This is an automated archive.
The original was posted on /r/getmotivated by /u/blinkycake on 2024-01-17 01:39:06+00:00.
I have a talent for art and a desire to start a creative career of my own making, but feel like I'm being held back by doubts about creative careers. I'm about to be 35 and want to start a creative career in art (freelance illustration and painting) and I'm haunted by the words of my mother when I was a teen that I wasn't competitive enough and that I'll starve. It's an awful thing to hear as a teen when every year before college mattered you were told you were artistically talented by everyone...I haven't been able to let it go nor the desire to create.
I know I want to do this because I've not been able to let go of the wonderful feeling it is to paint, I've tried, but the doubt I have that it's a viable career move keeps my paralyzed--even though I know plenty of creatives who make it work and struggle through it. That worry is even greater than my hate of being managed/working for a company... I've heard all the advice that I should just keep it a hobby, but given that every decent paying job I've had sucks up the space in my head, that doesn't work.
If you have a creative career or business, how did you push past the doubt? What keeps you making your next creation no matter the outcome?
Note: AI generated art isn't making things better, but I'm less worried about that than my own output.