How to embrace your art when you feel you’re not good enough

Ever feel like your art is not good enough?

At the beginning of my artist journey, I, too, struggled with feeling like my art was not good enough.

I faced a lot of self-doubt and self-criticism in my creations – the ones I had poured a lot of hard work into.

I looked at a lot of artists around me and thought their work was great and advanced and my own – well, under-developed and not great.

I believe the main reason we feel our art is not good enough stems from the fact that we feel we’re not good enough.

Even if you are not a self-proclaimed artist in the traditional sense, you can still have doubts you are good enough in whatever you are working on or towards. Because the truth is, feeling not good enough is a struggle we all face.

However, as an artist, you can feel defeated looking around at all the artists around you and just feeling like your creations just don’t stand up to the rest.

So, here’s how to embrace your art when you feel you’re not good enough:

Realize everyone struggles with self-doubt in their art and in themselves

Coming to this realization is a sure way to just chuck all of the mental limitations and just go with it. Realize everyone – including those who are not traditional artists – struggles with doubting themselves and our works. Realize that you are just as worthy to be called a creator as anyone else.

Start to embrace the child in you

Have you ever wondered how children are so care-free, while adults are so uptight (at least I was)? I remember in my studio art class, my professor saying ‘Stop being so uptight, just create.’

So, what does that mean? Just do you. Just go with what you are feeling and create. If you have to put on imaginary blinders to everyone else – do it. And let your imagination be your guide.

Know that you are good enough – and your art is just an extension of who you are

I believe everyone has a creator in them. Instead of letting the art depict you – allow yourself to depict the art. There’s so much competition in our world. But if you stay true to yourself and just create, you can create something that is a reflection of yourself. And what’s not beautiful about that?

I hope this short post helped you to see that your art doesn’t have to be compared to anyone else’s. So continue creating (in whatever medium you choose, or in life) and you will see that the manifestation is a reflection of the beautiful being in yourself - just like it is in everyone else.