the creative life as fun, flowing, and inspired.

Until you try it.

And you cash the big reality check.

This stuff is hard.

Not because you run out of ideas.

Not because the paint dries too fast.

But because there's always an enemy lurking.

And it’s out to stop you.

Photo by Frankie Cordoba on Unsplash

The enemy speaks in a critical voice, telling you the project is

• too big

• too hard

• too much

for you.

And you’re

• too young

• too old

• too early

• too late

• too inexperienced

• too stale.

Welcome to Creativeland.

It’s not Disney’s Adventureland with “tall tales and true, from the legendary past.”

Or Fantasyland’s “the happiest kingdom of them all.”

In Creativeland, it’s a melting pot of emotions.

A hot mess of fear, hope, despair, inspiration, stops and starts, and magic.

The whole range of the human condition.

In a day.

There’s a bite and beauty that show up when you make something from scratch.

And you’ll grapple with an inner enemy that you ignore at your peril.

The fear you feel is real

The inner enemy shows up in many ways.

But its message is fundamentally, Beware!

There’s danger ahead.

But what you fear in your creative head is a mirage.

The enemy looks real.

It feels real.

But when you get closer and stare it down, it vanishes.

And stare it down, you must. Because this anxiety, unchecked, ends in self-sabotage.

It will make you give up.

It will clutter your mind. It will eat away at your heart.

It will torment you into a safer life.

But it’s empowering to know that you’re not alone in this fear.

You’re in creative company (likely with your heroes).

This voice in your head, getting in the way of your creative efforts, is one voice.

It’s universal.

It speaks to creative people, and it’s known by many names:

• Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, called it the Inner Critic or the Censor.

• Seth Godin, the Lizard Brain.

• Brian Tracy (Eat that Frog author) called it the Dragon.

• Steven Pressfield in The War of Art, the Saboteur, or Resistance.

• Carl Jung named it the Shadow.

The voice that wants to protect you but, if obeyed, will kill the creative spark in you.

Embrace naming and shaming

To cut it down to size, you may want to enter the conversation with this resistance.

Answer back.

And, to be polite, give it a name.

Call it Niggling Nigel or the Naysayer Ninja.

Dropkick Dorothy, or the Doubt Demon.

Grizzler George, or the Grumpy Goblin.

Insert your * ! * as you prefer. Whatever works.

But show that you see it and be clear who’s taking charge now.

Be prepared for it to show up

You put fear in its place by being prepared for it.

Because it will speak to you at unexpected times.

It’ll be there:

1. When you want to start, it’ll find excuses to delay. It sounds like: “You need to do the laundry, your garage is a pigsty, your inbox is nowhere near zero.”

2. When you’ve started but want to throw in the towel. “This is not good enough. It’ll never go anywhere. It’s too embarrassing to put your name on it.”

3. In the middle of the night, around 2 am. “And who do you think you are to try and be creative anyway?”

When it shows up, you’ll feel

• afraid

• heavy

• discouraged

• defeated

• stale

• stuck

• empty

• lost

Fear’s winning.

You’ll feel like you’re running on empty.

You’ll feel mired in quicksand.

You’ll get lead feet.

Turn lead into gold

So how do you get out of it?

You make a mindshift that’ll keep you creating.

You turn lead into gold.

You become an alchemist and lead your own transformation.

You see fear for what it is.

You recognise resistance.

You name it.

Now you outsmart it.

You learn from fellow creative alchemists.

Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book Big Magic, makes quick work of this fear.

Her advice: Give fear a back seat in your creative car. It insists on coming along for the ride. So, accept its presence, but be clear: there’s no way it will ever take the wheel. You are the only licensed driver here.

And author Steven Pressfield advises you to “Turn Pro.” Move from being a weekend warrior to someone with skin in the game. Who always shows up. Who’s in this game for the long haul.

The takeaways are:

• don’t quit when you meet an obstacle

• don’t blame yourself for your feelings

• follow your curiosity in small steps

• don’t wait for inspiration

• don’t listen to excuses

• learn from rejection

• show up every day

Remember, as a creator, you’ll wonder if you’ll ever get started.

Or back to your work.

If the muse will rescue you.

If the critics are coming to humiliate you.

All of this comes with creative territory.

It will come for you too.

So be creative with your own mind first. Take advice from the alchemists. Take charge.