3 Lessons to Help Manage Your Expectations and Boost Your Creativity

3 lessons on life and creativity

Almost all of us have been in a situation where an article you expect so much from didn’t even pick the interest of readers.

And it seems as if you did one thing wrong, but you don’t just know what it is.

For me, that is a familiar place. I can’t count the number of times my supposedly good article turned out to be one of the worst — in terms of how many people cared to read them.

On the flip side, there are articles that I expect less from much. But like wildfire, they turn out to one of the most read articles for the month.

For that reason, I have decided never to expect too much from articles. I have endured enough heartbreaks to learn some powerful lessons about life and art.

1. Expecting an article to perform very well is a gamble. Every loss compromises or numbs your creativity.

From experience, there are more losses than wins. I have played the game for a while now and have suffered enough losses to be sure about that.

After suffering a lot of losses in this gamble, it gradually became difficult to wake and face the blank page.

Before this time, I love to see blank pages. The challenge of what to fill them with was a delightful rather than a threat. But with time I cringe when I see one. Most times, my mind grew so cold to get ignited with red-hot inspiration.

The cost of losing affected my psychology than I bargained for.

2. The best way to fan your creativity is to reward your efforts for trying.

And the best way to do this is to focus on the process.

That lesson led me to stop viewing my stats. And it turned out to be one of the wisest decisions I have ever made.

It is difficult to play this game and focus on the process. Everyone who plays this game of expectation has their minds on the outcomes — success and failure.

You will learn more about any craft when you focus on the process and pay less attention to the outcomes. And if you master the process, you will control the outcomes.

3. In art, both failure and success lead to the same outcome — improvement.

There is no destination. We are all on the journey of improvement. Both failures and successes are part of the same journey.

Before now I almost want to hit my heard when I make mistakes or fail at something. Later I realized that most of what has sped up my advancement as a writer was the things I failed at.

For that reason, I gave up the obsession to make sure I do it right the first time. And that decision has helped me learn more than I would have, had all my attempts been successful.

Final thought

Everyone is different. Stick to what works for you.

More than once I have been advised never to ask a girl out on the phone. One of my close friends suggested I should rather invite her to my house or a cool place where we can sit over some drinks.

But being a shy guy, I flopped the few times I tried it. After those experiences, I learned to do it my way — on the phone first and then face to face later on. For the few times I tried it, it worked so well that I was amazed at the result.

Every writer can’t just be like me. For some people, high expectations motivate them. But not me. It freaks me out.

So my advice is that you experiment with both and see which you are comfortable with. And stick with it.

Thanks for reading

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