One of the most difficult battles for anyone involved in creative endeavors is battling your internal censor or as Jay Smooth calls it the Little Hater. It’s a vicious battle internal battle with the same part of your mind that helps you elevate your work to the next level. It goes by many names: Internal Censor, Writer’s Block, Stage Fright, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Shamelock. At its core, it’s saying “You’re not good enough”.
In my own internal battle,
I’m constantly justifying my professional existence as a photographer over a skilled amateur. I feel the need to prove that people should hire me over photographing themselves or having a friend with a decent camera do it for them. In that struggle, I’ve created a horrible little hater who tells me my shots look amateur and cliche. It’s been a year since I’ve photographed any flowers and nearly stopped taking pictures of corgi, Penny. I went a few months without touching my camera and blamed it on a lack of inspiration. My little hater tells me to be more original. He almost convinced me that some subjects are unworthy of being photographed at all.
My internal censor can be loud, but I’m doing my best not to listen. I retort by reminding myself of my own professional growth. Right now, my top priority is to create more content. I can’t always out-do myself on every shot, but the alternative is far worse.
Our internal censors tell us that the imperfect content is not worth sharing. The strange truth is that it’s okay to create mediocre stories, write cliche songs, or take amateur-esque pictures. Sometimes it’s about the experience of creating, not the end result. As creative people, we need to control our fear of exposure and accept that “Haters gonna hate”, even if it’s ourselves.
I’d love to hear your own stories involving your internal creative censors, if you’re willing to share them. Also, this article is another good article about with this subject.
