Two weeks ago, I shared a post about the creative trust issues that kicked off my path to becoming a creativity coach - and I shared a picture of a work in progress…
A Sign of Trust
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April 21, 2025
“You get your confidence and intuition back by trusting yourself, by being militantly on your own side…
Today, I thought I’d share a few images of the finished “Sign of Trust” piece along with some additional thoughts on the endless wrangling between trust and doubt that gives birth to creativity.
It is tempting to want to be in a bright, shiny state of trust all the time - firmly convicted, confident, believing, hopeful…
But, in the creating process, trust is always in relationship to our doubts - our fears, our inner critics, our comparisons to others, our inability to see the future…
I chose images of twisted roots and gnarled branches from the back of an old Nikki McClure calendar as the background papers for DOUBT. They are less vibrant than the rainbow-colored papers behind TRUST, but they are full of movement and life, nonetheless.
In the process of rotating the letters from one side to the other, some new words appear…
Like “TOUST”
and DRUBT…
Also, snails.
I added the snails on top and inside the box to remind myself that often, the answer to moving forward despite fear is to slow down and touch ground - getting out of my zippy old head and into my slower-moving body that also knows some things.
When I shared this piece in the Keeping Our Lights On group, someone added that the snails also embody the dialectic between a soft, gushy underbelly and a hard, protective shell. I love this, because of course it is also true that as creators we navigate the dance between the openness and vulnerability that fuels our sensitivity and our expression, and the layers of self-protection we crawl into that keep us safe enough to do our work.
For me, the core messages of my spinning letters Sign of Trust piece are:
You’re never going to outrun doubt, and
You don’t have to trust 100% to move forward
To create is to occupy the space of tension between doubt and trust with an intention to act anyway
There’s one other essential thing to note about this dynamic tension between doubt and trust:
OCCUPYING THIS SPACE OF TENSION REQUIRES COURAGE!
As it turns out, these four ideas pretty much replicate the theory of creativity put forward by the psychologist Rollo May in his book “The Courage to Create.”
Here’s a quick summary of May’s thesis:
In the first essay, The courage to create, May calls our attention to the tension between conviction and doubt as the foundation of the highest form of courage. Contemplate this dialectic: Someone who is fully convinced of all his or her beliefs is perfectly rigid and averse to anything new. Someone who is pandubious (skeptical of everything) is in danger of becoming paralyzed. Unchecked doubt inhibits initiative, trust, and hope.
The creative individual balances conviction and doubt.
As “creative individuals,” I know that we are holding the tension of conviction and doubt not only in our work lives, but, on a larger scale, as citizens of this nation and world.
So I just want to add that I believe the times we are in call for every kind of courage we’ve got.
In his all-night filibuster, Senator Booker called on us to exhibit moral courage
The protestors who are showing up in public and digital spaces are exhibiting physical and social courage, as are all of the members of vulnerable groups - trans people, black people, gay people, immigrants, women - who are refusing to retreat into silence or invisibility
It seems to me that we are also at this moment being called to demonstrate “creative courage:” the courage to move forward, in fear, toward new and better possibilities.
For Rollo May, creative courage is the courage of being, the bravery it takes to endure a direct engagement with the possibilities and limitations of our existence. In this moment of deep existential doubt, it seems to me that we are all asked to strengthen in our capacity to endure the dance between conviction and doubt, and to engage fully in the deep feeling and thinking work required to envision not just a return to “normal” but a different way of being with and for each other.
This week, I invite you to consider:
What is something in your life or work that you’ve been waiting to feel more sure about before taking another step?
Could you be courageous enough to take a little step forward in DRUBT our TOUST? (That is, holding the tension of a little mix of trust and doubt?)
How are your capacities for creative courage serving you in these times?
As always, I love to hear what you make of all of this!
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