One of the most delightful hideous things about creating is that there are a million ways to get completely, bamboozedly stuck.
Every time you think you that you’ve learned enough from past mistakes and you’re NEVER going to get trapped in that quicksand again, a new unsuspected pitfall appears on the path to suck you down to your doom.
Other people can be hugely instrumental in blasting you out of your bog. Giving you outside perspective, new angles on the issue, throwing you a lifeline to pull you free when you are well and truly buried in the muck.
But, it is possible to get too much outside perspective.
To listen to other people so much that you lose sight of your own brilliant ideas and original thoughts.
To spend so much time trying to model how they would word it, design it, or solve it, that you find yourself at a standstill.
To get so wrapped up in them, that you completely lose what you set out to do.
And before you know it, you’re no longer in the driver’s seat of your own business.
Instead of the leader you set out to be, somehow, you’ve become a follower.
Stop that. Stop that right now.
Fight for your own ideas.
Champion your own unvarnished and wholly unique vision and voice.
In the wild wastelands of confusion, they’re your truest compass, your best way forward.
And in a world full of pale imitations and cheap knock-offs, they’re your strongest selling point.
TRAVELER’S TIP: Next time you find yourself in a tailspin, going around and around unable to right your course, consider this. Turn off all outside influence, no matter how benign.
Instead of asking: what would they do, ask: what would I do if I were the boss? Because really, you should be.
