Fear of Success, Perfectionism, and How Creativity Helps
You can learn to stop limiting yourself and enjoy your accomplishments
Your Art Isn't Silly. It's Practice for Being Visible!
Have you ever felt like you have a fear of success? And have you ever wondered what might lie behind that fear?
Interestingly, creative expression and success can trigger the exact same underlying fear in us: the fear of visibility. But, I hear you ask, why would we be afraid to be visible?
Why visibility feels threatening
For many of us, being seen was dangerous when we were growing up. This could have been because of a kind of "children should be seen and not heard" mentality, or because your brightness threatened someone, or your difference destabilised a system that required conformity. So your messy, authentic attempts to express yourself may have been ignored, met with dismissiveness, or even ridiculed.
So you learned to hide or ignore your accomplishments and to dismiss your work before others could, and to stay hidden or small.
Creativity as safe exposure
So, here is thing number 563 that I love about creativity! Creative practice can feel vulnerable, especially when we share our creations with others. And for that reason, it can offer a type of exposure therapy to address the fear of being visible.
Showing someone your “silly drawing” or “crappy first draft” of your short story, or performing your idea for a comedy routine with your friends, can activate the same fear in your threat system as stepping into professional success. This is why perfectionism can have such a grip on our creative expression. It's trying to protect us from the vulnerability of being visible. It can feel just as vulnerable and just as risky. What if they laugh at me? What if they think I’m stupid or indulgent for trying? What if they ridicule or dismiss my treasured creation?
But it’s also something we can practice safely, something we can have a little more control over. We can choose when to share, with whom, and how much. We can take a playful approach and experiment with expressing our creativity. And this can help us get more comfortable with professional visibility.
So every time you let yourself be imperfectly and messily creative, you’re building the capacity to be seen in other ways. To claim achievements, to take up space, and to let yourself succeed. You’re building the same muscle that you need to be visible in other ways.
Your drawing isn’t silly. It’s how you learn that it's ok to be visible. And it's safe to be successful, and maybe even celebrate your achievements.
Ready to explore more ways to flourish in work and life?
Taking the Next Steps
If you're ready to explore deeper ways to nurture your creativity and build a flourishing life, I'd love to support you. You can explore my services here.
Doors are currently open to The Flourishing Way, our transformative program that brings together psychological and mindfulness-based approaches with hands-on creative exploration! It's designed to help you reconnect with the vibrant, playful parts of yourself to help you flourish in work and life. Learn more here.
Is this post the kind of thing you love exploring? I'd love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Instagram @the_flourishing_space or LinkedIn.
