How to get creativity and fear to shake hands and get to work

When it comes to creativity we live with a tough paradox.
Whilst nothing can reward us quite as much as daring to put something new into the world, the charged moments before we take that leap will usually trigger anything from subtle to incapacitating fear.
We are socially wired animals and rewarded by approval, so it stands to reason that the creative impulse to share pretty much anything of ourselves can terrify us.

No wonder, really, that we do a sharp backtrack most of the time— attempts to reveal our genuine nature or unique thoughts, demands we get comfortable with a nasty sense of personal risk.
So, no matter how innocuous and unthreatening the external context is in reality we remain convinced this is the time it really will go 100% wrong. No, really. Better to stay in our box — fear tells us. Imagine what might happen if we are actually deluded/deeply untalented etc? The consequences, as we imagine them, don’t bear thinking about. Social humiliation? Great….yes please.
Thankfully, these fearful scaremongers in our heads are ideas we have conjured up usually with great creativity and conviction, but, without any grounding in reality. When it comes to our own self-constructed beliefs we usually make emotionally convincing yet wholly inaccurate predictions of our own worth and talents. Well worth trying to remember the next time the fear monster threatens to strike.
But is it possible to re-programme our brain to make peace between fear and creativity? Can we learn to think, feel and act with creative confidence despite of fear? Or is it more a case of managing it better?
I am curious who is working their fear/creative dilemma most effectively and how? What strategies are they using to manage it?

Here’s what I am learning about what creative people do/think/act to get fear and creativity to agree to work together:
#1 They make room for fear, but don’t let it control them: When doubts strike for Author Elizabeth Gilbert she asks herself 1.Is anybody’s life in mortal danger? and 2. What’s the alternative to doing this?

#2 They dial down the drama: Instead of pretending your fear doesn’t exist, acknowledge that it’s there, but dial down the drama around it. Don’t get macho with it, or try and conquer it. We are ordinary people with some ideas, not heroic titans on a world-mission.

#3 They don’t try and find the “perfect moment” to put something out there: Chances are that moment is your own creation and will never come.Fear will tell you there is. It’s just fear being sneaky. Small steps and sheer persistence are far better strategies, unsexy though they are.

#4 They don’t take failure to heart: Of course we won’t get everything right, the trick is not to care so much. Highly successful creative people are not more accurate/smart they just have more attempts and don’t let the failures stop them. Hmm.
#5 They get over themselves and make it fun: It helps to remember that whilst it all feel very serious, most people are really not paying that much attention— that can feel pretty freeing when the fear strikes.

Let me know what you have tried to work with fear and creativity in helpful ways….What worked? How do you deal with it? Would love to hear.
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