When did you lose your creative voice? Are you ready to reclaim it? In Seth Godin’s latest book, What To Do When It’s Your Turn, he addresses what causes us to lose our ability to be creative.

I’ve experienced many wildly talented and creative people who are terrified to put their creative work out into the world. I am one of these people.

It’s scary out there. It’s much safer to not risk anything. To not write the controversial blog posts. To not write the book that you really want to write. To not say what you truly think when someone asks your opinion. But I also believe that safety is overrated.

When did you lose your creative voice? Is there an incident you can trace it back to? Or is this something that simply fell by the wayside in the midst of a busy life? Have you reached a point in your life where you’d like to reclaim your creative voice?

Not using our voices in the service of our writing, our painting, our fill-in-your-creative-endeavor, is not only the world’s loss, but we lose respect for ourselves and we undermine our creative journey. Especially if we know we have things to say and we keep quiet. You know exactly when you do this. You might actually feel your face grow warm just thinking about it. It is our secret shame.

So here’s what Seth has to say about reclaiming our creative voices. See what you think:

When Did You Lose Your Voice?

All these microphones, all this amplification, and we’re stuck, unable to use them. Not because the amplifier doesn’t work, but because we are unwilling to use it.

 

The Internet has given anyone with something to say the freedom to say it. It has given us the freedom to connect, the freedom to be generous, and the freedom to make a difference. And we (all of us) refuse to use this freedom to the fullest, because we can’t bear to live with the internal narrative it would create–the narrative of responsibility and risk and failure.

 

To be really clear here, I don’t think you’ve lost your voice, not at all. I think your voice is there, it always has been, but the thought that you might be able to use it is paralyzing.

 

Don’t fight this feeling of dread. Don’t fight this fear. Acknowledge it and speak, regardless.

 

Is it easy? Of course not. If it were easy, you’d already be doing it. Just as the marathon runner is exhausted, the person with a loud and clear voice is afraid.

 

But she speaks, regardless.

 

First in a whisper if you must, but begin.

What do you need to begin to speak in a whisper, in order to honor your creative voice? What do you need to say into the microphone, however timidly? xo

P. S. If you’re interested in this topic you may also enjoy my book Fearless Writing for Women: Extreme Encouragement & Writing Inspiration.