Finding your style and voice in anything you do is a product of failing to be something else. Tons of practice, study, and errors merge into creating something that feels natural to you. It’s the hardest thing when someone creative, or anyone who makes anything at all, has a role model because it enables us to be both inspired and quashed. “I could never be that,” we say, “I can’t do that, ever.” It takes a lot of strength to realize that you don’t have to be that, whatever “that” is, and what you bring to the world is uniquely your own. I’ve compared myself to people who were fifteen to thirty years older than myself, how successful those people are! How unique and strong and wonderful! I want to be that! What those people do worked for them, but it doesn’t always apply to you. I wanted to be a bassist in a rock band, just like Paz Lenchantin (from A Perfect Circle, the Entrance Band) and I heard of her classical music background, how her family all grew up playing any instrument they could get their hands on, and I felt hurt. I didn’t have that. Was I at a disadvantage? Could I ever make this musical dream a reality? I think we get caught up in the “how” instead of the “what.” Our insecure minds tell us, “In order to make something great, I have to do it the same way they did.” That isn’t true in any way, and it requires a lot of strength and practice to find out how it is that you like to do things. That could be anything from writing, to working, to falling in love or mourning a loss. Experiment and challenge yourself to try new styles, new actions, new ways of learning how you best operate. Use the information others give you to inspire new ways of thinking, because then you discover what makes you really special.
Ladies of YouTube: Nika Harper, Mighty Pen, Mightier Swords