Creative work is full of scary things.
Sometimes we do scary things, and the outcome is positive.
Other times, the scary event doesn’t turn out well.
When things take a negative twist, “scary” can drop the “y”, and turn into a scar.
That scar makes the thing we did even scarier in the future.
If only one person showed up for our webinar, we might resist hosting another.
If a mistake was found in our work, our perfectionism rages even stronger.
If we get negative reaction on a presentation, we don’t want to put ourselves out there again.
The resistance is higher than it was in the beginning.
My Perspective
I believe it’s important to develop strategies for how we will react if the thing that scares us fails.
To do this, we start with the “Y”.
Why are we scared?
What are we afraid of at this moment?
Once we know what scares us, we can ask another question.
What is the worst that can happen?
If no one shows up or a mistake is found or a negative reaction occurs, so what?
What will happen?
Then, the next question: How will we react?
This one is important because the action we might take when the failure happens, might not be the best.
We could blame someone for the mistake or reply to the negative comment in a combative way.
These responses wouldn’t be helpful, and they might just deepen the scar instead.
Then, the next question: What will we learn?
How can that failure or “bad” thing be a learning experience.
Treating our scary moments as learning experiences can help keep them from leaving scars.
Sometimes this activity is called a pre-mortum – thinking about the possible outcomes before acting.
Your Turn
Do you have a scary from the past that turned into a scar?
Did this event increase your resistance to that activity?
How might the pre-mortum activity help you address the future scaries?