Fomo versus Mojo

FoMo and Mojo

See where your path goes

Maven Debut time!

A topic that affects everyone who ever sat down to get creative is insecurity. In this amazing world of blogs, facebook, instant access to a million wonderful creations on a daily basis, this age old condition has a new name...

FoMo, or Fear of Missing Out.

It doesn’t matter if you are at the start of a creative journey and just getting excited about your work, or like me, a way down the road and out there in the glare of the public eye. FoMo gets to us all.

Hands up if you’ve ever browsed to the point where you’re overwhelmed by just how brilliant everyone else is. Or had a truly original idea, and then found a whole pinterest page dedicated to folk who’ve been there, done that and usually with bells on. 

Maybe you’re selling or teaching your designs and FoMo has you panicked every time you see an event you’re not going to, or sales soaring for someone else.

If you take pause to still the rising panic, logic will tell you that each ‘Tada’ image is actually the end result of one person’s months of hard work, and that person had to fit in daily life in between. But it’s all too easy to curl up, feeling so intimidated you barely dare whisper, let alone shout out about your love of creativity.

Here’s where the mythical mojo takes a beating. A Mojo, a magical talisman or spell, in creative terms is the wonderful feeling of getting creative and ideas working out. A lost mojo means total lack of inspiration and ability to enjoy the one thing you love to do.

So if FoMo has robbed you of your Mojo, what’s the solution?

Here are my eight tried and tested (believe me!!!) ways to banish Fomo and rediscover your mojo...

1, Take time to get grounded. 

You’re on a journey, so take a look at where you’ve come from. It may be a scrap book, it may be a box of creations that you made when your mojo was flying high. Take time to reflect, because if you know where you came from, you can see where you’re going.

2, Breathe in.

Works in yoga and it works in any creative endeavour too. 

Breathe in... go find your inspiration, not in other peoples work, but in the things that really excite you; fill up on ideas until you are bursting to get busy. It might be a few hours of doodling, a walk with the camera, a rummage in the bead stash, or a trip to re-stock on inspiring goodies, whatever gets you thinking.

3, Let go... accept that it’s human nature to feel envious, insecure,or  intimidated by ‘greatness’, but acknowledge that each of us has the right to express our individuality. Celebrate those works that gave you a moment of Fomo. With practice you can find an inner balance.

4, Back to basics

Doing something you already do well is not going over old ground, it’s an affirmation of skill! Just choose one element to change, maybe colour or scale. Revisiting the familiar is a great way to start new ideas flowing and little changes can spark off big changes, which lead to awesome leaps forward.

5, Remove all obstacles

The inner critic is what responds to the fomo/mojo balance and will always thow you a curve ball it’s hard to get up from. Who knows why the mind does this! Listen to the negative comments then turn them upside down, for example; I can’t! becomes.. how can I? and a whole world of possibilities opens up.

6, Stop the clock

All creative endeavour takes time, and that mojo will just walk right out if you give it a time limit. The time might have to be divided up into chunks to fit around real life, so find a place where you can put down and pick up right where you left off. My bead boards are that place for me, I can cupboard stash them, then pull them out and step right back into the process.

7, Get honest

Any creative process can only ever be a conversation with yourself to express an idea. If you start with any other motive, you're setting yourself up to fail. So get honest with yourself, any explanation which start with, 'because I... can, might, want, need, have to' is good, any which start with, 'because... she, he, they' might need a bit of reviewing.

8. Relish the you-ness of you

You are unique, a wonderful mess of contradictions, opinions, ideas and talents. Be as you as you can possibly be, it is what all those people who's work you admire are busy doing. Enjoy being you, you're the only one you've got so you might as well have the best fun ever with your unique blend of special.