For more than 30 years, Eric Maisel has based his therapeutic practice on working with creative people of all types: actors, visual artists, writers, musicians, composers, dancers. In the process, he has come to understand the particular challenges of creating. He has also observed that those who succeed in these competitive areas have one thing in common: they have developed skills to overcome the anxiety we all feel around bringing something new to the world and putting ourselves forward as 'artists,' of exposing the work that means the most to us to ridicule and criticism.The symptoms of 'creative anxiety' include: not creating as often as planned; procrastination; avoiding the creative work; making excuses for why the work will never be 'good enough'; failing to market your work effectively; avoiding finishing a creative task. For the person with creative anxiety, all of these challenges will keep them from doing work they claim to love and crave. And each of these 'excuses' can completely halt forward momentum until the artist decides to give up. Dr. Maisel has helped his clients develop techniques and solutions that will help readers confront their anxiety and work in spite of setbacks or frustration.
As Dr. Maisel points out, anxiety is a part of the human condition, and it is how we deal with the anxiety that sets successful people apart. Because he has worked with so many creative types, Dr. Maisel knows how to inspire the confidence, and, if not the confidence, the questions that will get them back to work, despite self-doubt. Working in the midst of uncertainty about the final outcome and finding a way to create no matter what others say that is both the result of mastering anxiety and the reward that comes with pursuing your creative dreams.
