Saturday, August 21, 2010

The F Word: Failure. Or Is It Fear?

I don't care who you are, what you do, or how you're doing it: at some point in your life, self-doubt rears its tiny head and starts munching on your soul. And for a while, there, nothing you try works out. Not only does nothing work itself out, but any way you try to make it better just clogs the whole ordeal up even more.

As a creator, I experience that a lot - particularly when it comes to writing songs. I'll write ten in a week, then none for six months.

Actors get this - particularly those who have had a taste of The Acting Life, a taste at doing well, only to see it inexplicably be taken from them - usually during moment that should have been of pure happiness: marriage, birth, after entertaining thoughts of 'graduating' to directing, etc.

One such person details her darkest thoughts on her blog, here. But she is, as Lou Reed once put it, ''beginning to see the light''. Whether that light is the day or an incoming train remains to be seen, but she no longer turns back to protect herself - she's headed towards it no matter what.

We all get to a point in Life where we need to make/take decisions, but I like reading about other peoples' ''go-times'' and see it as inspiring, even when I'm not faced with such a decision myself.

Although - how can you really be sure you shouldn't be diving in the pool yourself?

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