Creative Pep Talk #100: Take a Chance

Sometimes we don’t act on ideas because we’re convinced we can’t sustain them long-term. Here’s why you should take a chance—and how taking the leap on creative pep talks worked out for me. 🎉 Spoiler: This is pep talk ONE HUNDRED!!! 🎉

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Could you leave a review? It’s really easy, and it helps SO much. Thanks!

Join my free creative community, The Spark! We celebrate each other’s creative courage, and I’ll be sharing programs for subscribers and listeners there in the coming months.

Get in Touch

I’d love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Instagram, or Bluesky.

Subscribe!

You can subscribe to Follow Your Curiosity via the handy links at the top of the page for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, TuneIn, and YouTube. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to tell your friends!

Transcript: Take a Chance

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 I gotta tell you, this is a milestone. This is pep talk number 100, which is mind boggling to me because when it was first suggested to me that I start doing these, because no. It was not an idea I came up with on my own.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:42]:
When it was first suggested to me that I do pep talks like this, my first reaction was, but I can’t do that for very long because I’m gonna run out of things to say. And I’m telling you this because it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to leave you with the impression after a hundred of these that, oh, no. I am an endless fount of ideas for pep talks every other week. And y’all it ain’t so. I mean, it it would seems to me that it would be irresponsible for me to let you think that that’s the case because I think that it’s very normal for us not to think that we’re gonna come up with ideas, especially if we have to do them on that regular basis. Right? I mean, that’s a challenge. That is something that can feel really, really daunting. If you had told me four years ago when I started doing these that I was going to get to number 100, I probably either would have called you a liar or fainted because I would have just insisted to you that there was no way I was going to come up with a hundred of these and be doing them four years later.

Nancy Norbeck [00:01:54]:
Even as I am recording this right now, I’m like, I don’t know what the heck I’m gonna tell you in two weeks. Something will come to me. Something will inspire something. Something will pop up. It always does. But that doesn’t mean that I know what it’s gonna be. Right? Sometimes I have ideas and I write them down. And so I’m like, okay.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:13]:
I’m good for a while. And other times, I don’t know. And yet it comes from somewhere. Now there is some merit to the idea that the more you do of something, the more your brain is primed to come up with something and all of that. And we could talk about that some other time. But what I wanna tell you today is somebody gives you an idea for something or when you give you an idea for something because, you know, ideas don’t always come from outside of you. Your ideas are just as good as somebody else’s. It’s worth it to take the chance.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:43]:
It’s worth it to give it a try. Don’t tell yourself that it’s a crappy idea before you actually give it a chance to find out. If I had done that, I wouldn’t have a hundred of these sitting here. Right? Just like if I had waited for an actual studio, I wouldn’t have six plus years of a podcast for you. That’s why I don’t try to hide the fact that I record podcasts in my closet. Because if I had waited for an actual studio, I wouldn’t have any. And I think it’s important for people to know that you can start where you are with what you have. You can start with an idea that you’re not sure is going to have more than 10 or 20 episodes.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:23]:
If you are even convinced you’ve got that many. It’s worth taking the chance. Taking action makes it easier to take more action. Doing the thing makes it easier to do more of the thing. Coming up with the idea makes it easier to come up with more of the idea. Do you sense the theme here? Take a chance, have some faith in yourself, even when it’s something you haven’t done before. I mean, as long as it’s not something dangerous, it’s gonna hurt somebody else, obviously. You’re on your own with bungee jumping.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:53]:
It’s all I’m saying. So seriously, though, take the chance. It’s it’s okay to make a bet on yourself. Take the leap and see what happens. Because I’m serious. Four years ago, when I started doing these, I did not think that I was gonna have a hundred pep talk episodes for you guys. I thought maybe I’d have 20, maybe 30 if I was lucky. Maybe I’d get to 50.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:17]:
Maybe? Sure. Didn’t think I was gonna have a hundred, but here we are. So who knows what you can do if you decide to give it a try? Anything’s possible. More of this more is possible than you probably think there is. Certainly, this is more than I thought there would be. So take a gamble, give it a shot, see what happens. You might just be pleasantly surprised. So, you know, if you’ve taken a chance like this, I would really love to hear about it because I love hearing stories about things that people try that succeed.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:52]:
And you know where to find me. I’m always here, and I love to hear everybody’s stories. So shoot me a note, and I will see you for pep talk 101. 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. 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.

Nancy Norbeck [00:05:32]:
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.