One thing you might not know about me is that I love crochet. And the last couple of years, I've been getting pretty deep into amigurumi, which is basically the kind of crochet where you make little stuffed animals. It's super cute. And if you want to see an example of one of the things I made, then come on over to the well balanced success.com website, and you will be able to see a picture there.

Now the thing is, I actually studied fashion so I can sew my own clothes. And I recently got obsessed with drawing and doodling. And in this episode, I want to share with you why I believe that everyone should have a creative outlet.

So this episode is for you. If you want to be braver and bolder in any area in your life, if you want to be more relaxed and less stressed. And if you've been thinking about a hobby, but you've been using the I don't have time, I don't have money, or I don't have enough motivation, or other bs excuses to not get into your hobby, then keep on listening, because I think that this episode might change your mind.

Hi, there, I'm Hanne, host of the Well Balanced Success podcast. In this weekly podcast, we explore how you can have it all how you can have a successful career, an active social life, a thriving love and family life, all of that while being healthy and happy. Now if that sounds like something you would like, then keep on listening.

Unless you are listening to this podcast while driving a car, I want you to do a little experiment with me. Take a pen and paper now and draw a car. Do it Don't, don't just listen to this. But if you are at somewhere where you can actually do this, take a piece of paper and start drawing a car.

Now come back in a couple of minutes when you did this, because then I want to ask you, how do you feel?

Did this make you feel confident? Or did this make you feel stupid, maybe a bit judgmental of what you were actually drawing? The truth is, for me, it's a mix of all of these feelings. I am a self proclaimed horrible drawer. And I think a lot of people would actually agree with that statement. I wasn't good at it in school, I wasn't good at it in kindergarten. And I'm still not good at it today. And so when I start drawing something, anything, I usually feel really weird because I like all the sudden I realized that I don't know what a car actually looks like. And then I'm incapable of drawing that car on a piece of paper, which then makes me feel stupid, because like children can draw cars. And it's not that hard. Like, if you look it up on the internet, you can see this easy drawing tutorials. And it just it is super simple. But usually like I'm incapable of doing it, if you just ask me like to do it right now. And then I feel very self conscious, because I'm just like, okay, so I can't even draw this.

This is horrible. It looks horrible. What will people think about me? How is it possible that I can't draw this, and so on, and so on, and so on. Now, ask a four year old to draw a car. It's not that hard, they will just do it. And they won't think about all these different reasons why they shouldn't be drawing and why it's stupid and why they can't do it. So you learned to criticize yourself. The truth is, I did not ask you to draw a painting to sell or to win a contest or even to share that drawing with anyone I didn't ask you to take a picture and then send it to me or show it to the world, right? It's just something that you do for yourself. It's you with you. But it's also a you that are holding yourself back. And that is really something that I realized as soon as I start doing any creative work, I can feel that my mind is just racing like, like doodling and we ever seen doodles, like if you come You can't do it wrong. It's like just lines and circles and whatever. And there's no it doesn't have to look like anything. But still when you start and you're like, Ah, this doesn't look good. And it's not nice and I can't do this. So yeah, it's it's it's interesting though, to realize how much stuff is going on in your brain and how hard that is holding you back. Now, knowing that keeping that in mind, now let's draw a cat. Now also, if you are a designer, I want to make it very clear, you're not allowed to draw, like probably this exercise not gonna work for you. So try singing or dancing, you know, the goal is that you feel as stupid as the rest of us. So if it's singing, if it's dancing, then go ahead and try one of those. Now back to our cats. With this second drawing, they didn't notice how the voice was quieting down, how already this time around now that you know how stupid it is, and that nobody is going to watch anyway, that you can maybe just like, enjoy the feeling, or the idea of just drawing something and seeing whether you remember how a cat actually looked like and like, oh, what makes a cat a cat, is it the spiky ears is the fact that they have a tail, what makes that a cat looks like a cat. And then it becomes actually really enjoyable to have this creative outlet. If you can look at it as just Yeah, like an exploration in something that you can do. Now, the reason why I think that everyone should have a creative outlet is because just like you notice with the first drawing and the second drawing, and it getting easier, and then voice quieting down, once you have this creative outlet, and you do more and more of this creative stuff, you get used to basically ignoring this little voice that is telling you that I are a horrible drummer, and you shouldn't be doing this and you're not an artist, and nobody's gonna like this, and so on, you get into the habit of just ignoring that little voice. And so you will be able to take that awareness with you and all the rest of your life in your everyday life. So then if at work, you want to share one of your ideas, you can just do that more freely, because at least you're not going to be the one who's holding yourself back, you might still get like pushback from other people. And people might not like your idea. But that's not the goal. The goal is that you will be braver and bolder in sharing that idea because you will be more confident and more in the habit of ignoring that little voice that would usually hold you back from even starting to share that idea. And so that is why I truly believe that that creative practice is what you need in order to liberate yourself and feel less anxious and stressed about those those different areas. Because once you feel more liberated to freely share what you think, then you don't have to be so anxious about it. Now, for all the high achievers that are listening to this podcast, you are not allowed to turn this creative thing into a business, you're not allowed to make money with it, you're not trying to become the best at it. And you should pick something that is simple and cheap, something like like doodling or like dancing in the living room, or any type of DIY stuff that can occupy yourself. Now, when I started getting into the doodling, I could feel myself being like, Oh, I want to like I want to do this. And I want to make it beautiful. And then I'm going to print it and I'm going to make it in like this print on demand service. So then at least I'm not just doodling, I'm actually doing something. I'm making this into something that could be financial beneficial for me. And I This was basically just resistance, right, like resistance to the creative practice solely for the idea of being a creative practice. Because then this device in my head was that Oh, like this doodle thing. Like it's horrible because you're wasting your time and shouldn't be doing this. So at least you have to try to make this into a business. And the moment that I decided that no, I was not going to turn this into a business. I was not going to try to make this into a print on demand type of service. And I was not going to have merchandising and then promoted and then having a blog and a website and an Instagram account, and all of that around the doodling. I was also not going to make an online course believe me I thought about it. But I just decided to enjoy the the creative act of purely just drawing for nothing else than just drawing. Now, that being said, if you decide to pick one of these hobbies and you're convinced you're like Yes, honey, you're write like this creative thing, I will give it a go, you are allowed to give your your whatever you make, you are allowed to give it as a gift box. But only if you are not attached to the fact that people should like it. And you just want to give it because it is something that you spend time on. And that that is a nice thing to do for other people. Now, what I mean by that is think about a child and how they will give you a drawing. So the other day, it was my mom's birthday, and my little niece made a drawing for her birthday. And so she she's just super proud that she made this drawing of a house or whatever it was for her grandma. And then she will share it and give it to grandma as a gift for her birthday purely because she put time and effort and love into making this drawing and then giving it to the person. And that little child is four or five years old, she just assumes that the person who gets it will love it, because she made it. And I think that is so adorable and wonderful. And so if you can bring that same attitude to your DIY products that you that you make and that you want to give to someone, then by all means, gift them because if you like this, and if like me, like all of a sudden you start doodling like two, three times a week, and then you have a lot of drawings, then you can actually make it a really nice thing to do for the people around you. Because they know that you spend a lot of time on it. And then as long as you don't expect them to hang it on their wall. Or to actually like think it's beautiful, but that you just give it with the idea of like they know that I that I spent time and effort in this and that's why they will appreciate it, then by all means gift your creative products.

So up to you. How do you feel? Did you do the drawing exercise? Or were you just listening and thinking that I'm completely crazy? being obsessed about how my little car looks on the page? And do you have a creative outlet that you use maybe for you it's music maybe it's it's it's like playing on the guitar, whatever. What is it I would love to hear from you please come on over to well balanced success.com and share your comments on their D episodes. And as always, thank you for listening and talk to you soon.