Fear and Shame

I was reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and she was talking about fear and how fear prevents people from doing their creative work.

As I was reading, I realized there might be a working relationship between fear and shame.

For me, fear doesn't usually stop me from creating. I write every day. I publish on my blog. I put my work out into the world anyway.

But once I hit publish, something else shows up.

Shame.

Shame starts whispering that I did something wrong. That I didn't do it the right way. That I didn't follow the right principles. That my work isn't good enough. That I should have waited. That I should have made it better.

Fear didn't stop me from creating.

Shame tries to stop me from enjoying what I created.

That feels like a sneaky emotional battle.

So I've been reminding myself to pause after I finish something. To actually enjoy it. I shared something. I put it out into the world. I did what I said I was going to do.

Now enjoy it.

That's the battle I fight. It's easy to think I can't enjoy my creative work until it earns money, brings prestige, gains followers, or somehow proves itself.

But maybe that's the wrong goal.

Maybe it's enough, at least for today, to simply enjoy being a creative person.

After you create something, do you allow yourself to enjoy it, or do you immediately start judging it?