How to Reach Your Creative Potential
Have you ever felt like you needed to prove yourself?
Do you struggle with imposter syndrome?
I remember feeling immense pressure during my first graphic design job at Oakley right out of college. It wasn't pressure from the job itself, it was pressure that I felt from deep inside my bones. I couldn't shake it. I never felt good enough and I always got anxiety every time I was handed a creative brief.
I'm not entirely sure why the pressure to prove myself increased so much at that point in time. Maybe because it was the first time someone was paying me to design. In school, I was paying to learn. When I got a job, the tables were turned and something was now being expected of me.
The pressure became heavier until it almost crushed me — to the point where I hit a rock bottom in my career and almost quit.
I thought that changing careers would set me free. I didn't know at the time that the feeling I had deep inside came from deep inside. It didn't come from any external circumstances like I had thought.
I was reminded of my difficult beginnings as a graphic designer when I recently started reading the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
The first chapter perfectly described where I was at during that time in my life: "Believing that your qualities are carved in stone— the fixed mindset— creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over." That's why I felt anxiety whenever I was handed a brief—that urgency to prove myself!
The book then outlined the Imposter Syndrome that I had known all too well: "...always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you’re secretly worried it’s a pair of tens."
What I didn't realize was that I had a fixed mindset, not a growth mindset, and that fixed mindset was the source of that soul crushing pressure I was experiencing.
"The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned with improving." (another great quote from the book).
How quickly my desire to improve switched to proving myself after I graduated.
It's amazing to look back 12 years and see how the biggest turning points in my life started with shifts towards a growth mindset.
I used to roll my eyes at people who talked about mindset, thinking it was just some inspirational mumbo jumbo, until I realized that that was the foundation that was needed for any type of growth.
The fixed mindset did (and still does when it pops up) make me a prickly, sensitive, fragile, anxious, and negative type of person. But when I am focused on becoming, improving, and growing, I feel free, light, peaceful, and excited about what's to come.
If this subject interests you at all, you may want to check out Nick Ó's talk below. He spoke about how the way we think and talk has the power to change our business - and our lives - and how we can take control of our story and get over imposter syndrome I also highly recommend that book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck.
Cheers!
Melinda
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