In today's society, being artistically inclined has become a cultural norm. No matter your artistic platform, a great multitude of our population today identifies with a generally creative nature.
If you have a particular craft, and hope to use your abilities to one day garner fame, fortune or respect (or all three), you face a rather difficult challenge: Everybody is an artist today.
There are people who spend lifetimes with such an outlook; believing they are a nobody, that someone else has, can and/or will do it better. This perspective is nothing more than a hindrance -- a nagging voice in the back of an artist's mind.
Being a bit of an artist myself, two songs tend to come to mind, when trying to cast off this self-suffocating mindset. The first is a song from the musical "[title of show]" called "Die Vampire Die." In the song, the characters sing about all of the challenges faced when you try to create something. They talk about how crazy it is to listen to critics, like your "nut-job" aunt, or your kindergarten teacher. But when it comes to the tiny voice in your head, it sounds like "the voice of reason."
The other song comes from a show called "Now. Here. This." (remarkably from the same creators of "[title of show]," and the song is "Golden Palace." This song touches on the pressure and stress derived from trying to create the next masterpiece, and of not feeling up to the task.
Both songs present the same nagging, yet hopeful sensation. It is the acceptance, the coming to terms with the fact that you are not the first person to have an idea. Not everything you write will be perfect. The difference, the true distinction between being a successful artist and being a failure, is picking yourself up when you've failed, and continuing on.
Of course, there will always be the easy excuse -- comparing yourself to the greats: Why do I write if I'm not Shakespeare? Why should I paint? I'm not Picasso. The thing that you, as an artist, must remember, is this: Before Shakespeare, there was Homer. Before Picasso, there was Michelangelo.
Being an artist -- a successful artist -- isn't something new, nor is it outdated. Even today, every day, we are presented with a countless number of amazing, incredibly talented artists, who make their living doing what they love.
So whether your profession be writing, acting, singing, or drawing, or any of the million other artistic things you can do, never allow yourself to be limited. Don't listen to the voices in your head that tell you you're not good enough.
Share yourself with the world, and you may come to find, the world might just need you.
