How is Uncertainty Advantageous in Starting a Creative Career?
Newbies have an edge, here is how.
There is nervosity, resistance and uncertainty when starting a new path. Anxiety is also an issue which stops you from sharing the work with the public. But these things adjust with time as we focus on improving the quality instead.
Once you become famous and build a broad audience, your every word will matter because you are directly interacting with a lot of people.
But what if you are just starting? Today is my day 68 of blogging, and before day 100, I am not even looking at my statistics.
I am a data analyst too and want to analyse my work after day 100 to see what is working and what areas I need improvement.
Here is how I made it till day 68 and how I will create a new target after I reach day 100. If there is a newbie advantage which works, it is worth sharing, right?
Flexibility
When starting, you don’t know what works and what doesn’t. That leaves with so much room for improvement and practice. In writing, I have the flexibility to try different genres.
Though my long-term goal is to master humour writing, it doesn’t hurt to mix different genres and come up with something new.
Experiments
You are not expert right now. Anyone who supports you in starting knows you will take a lot of weird turns.
It is a great time to learn from all the mistakes.
I aim to master humour writing, but it is not happening anytime soon. Why? Because talking and writing are different.
Sure, I can light anyone when I am talking to them. But writing? That requires a whole lot of patience.
Learning scope
You are not answerable to anyone when starting your path because if someone is not trusting your new method, they probably are not looking for an explanation too.
You know there will be uncertainties, you know you will have some experts in your field who will guide you. And the best part, many few people will ask you for help. You have so much time to learn everything there is. No distractions, only learnings.
You realise the importance of consistency.
You already have a long term vision of what success looks like for you. And once you achieve that, you probably haven’t planned what to do after that dream day. You don’t even need to lay the plan right now, man! Just get there and celebrate for a while!
But the process which will help you get the desired success is the consistency-driven approach. In the starting, consistency is important because it is challenging to master and builds momentum with time. Day-by-day your work will become smooth, and it will become easier to maintain a consistent habit.
You become an accidental inspiration.
Now, this one is the best part of my experience I live every day. You have taken a bold decision to create your path. You may never know who is inspired by you and admire you for following the independent route.
You can’t even imagine what the power of your self-motivated actions has on other people’s lives. Some will also acknowledge you for your work. Some won’t even tell you straight. The only people who despise you are the ones who aren’t courageous enough to create their path.
Whoever talks with you will get that vibe of independence and freedom when discussing your career. You will inspire many people with your journey, and when you hear, “You inspire me”, it builds massive trust in the process.
Positive feedback from the community is what keeps me going. Even when writing becomes boring on some days, I just remember the discussion from my friends and look back at some of the best pieces I have published in my 68 days of blogging ( including today ). Writing can inspire you, and also the community where you belong.
Takeaways
Resistance develops from the fear when we are afraid to show our work to the world. It psyched me too. I was reluctant to hit the “publish” button when I started on Medium.
Once I realised it is all part of the process, now I know I will make a lot of mistakes before reaching my ideal level of success. To get there, I have a lot of time to try new things and do experiments like crazy! The most significant advantage of unpopularity? You can do whatever you want until you know what works best for you!
This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Today is day 68. Navigate to the end of article 22, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.
~Sanjeev
