Creative Pep Talk #99: Trust Yourself

How much do you trust yourself? Why should you start trusting yourself, and how do you start doing it more? I answer these questions in this super short episode.

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Transcript: Trust Yourself

Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Hey, everybody. This is Nancy Norbeck with this week’s creative pep talk. And, you know, I’m wondering, how much do you trust yourself? A lot of us don’t. A lot of us don’t a lot.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:31]:
Some of us don’t a little. Some of us are somewhere in between. And some of us have kind of figured out how to do it. But a lot of us really don’t trust ourselves. And a lot of us, you know, it’s because we’ve been trained not to. You know, we live in a society where we have to ask permission for a lot of things and not just when we’re kids. When we’re kids, it makes sense because we don’t know any better. But even when we’re adults, we have to ask permission for a lot of stuff, especially if we have an employer.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:58]:
You know, it’s a lot like still having a parent that you have to go to for all sorts of permission from the, you know, sane to the ridiculous. And it erodes our ability to trust ourselves a lot of the time. And so, you know, I was thinking about this, like, how much do we really trust ourselves, not as much as we should. Most of us are smarter than we think we are, most of us have better instincts than we think we do. And we’ve been trained not to listen to our instincts much at all. And so we have this little sort of deficit in our ability to trust ourselves. And so, you know, start thinking about where you can trust yourself more. Start stopping and listening to what you really think, what you really know, and and you know, what you really can do with what you really think and what you really know and what you feel intuitively is right for you.

Nancy Norbeck [00:01:55]:
A lot of us feel like we have to go and consult lots of people about lots of things all the time, because we feel like we don’t have permission to make decisions for ourselves. We feel like we don’t know the right creative move to make or the right noncreative move to make. But the fact is, most of us can trust ourselves more than we think we can. So, you know, I would really invite you to start, you know, giving yourself opportunities to trust yourself just a little bit more than you do now, maybe 5% more than you have before, and see how that goes. And the more you try it, the more it’ll come naturally to you. And, hey, maybe we’ll start a revolution in trusting ourselves. Just 5% at a time. 5% might be too much.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:37]:
Maybe it’s better to do 3% for you when you’re getting started, and that’s totally okay. Maybe it’s just 1%, and that’s okay too. But, you know, start to trust yourself a little bit more often because, really, it’s not true that everybody else has all the answers all the time. We have more of the answers than we think we do and that’s especially true when we’re doing creative work because nobody else can tell you what your book is supposed to be about or your painting or whether or not you should take that photo. You’re the only one who can say that. And so, you know, that’s a good place to start. Start with creative work. Start with whether or not you should take that photo.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:14]:
Do you like it? Take it. If you like the poem that’s rattling around in your head, write it down. If you think you want to paint that scene, paint it. See what happens. You may not like the result that you get right away, but it’s okay. You tried it. You tried it. It was worth trying.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:31]:
It was worth seeing what happened. And then keep going from there. Because it’s always good to learn how to trust yourself, especially because if you don’t trust yourself, you’re gonna have trouble figuring out who the right other people are to trust. So give it a shot. Start trusting yourself just a little bit more and see where that takes you. I suspect it will take you to good places. So with that, I will see you next time. If this episode resonated with you or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:11]:
It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade. If you like Follow Your Curiosity, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to tell your friends. It really helps me reach new listeners.