Most of the friction I experience when pursuing creative ideas or learning new skills arises at the beginning. I admit I fear failure and embarrassment, but my biggest fear is the uncertainty that the time I invest in an endeavor won’t be worth it. For example, I’m less concerned about how people perceive the quality of my work and more worried that they’ll think I’m wasting time that could be better spent on important responsibilities.
Our brains have primal mechanisms that optimize for tasks we feel confident will result in something beneficial. Our neural circuitry becomes more efficient by encoding patterns that guide us in completing tasks, and what our brain chooses to store or forget is largely determined by the rewards we experience. These rewards can come in many forms: feeling good about our work, receiving praise, seeing others use and examine our work, solving real problems, or earning money for our skills. Each of these signals to our brain that the effort we put in was worthwhile.
Uncertainty can be as daunting as any life-threatening fear. The uncertainty of committing to creative pursuits, however, is a subtler, more insidious fear that can lead us to waste the very time we’re afraid of losing. Ultimately, not following through on a creative effort often stems more from uncertainty about the reward than from fear of being judged.
So, how do you determine when you will commit to a creative endeavor?
