11 tiny experiments that rebuilt my creative confidence (as a former chronic procrastinator)
✉️ Quiet Letter No.16: For anyone who wants to make things but keeps accidentally getting in their own way
About twelve months ago, my creative confidence was on the floor, which is a strange thing to admit because I'd spent the best part of a decade quietly designing behind the scenes for other people. I could solve their design problems, build their brands and happily bring their ideas to life. But when it came to creating something with my own name attached to it, I froze.
Every idea felt too high stakes, and every pixel like evidence a future jury would eventually convict of just not good enough. I’d think about projects for months, sometimes years. I’d research and plan them to within an inch of their life before inevitably abandoning the whole thing because something just wasn’t quite right. I became incredibly good at doing anything and everything except the actual work. The painful part was I was never short on ideas or know-how, I knew exactly what I needed to do. I just didn’t trust myself to survive the outcome and creating had stopped feeling safe.
The funny thing is (and one I wouldn’t have believed 12 months ago) is that these days I publish my work to tens of thousands of readers every single week, and I had a moment recently where I realised just how much my creative confidence has quietly grown. I trust myself again now. And when I look back, I can see that came back through one tiny experiment at a time.
In this Quiet Letter:
Why creative confidence probably isn’t what you think it is
The tiny reframe that’s saved me from countless perfectionist spirals
Why I stopped wanting to be on Instagram (and what it did for me)
How I accidentally built myself a tiny creative gym
and eleven experiments you can start this week yourself
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