We Do Deserve What We’re Worth
Don’t let the little lies we tell ourselves ruin our chances.
A friend of mine was recently lamenting about how she feels bad when asking for payment for creating pieces of art on commission.
When I read her comments regarding why she feels undeserving, I realized the feelings she had relating to it were similar to my own experiences. For years, I’ve felt like my own work doesn’t justify what I’d love to see in return, and I’ve tried to figure out why that should be.
I think, for a lot of folks like us, it comes down to a couple of different issues.
We’re taught that we’re worth less.
The first is that artists and writers aren’t really “taught” that what we do adds value to the world. We do know it, deep inside, but it’s hard to put a tangible “price” on that kind of thing.
Most of us have a passion for it, and started off as “hobbyists” when young. Because it’s something we’re passionate about, we subconsciously think along the lines of, “What? How can I deserve to get paid for this?”
At the same time, most of us suffer from impostor syndrome and think, again most of the time subconsciously, that we don’t deserve to get paid, because what we do “isn’t that great anyway.”
Thirdly, and perhaps…
