“There’s nothing more humbling than being a creative person, because you constantly feel like a failure”
This line is from my favorite show Nashville and it’s always just there in the back of my head. Now let me dissect this. Being any sort of creative person is a very humbling thing, the whole journey through is very humbling. When you’re a creative, anything from a songwriter, photographer, videographer, dancer, painter… literally anything in the arts. Fearing failure is so real in any field of art, because we are always told growing up if we are creative and want to pursue a career in the arts it’s a one in a million chance you make it. Of course there is always going to be that fear but when you’re actually pursuing it and living through it… through the ups and downs there are moments where you will feel like a failure… In my experience it’s with songwriting. I’m learning as I’m going with this obviously, as with anything. There are definitely days where my mind just can’t write and all the melodies I write suck and I get frustrated. Through this I’ve learned you have to embrace the journey and trust the process. Of course we are going to come across mental creative blocks and have to come back to it at a later point. It’s all part of living and doing it. When you feel like failure it’s telling you to fight through learn from it and keep going. These are moments of grief, frustration and sometimes pure annoyance; because we all want to get where we see ourselves and be there already…
We live in a world now where we want things instantly and need them to happen now. We see our peers living and achieving things by a certain age and wonder why aren’t we where we want to be yet? Then we question our path, we question what we did to get to where we are at… and wonder am I doing this right? Am I going to be a failure? But it’s not and we need to stop putting so much pressure on ourselves just because of everyone else or just because someone else did what you’re doing at the same age and maybe did it quicker than you. Stop basing your life on other people. Your timeline is your timeline. Your path is your path. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t done something by a certain age. Someone once told me… Give it 5 years and if it doesn’t kick off or happen in 5 years… Go back to your normal day job. Don’t listen to that. Sometimes it might take anywhere from 5-10 years before you notice anything. You have to put in the time, the hard work and persevere and don’t let anyone tell you what you’re doing is wrong or you should be doing this, you should be doing that. People will always tell you what they think you should be doing but what are they doing? Only take this advice from people who can back it up and from people who only want to see you succeed. Constructive criticism is always welcome as well, just know the difference between someone giving you feedback to better yourself and someone just shitting on you in a condescending way to make themselves feel better.
Moral of this post is to Trust the process and I am learning To feel the fear in all the ups and downs and keep your eye on the goal. It’s okay if you fail, just keep going and don’t get stuck in the rut. Learn, Grow, and Conquer. 
Hanna De La Vega 