How can I stay confident when instability is all around me?
This post is part of THE DEEP STUFF - reflective answers to the questions senior professional creatives ask.
I write these pieces as a coach and a former creative director. I work with experienced creatives who are navigating confidence loss, change and the pressure to stay relevant. No platitudes. No fridge magnet philosophy, just picking up on conversations that are hopefully useful to share.
The world around us has become harder to read. Or has it?
Not many days go by that I don’t have a conversation with a senior creative who is seriously questioning how they can stay confident in a world where goalposts are constantly shifting and decision makers are wildly unpredictable (along with their budgets).
What makes us confident is complex. In this context we tend to feel most confident when work is steady, we’re getting good feedback and there’s a clear plan. So, when you lose a client, work goes quiet (or there is a hint that it might) or perhaps there’s a structural shift or, new tech on the horizon, things start to feel shaky. We question ourselves.
The less predictable the world becomes, the more likely we are to think inwardly. ‘Am I getting left behind?’ ‘Am I losing my edge?’’ Will I ever work again?’
With this comes a huge impetus to chase the new; learn a new tool, follow a new trend, devise a new strategy. All valid considerations, BUT if certainty is a moving target there’s always going to be a new prediction, and another and another….
In my experience of the creative industry (over 30 years of dramatic change) the creatives and businesses that survive and thrive aren’t necessarily the early adopters. (Unless your values are strongly aligned to the boom or bust adrenaline fix - that’s a different conversation.) No, the survivors are the ones that know what is true and constant about themselves and their relationship with their work. In a fast paced industry the following qualities remain wonderfully stubborn.
The ability to understand people.
The ability to connect ideas.
The ability to spot what others miss.
Taste.
Judgement.
And the courage to keep showing up consistently.
You won’t find these qualities on a trend report, yet they're often the reason clients stick around.
The real challenge of sustaining a long creative career is learning and maintaining the ability to trust yourself, without needing constant evidence that you're rightor that everything will go to plan.
This isn’t an argument for doing nothing, but it is an argument for putting a spotlight on what matters most in unstable times. And if I see anything it’s that when you choose to trust YOUR ability over second guessing the things that are out of your control, you nurture the kind of confidence that has an uncanny way of generating trust from others too.
And isn’t that precisely what generates stability too?
If you like this mini series and have a question you don’t mind being answered publicly (no names obvs) get in touch by email
Discover more thinking from THE DEEP STUFF — the real questions senior professional creatives ask.