Overcoming Self-Doubt

QUESTION

Joey, I’ve been writing professionally for about four years, despite not having any formal background or training in the field.

Something that I still struggle with is a fear of failure that sometimes prevents me from getting words on a page, even if what I’m writing is just for my own eyes!

Do you have any advice on overcoming this?

—Michael S.

Have a question for me? Submit it here.

ANSWER

Michael, fear of failure is serious business. I hope you can rest easy knowing that it’s something many struggle with.

When I was younger, I unintentionally stumbled on the solution to this.

Due to a series of unfortunate events (a story for another time), one day, I suddenly found myself homeless. With only having the clothes on my back and nowhere to go, every emotion hit me all at once. I was a mess. It was then that I learned what it meant to hit rock bottom.

That was almost twenty years ago.

Since then, I feel as if I’ve been wearing bulletproof armor. Why? Because it put everything into perspective.

If I fail at launching a product or doing a presentation or whatever it is that I’m up against, I always remember back to that day. If I survived that, I can most certainly survive this.

So I want you to think back to a difficult time in your life. Maybe it’s something you don’t want to remember. But I’m asking you to take a moment and do just that.

Remind yourself what serious difficulty looks like. And compare it to what you’re up against now.

With a little perspective, mountains become meager bumps in the road.

On top of that, if you’ve been doing this job for over four years, chances are you’re pretty good at it.

I hope this helps.

—Joey

Creator of Baronfig
Author of The Laws of Creativity

I present to you one of the greatest time machines in all of fiction—Doc Brown's DeLorean—in honor of my typo from last week when I said my book was coming out October 2018. (It's October 2022.)