“What holds us back isn’t grossly [undervaluing or] overvaluing our work…

… but tragically underestimating our innate, and ever-expanding capacity to produce more (and better) expressions of it.

A stealth, yet silently crippling form of what the modern personal growth crowd would call a ‘scarcity mindset’.”

- Ry Schwartz 

This quote rocked my world. It nailed me. It called me out on a fear that I hadn’t even admitted to myself... what if this is my best work and I sell it off and then I’m toast? 

When people asked me about my favorite work, the answer is almost always the same: whatever I had just finished.

My most recent work is always full of electricity for me. Give it a few days, weeks, years and I’ll begin to cringe at how I ever thought this was the best thing ever. And yet, I still had the fear that if I ‘undervalued’ it I would be missing out on making an income. 

This was born of an old paradigm from an old industry in which I cut my entrepreneurial teeth —photography. The conversation of copyright and usage always sent me into a panic. I must protect what I do! People steal! This work could live on and make me millions! I couldn’t see how it was crippling my ability to circulate the energy. I became stagnant. My creativity suffered. I was bitter and afraid. Sharing my work to be seen, recognized, and hired also suffered. 

The quote above is from a post titled “Liquidate Your Best Work” and I’ve moved into that mindset. It’s a call to trust that I am connected to the source of my creativity. It doesn’t come from me, it comes through me. And it’s an ever increasing resource. That feeling of a flow of abundance has become more important to me than the stifled, hoarding, fear of my earlier years of creation. 

Maybe it was a blessing... I wasn’t as good at my craft as I believed I was. I’ve moved on from the fear.  

Now my focus is on doing more, circulating more, and being ever better in the process. I am connected to a divine source of creation. I am a channel of beauty, creativity, and wonder. My main job isn’t to be the creator, it’s to be a clearer channel and allow more, bigger, and better things through me. 

Everytime I complete work I can honestly say, there’s more where that came from.  

And if you ask me what my favorite work is now? I’ll tell you it’s whatever is coming through next.