Using Imposter Syndrome to Improve Your Creativity
Transform the power of Imposter Syndrome in your creative career, to work for you, not against you.
As a creative that is nearly two years into my career, Imposter Syndrome has been a part of my journey. A journey that began long before I started to get paid to use my imagination, and creative skills to create advertisements for TV shows.
Some people struggle to understand what my job involves, but essentially it’s developing a creative angle to market TV shows during the AD breaks, in Newspapers, Radio and even out-of-home, i.e billboards. My job is theoretically the same as an advertising creatives’ — think Don Draper in Mad Men, and also a film trailer maker — think Cameron Dias in The Holiday.
But in all honesty, what it entails is spending a lot of time coming up with fresh ways to tell the same story. It entails getting your ideas scrutinised, your creative intuition questioned, and working with people at various stages in their career. So as a toddler in the game it’s natural to have the same expectations for yourself as someone that has been honing their craft and creative intuition for 20+ years.
The rationality and common sense instilled in me highlighted Imposter Syndrome is irrational. But for me, it’s like having the devil and angel sitting on my shoulders. The angel is my confidence and self-belief. It’s kept me going, even when I felt uncertainty. The devil is the small self, the fear, the Imposter Syndrome, and it occasionally whispers in my ear. It tells me all kinds of things, like, I just don’t have ‘it’. ‘It’ being the natural flare that everyone else has because they were born with it. It tells me, I certainly don’t have the X factor. And it tells me, I’m less ambitious than other creatives.
This devil used to shout in my ear before I started working as a Creative, and was one of the negative influences that stopped me starting in my early/mid-20s. I stopped listening to this shouty devil when I was approaching 30, as the weight of guilt about prolonging my creative ambitions was extremely unbearable. There wasn’t time to waste, so I internally excepted I’m going to just do it. This I believe manifested the opportunity.
In the beginning, the devil still liked to shout in my ear that I was a phoney! But I had to keep trudging forward, even if I left a trail of doubt on the path behind me. After all, my livelihood was reliant on me keeping my job.
Almost two years in, this devil is no longer shouting, but instead whispers. I think it’s intimidated by my growing self belief. However, I’ve realised this devil might be a permanent fixture, but, over time its whispers will not even be heard. And if I do hear it, I will always be aware of its role to perhaps deceive.
Having spoken to other Creatives in my domain and further afield, I’m aware Imposter Syndrome can creep up on any person. It really doesn’t discriminate. Even white men can battle with it, so I’m told by the minority that does. However, working within the creative industry for over 10 years, it’s rare to witness imposter syndrome holding white men back. You attend meetings where they are able to blurt out their first basic idea that comes to mind, whilst the women hold back in fear that their initial idea is too basic, so they wait till something well thought through comes to mind before they share.
Being a woman of colour I am hyper-conscious of the systems and ideologies in place that has fed the belief that I don’t belong; that has fed that ‘devil’. But, at this moment in time, I find it sort of easier to discredit these thoughts. I have always been a minority in every creative department I’ve been a part of, but being able to see many more WOC making their creative mark in the wider creative world, allows me to know it is possible; even if it requires threading through, and then dismantling an assault course set up to make my kind stuck at the first hurdle. An assault course of patriarchy and institutionalised structural racism.
However, I can say through my experience, Imposter Syndrome can transform into a tool that enables self-awareness of your personal journey. It may be time to elevate your own creativity. This might not even be Imposter Syndrome talking, but it could be your gut informing you, you have stagnated.
I say this not to take away from the experience of spiralling Imposter Syndrome, but instead to say it’s worth dissecting what is at the heart of these thoughts and feelings. Learning to discern what are the valid worries and invalid worries, will provide answers, and direct you on your next steps.
Keeping my Imposter Syndrome in check is as simple as poaching an egg. It seems simple, but it’s tricky to get right until you do. Imposter Syndrome can follow as you acquire more responsibility, and your work gains increased exposure. So, on these occasions, it’s also worth remembering how you got through it before.
These are the most useful strategies I practice, in order to deal with Imposture Syndrome in my creative career.
The more you work at it, it just grows. You form new habits when you consistently do the same thing. So consistently telling yourself ‘I will figure it out’, as opposed to ‘What the hell am I doing!’, will become your subconscious, as well as your conscious self-talk.
It’s never too late to learn more about the thing you aren’t confident in. A simple google search, reading more books, leaning on your colleagues’ experience and studying the works of the greats, are all ways you can learn more. Be active in this! Meaning, once you have learnt something, put it into practice. The best lessons are learnt by doing, failing and doing again.
You have your own special gift. This being your personal experience, your outlook on life, on creativity. This allows you to put your own flair and style into what you’re creating. You can consider what has been done before, even get good at that, but essentially the challenge of being a Creative is to have more of your own voice come through the work.
I take voice to mean, your strengths. You may be a strong writer; so know how to play with convention well. Or, you might dabble in illustration; so can place more of that in your work. I’m sure many didn’t find Quentin Blake’s (illustrator of many Roald Dahl books) illustrations to be of their taste. But generations of children did and adored his unique style.
No Creative will ever describe their work as perfect. It just doesn’t exist. There’s always something you can add, or take away from it. It might change it, but it won’t make it perfect. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone will see the beauty in your work. Every creative knows that when it comes to even their best work, they still know all the flaws that are embedded in it. But the work has to get out; there are deadlines. And, even if there aren’t, working on something for an extraordinarily long time will shift from creativity to craziness. So, it really is about doing the best in the time you have.
Let’s not allow Imposter Syndrome to paralyse us; stop us from creating. No-one will give you permission to create. Some may think your work to be absolute trash. But that’s not your business. Your business is to keep showing up to do the work, and allow yourself to explore in the way you know works best for you; what keeps you transforming into a creative butterfly. Every celebrated creative was once a caterpillar. That is to say, creativity evolves if you keep it alive.
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Using Imposter Syndrome to Improve Your Creativity
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