How Creative Confidence Improves Our Perspective on Change, Obstacles & Failure
My perspective around change, obstacles and failure has been shaped by over three decades as a professional songwriter. For those of you who haven’t yet had the benefit of working on your creative confidence over a long period of time, it’s not unusual to value the status quo, established problem-solving methods and to have an inordinate fear of failure. What I have found, however, is that with just a little nudge in the direction of developing your creative confidence, your perspective can change dramatically for the good.
Change Becomes Normalized
There is a belief that the status quo is safe which is not only incorrect but also a dangerous misconception. While it is true that the status quo can be comfortable in the short term, change is, in fact, the natural order of things. There is a long list of failures for creatives who have denied and/or resisted change in favor of the status quo. By exploring creativity and accepting the accompanying disorder and chaos that is a necessary part of that process, we can accept and normalize change. With that significant shift in mindset, creatively confident people thrive in today’s ever-changing environment.
Obstacles Can Be Approached with New Solutions
I’ll start this observation by roughly quoting Abraham Maslow who stated, “if the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.” Obstacles (aka problems) come in a variety of shapes and sizes that don’t lend themselves well to “one-size-fits-all” solutions. Creativity is designed to give those who use it a varied and effective set of tools far beyond Maslow’s hammer. Creative confidence offers a broader range of problem-solving approaches which can make obstacles seem far less daunting.
Failure is Not Permanent
In creativity, it is understood that failure is an inherent part of the process. Familiarity with failure has multiple benefits. First of all, knowing that failure is necessary for the ultimate success of any endeavor, serves as a powerful reminder that failure to be expected and not feared. Secondly, for the creatively confident, failure isn’t seen as an end but rather a step along the road to innovation. In other words, failure is not permanent. Knowing that this is the case goes a long way towards allowing us to take the kinds of risks that build highly successful creative careers.
Conclusion
One of the many magical powers of creative confidence is its ability to reframe what might previously have seemed like a negative situation into an opportunity for growth and success. Change, obstacles and failure and just three examples of the above. I’d like to conclude by quoting Tom Kelley, a partner at the world-renowned design firm IDEO.
At its core, creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you. It is the conviction that you can achieve what you set out to do.
Now go change the world.
Bio
Cliff Goldmacher is a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, music producer and author with recording studios in Nashville, TN and Middle River, MD. Through his studios, Cliff provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual, live access to Nashville’s best session musicians and studio vocalists for their songwriting demos. Find out more. You can also download Cliff’s FREE tip sheet “A Dozen Quick Fixes To Instantly Improve Your Songs.”
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