I found a link to the Ted Talk on Facebook the other day… if you read my blog, then I imagine you are an artist and didn’t have your creativity squashed by some girl in the third grade who didn’t like your clay interpretation of a horse… (you will understand when you watch it)  However, that doesn’t mean that our creative confidence isn’t sometimes shaken.

Hearing NO a few too many times can make the most confident of us second guess ourselves.

Going to a family dinner to be told “you would make more money if you didn’t have an art degree, and if you were a CPA or something.” is no confidence builder either.  (That ISN’T a made up example – also from a recent Facebook discussion)

I was recently talking to a 20 year old and asking what her grand plan was – what is she studying in college and what does she want to do when she’s done.  She said, “I’ve always loved art and graphic design but then I didn’t think I could make much money.  So I thought about psychology and took some classes… then I thought the medical field might be a better bet…”  She has settled on a middle ground – marketing and business with a graphic design minor because the creativity is where she is happiest. (Hmmmm… that combo sounds vaguely familiar!)

Confidence isn’t something you get and keep like a “thing” you buy at the store.  It is something that needs to be nurtured and reaffirmed and held at the core…

I highly recommend you watch this talk about creative confidence by David Kelley – it may help you see things from a different perspective.

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Here’s to your creative – and confident – success!

– Tara Reed