Creativity is a deeply personal endeavor. It relates to the state of our heart. It is very counter-intuitive to have a deep, crippling self-doubt. It’s one of the things that causes some sort of failure in this efficiency and schedule oriented world and it’s a form of anxiety that can happen to the best of us. When one measures and checks all their words and lines while writing, just as overthinking leads to analysis paralysis during thinking, here our incessant self-doubt and correction does the same by stopping our creative flow. Many writers recommend to not correct a writing as you go. Write down everything that comes to mind freely. Edit your first draft after you put the final dot.

Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.

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Just be who you are, read and write; draw and paint. Keep at it. Show it to your friends, teachers and share it. Take criticisms wisely, don’t just throw it away because of one harsh comment. Work on it if you think it can be improved. Seek other expert opinions. If you believe in it, then just trust and share it. As Ken Robinson says, it’s okay to be wrong, otherwise we may never create anything original. In case you’re stuck, move on to another task, or take a walk and come back and look at your work with different eyes with a calmed mind. Still, remember it’s equally fine to let go. It’s part of the process.

It’s your journey. And as Mawlana Celaleddin Rumi says “It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”