How to Overcome the Fear of Criticism in Creative Pursuits

How do we handle criticism? Many people struggle with launching their creative projects because they are afraid of criticism.

As a creator of books, films, and podcasts — I often get asked, how do you create so many things and not get fearful of people’s opinions? In full disclosure, I do feel affected by other people’s critics and criticism, and yet — I knew it would be a major roadblock in my trajectory as a leader.

So I decided one day, after receiving criticism that triggered me — that I would stop reacting to BOTH praise and criticism.

Normally, I would respond positively to praise and it would raise my self-concept, self-worth, and my identity. But it’s a trap. Because then the swings in my self-worth were dependent on other people. And that meant that my self-worth could be impacted by another person’s criticism.

So I decided not to react or give any energy to either praise or criticism, and instead, I identified entirely with myself on my value and self-worth, and self-concept.

Berne Brown talks about feedback and specifically criticism in many of her books. In one of her talks, she shares a famous quote by Teddy Roosevelt about creators as those who are in the “arena”.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

We need to launch our ideas because we need feedback!

In other words, you won't know what the market wants unless you take action and ship the idea, and get feedback.

If you’d like to read my article “Why real artists ship”, you can check it out here.

I’d love to hear from you.

After spending two years learning intuition from one of the top intuitive schools in the country and earning a Master Certification in Intuition Medicine, I developed my own program to teach executives how to tap into their intuition and shift their mindset to create long-term success. These tools will help you save time and energy, and we implement their intuitive knowledge into their product launch and go-to-market strategy.

They’ve used this skill set when building products that have produced incredible results.

If you’re interested in learning more about the next program offering, you can sign up for my waiting list here.

Check out what clients are saying:

“I enjoyed Yasmeen’s breadth of expertise and her tailored approach that I sincerely felt in our time together. Yasmeen’s work was particularly effective in highlighting how my personal narratives were creating unnecessary blinders to my potential. Thanks to the practices and helpful prompts that Yasmeen introduced me to, I have been able to shift away from old, automatic responses to other, more conscious and productive ones.”
-Tamara, Tech Executive

— —

“Yasmeen gave me a framework to assess our market’s needs before going deep into development. This saved us a few months of exploration and we found our first client way earlier than anticipated.

But Yasmeen’s true magic is her deep knowledge of the human heart + mind and how to use them to define and reach your wildest goals.”
-Charles, Tech Founder

— —

“I’m blown away by the messages from the learnings and the messages are all in synchronicity. There is a powerful message of lifting each other up, trusting the process of life unfolding, living fearlessly, choosing hope and love and faith over fear. So thank you for this opportunity and experience. Feeling so alive and so grateful.”
-Lee, Business Owner