How to Build Creative Confidence (5 Ideas That Changed the Way I Create)
The biggest obstacle to your creative goals isn't a lack of talent; it’s a lack of creative confidence. Here are five ideas to help you build both.
I’d boldly guess that nearly everyone has a creative project within them. One they’ve imagined but never started. Perhaps you've been wanting to start a YouTube channel, launch a podcast, write a book, post more consistently on LinkedIn, share your photos, start a new hobby or simply express your ideas more often.
Despite good intentions, many of our creative goals never make it beyond the idea stage. The difference between those who pursue their ideas and those who don’t isn't usually creativity or talent; it’s creative confidence. The good news? Creative confidence isn't something you're simply born with or not; it's something you build, one quietly confident act at a time.
1. Know Thy Enemy: Resistance
When you put a name to the enemy of creativity, it becomes the character you know you’re fighting. In my recent blog, The 1-Hour Rule: How One Hour a Day Can Transform Your Future, I highlighted that the enemy is Resistance - with a capital R. This was an idea that first resonated with me when I read Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be by Steven Pressfield.
A go-to for many creatives, the author also of The War of Art has become a champion for rallying against Resistance. He treats Resistance as an invisible force that opposes anything meaningful you are trying to do.
Resistance wears many guises. Manifesting itself as, for example:
Perfectionism
Procrastination
Overplanning
Endless research
Busywork
Self-doubt
Fear of criticism
Waiting for inspiration
Comparing yourself with others
Pressfield reiterates that Resistance is the real enemy. Not a lack of talent or time.
Resistance sounds like:
"I'll start tomorrow."
"I'm not ready yet."
"I need another course first."
"Someone else has already done this."
"What if people judge me?"
"I'll wait until I have more time.”
One of the most encouraging parts of Pressfield's philosophy is that professionals don't eliminate Resistance - they expect it, and they show up anyway at a
Time and
Place
they told themselves they would.
2. Create an Alter Ego
Do you find feeling like there is a creative identity you’d love to have but couldn’t possibly embody? That’s okay - your alter ego can. As I shared in my earlier blog, Your Alter Ego Advantage: Secret Identities of Elite Performers for Moments that Matter, this is the secret strategy elite performers, from singers to athletes, use to unlock their full potential. The Alter Ego Effect by Todd Herman is one of my new favourite books and is a complete guide for creating your alter ego.
Your alter ego is not about being inauthentic; it’s a performance identity that helps you step into your heroic self. Herman says:
"The process of using an alter ego is not about changing one's fundamental self but rather about revealing the heroic qualities that are already present within.”
Your alter ego temporarily upgrades your self-concept - your identity - and therefore shifts your behaviour. See it as: you don’t rise to your goals - you fall to your identity.
In a well-known study, psychology researchers explored the performance of three groups of children:
Those who were referring to themselves in the first person performed the worst.
The second group, who referred to themselves in the third person, performed better.
The third group, who associated their work with their favourite hard-working character, like Batman, for example, outperformed the rest.
Being associated with a character helped the children perform to those standards. From totems to activation events, you can learn to activate your alter ego when you need it most.
3. Morning Pages & Artist Dates
As I shared in my earlier blog, Create your ultimate day (in advance): Morning Pages & mini visualisations, Morning Pages has become one of my favourite daily rituals in the last couple of years. The practice, proposed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, has a cult following and invites you to freely write three pages of flowing handwritten thoughts every morning. Writing at the speed of your thoughts before ‘The Censor ’ - another enemy worth naming - has a chance to hinder your creativity.
Morning Pages is designed to help you subconsciously unlock your creativity over time and, importantly, overcome The Censor - the logical brain. The survival brain is fighting to keep you supposedly “safe”, while trapping you in limiting ideas and beliefs.
I have personally found a digital version of Morning Pages more sustainable. Choosing to write one digital page each day. There’s no need to buy new journals, and you never run out of pages.
The second tool for creativity that Cameron advocates for is an Artist Date - a regular, likely weekly time in your schedule to explore your creativity with a child-like sense of curiosity and creative confidence. You’re making scheduled time to spend with yourself, visiting inspiring places or exploring creative pursuits.
4. Explore Your Adjacent Possible
While thinking beyond your comfort zone is a cliché, the idea of the Adjacent Possible presents a more interesting proposition. The idea first resonated with me when I read the book So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport. The Adjacent Possible is the space just beyond the current cutting edge of your field. It’s where innovation and opportunities are reachable only after you’ve mastered foundational skills. You unlock these possibilities through deliberate practice. The concept of the Adjacent Possible is borrowed from biologist Stuart Kauffman. It refers to exploring the immediate next steps in innovation rather than leaping to a distant, unrealistic goal.
With an Adjacent Possible mindset for your own creative confidence, find the edge of what you're currently doing and operate just beyond it. For example:
Share a video on a new theme.
Post a photo you normally wouldn’t.
Present your pitch in a different way.
Write more conversationally than you normally would.
Wear a slightly bolder outfit.
Growing your creative confidence doesn’t need to come in giant leaps. It can be simply unlocked, the very next layer of existing creativity. With each new layer, your creative confidence compounds in meaningful ways over time.
5. Ship Creative Work
In the book The Practice, Seth Godin advocates for committing to not your output, but your input - the part you can control. But don’t simply hoard the fruits of your practice; ship your work.
As Godin highlights, why ‘ship creative work’?
Ship - because it doesn’t count if you don’t share it.
Creative - because you’re not a cog in a system; you’re a creator, a problem solver and a generous leader.
Work - because whether or not you’re paid for it, pursue it like a professional.
With the continuous cycle of creating and shipping, Resistance and fear become disempowered.
Instead of aiming to create a masterpiece, focus on the smallest unit of your genius.
When it comes to your personal brand, you may want to write a best-seller. Or pursue another creative equivalent in your field. But why not start by just writing? Write one blog post, and then another.
The goal is not perfection, but consistency.
Creative Confidence Loop
Creative confidence isn't built by waiting until you feel fearless. It's built by showing up despite Resistance, stepping into the identity of the creative you want to become, stretching just beyond your current comfort zone, and sharing your work.
Every video you upload, photo you share, presentation you deliver or idea you put into the world is another vote for the creative person you're becoming. Confidence doesn't come before creating; it grows because you create.
