Embracing the hopeless basketcase in yourself

This week, I'm thinking about Pema Chödrön’s thoughts on being a basketcase:

"You can feel like the world's most hopeless basket case, but that feeling is your wealth, not something to be thrown out or improved upon. There's a richness to all of the smelly stuff that we so dislike and so little desire."

(Book: Start Where You Are; Pema Chödrön)

My take: This idea actually helps me a lot.

Imposter syndrome is a hell of a drug. You may already know about the Dunning-Kruger effect: the more experienced you are at something, the more likely you are to question your ability. But knowing this doesn’t usually move the needle for me. It feels too nebulous.

But the idea that my exact viewpoint, perspective, and experience around something is my offering? That’s tangible. I can grab onto that and feel the details. (Anything that you can viscerally touch, sense, or point to will always be stickier for your brain to work with.)

In other words, as a creative person, whatever you feel & experience about a given thing?

That is what you have to offer. That’s the wealth.

So, if you’re an artist and feeling like your skill hasn’t aligned with your ambitions yet, that feeling of frustration & misalignment is your richness in that moment.

In other words: it’s useable.

If you’re a writer, but feeling like your upbringing didn’t lend itself to an easy road to creativity — that is your unique space. And when you share that truthful perspective, it carries more weight than if you’d pretended to be something else.

I think of it like truthful positioning.

You get to own where and who you are…fully. And with that? You find power.

Whatever impostery-thoughts or feelings you’re experiencing about your creativity, make a list. The fears. The hangups. The scary-big dreams. That lens you just described on paper is your truthful position. And in a creative’s world, that’s enough. Use that.

Nothing is wasted in nature or creativity.

This hopeless basketcase thinking can also remind us where we’re pushing ourselves to be something that we’re not — or something that we feel we should be. Who decided that precisely where you are doesn’t have value? (Comparison, that’s who.)

Framing your truthful position as valuable isn’t just good for your creative well being. It’s also the root of self acceptance.

Here’s to the hopeless basketcase in all of us.

Want to connect with more creative basketcase energy (so you can make good work and feel good doing it?) Hop on my Epic Email below. I send out columns like this a few times a month!