You Can Overcome “creative Mortification”

Have you ever suffered from creative mortification? This term, coined by educator Ronald Beghetto , describes the loss of your desire to follow a creative path after a negative outcome. Maybe you gave up stand-up comedy for good after your open mic performance was met with murmurs instead of laughter, or you burned your accordion after that disastrous performance at America’s Got Talent.

Creative humiliation does not refer to temporary discouragement by negative feedback; it’s called “creative suppression” (also “reading YouTube comments”) and it’s inevitable in any creative endeavor. Creative mortification can be understood by the classical definition of the word mortification. It means “to put to death” and includes all implied finality. He describes someone who loved to sing but never opened his mouth again after participating in a school play, or someone who says “I can’t draw” all his life because of criticism from an art teacher in 4th grade. Creative mortification is a complete rejection.

When Disappointment Becomes Humiliation

According to Beghetto’s research , there are two main components to creative mortification. The first is “attributing negative outcomes to your fixed creative abilities” and the second is the experience of negative emotions, especially shame.

If you ask high-level creatives how they got there, most will say something along the lines of “I practiced a lot.” Very few will answer, “I’m just good at it.” However, the idea that there is some sort of innate level of talent that a person either has or doesn’t tend to relate to how most people think of creative pursuits, especially when we think of ourselves. Oppression may come from an external event that reinforces your inner insecurity about your own innate talent.

The second main driver of creative mortification is shame. We may all be familiar with the feeling of blushing cheeks when we don’t live up to personal expectations, but it’s often more traumatic when it’s a creative activity, especially in front of other people. Creativity can feel like taking deep, meaningful parts of yourself and showing them off to others. If these expressions are rejected (or even if you perceive them as rejected), shame is likely to follow, and shame is such a strong negative emotion that many will do anything, including giving up what they like, to avoid it. .

How to overcome creative mortification

There is no specific recipe that will help everyone overcome creative mortification. We travel on our own, and psychological phenomena rarely have clear answers. But here are a few thoughts that might help.

Understand how creativity works

Confronting misconceptions about how creativity works is an important step towards overcoming humiliation, especially if those misconceptions come from the belief that you don’t have “natural talent.” No one can say exactly where creativity (or any type of talent) comes from. This is a difficult question that may not have an answer, but almost certainly talent is not some kind of internal, innate human property. Some people may be born with a more natural ability at anything, but anyone can improve with effort. Not everyone can play the piano well, but everyone can play the piano better if they take lessons and practice their scales.

In any case, diligence and talent are often one and the same. Countless hours of purposeful, structured practice can seem like “natural talent” once a certain level of knowledge has been reached. For some, unbridled creativity that looks like a natural talent is only possible if the “rules” of the creative form are so firmly entrenched that they can be ignored.

Separate the personal from the creative

I have a friend who is a fairly successful screenwriter and is regularly asked to read other people’s scripts. He turns down almost everyone except those who are already professional writers. It’s not because he’s an asshole, but because he doesn’t know the motives of whoever asks, and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Fans often don’t need feedback or constructive criticism. They want verification. They want someone to say, “You’re talented and good at this, and I’m impressed,” not “there’s a structure problem in the second act.”

People who share something creative can feel like they’re revealing themselves deeply, so criticism or a lukewarm response can be seen as a strong rejection. But this is almost never the intention of the audience. If you’re performing at an open mic night, the audience might just not get into your song, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Manage your expectations

It’s not often mentioned in the small number of studies on creative mortification, but many people seem to forgo creative pursuits because they realize they’re not likely to be good at singing, drawing, acting, or other creative pursuits. “If I can’t dance like Michael Jackson, what’s the point?” they may ask.

And in a way, these people are right. Very few achieve anything like mastery at creative pursuits, so if creativity were a competition, you would lose out. But it is not. Despite TV shows like American Idol, there are no winners. There is no awards ceremony for creative pursuits and no universal scoreboard where the good is separated from the bad.

You still can’t know if you’re good at something creative because it’s not your decision. It depends on everyone else. It may sound depressing, but it can actually be a liberation. This means you don’t have to worry about it. All you have to do is take what is given to you, get to work and present it to others if you so desire. How they react is their problem.

Remember that people don’t really care about you very much.

Moments of creative distress (or any embarrassment) can be extremely traumatic. They come to our minds when we are busy with our own affairs to remind us that we are terrible people. But try to remember that you are the main character only for yourself. Other people probably don’t remember what happened and they probably wouldn’t care if they did. It is also worth noting that many moments of creative mortification occur during childhood, and your young self was still a child. It’s okay to give yourself a break because you missed a line in an eighth grade school play. This does not mean that you will never become an actor, it just means that you will start later.

Return with baby steps

Once you’ve internalized the idea that natural talent doesn’t exist, that you have nothing to live on, and that your worth as a person isn’t determined by how well you sing, it’s time to get back to whatever pursuit is oppressing you. But try to do it without expectations. Take a pencil and start drawing, but don’t expect to be good at it. Dust off your guitar and see if you can still play a C chord, but don’t expect to be a Charo.

Being creative in itself makes it easier to know if you even want to continue. You may find that you enjoy the activity in itself, then you will have a new hobby or career goal. But you may realize that the practice required to excel at something creative isn’t worth it. Any result is better than not trying because you are scared, insecure, or ashamed.