Stop Glorifying Your Creative Suffering. It’s Getting in Your Way.

Those who romanticize the struggles of great minds, usually aren’t the ones experiencing it.

This tortured genius thing you’ve got going, it’s fucking played out. Trust me, I get it… you believe greatness is born from agony; that the weight of the world on your shoulders is somehow forging you into the next Bezos or Nolan or Van Gogh. Fine. But guess what, none of that means shit if you let it hold you back.

Here’s where idealization of suffering stops you from moving forward:

For starters, you think asking for help means you’re not really talented. That if you can’t do it all alone, you’re a fraud. But guess what, help doesn’t diminish your genius, it amplifies it. Even the greats had mentors, collaborators and muses. Einstein didn’t work in a vacuum. Neither should you. Isolation isn’t a virtue. It’s a trap. When you refuse help, you’re not proving anything except that you’re willing to burn out for the sake of your ego. Get over yourself. Let people in. It won’t make your work less “yours.” It’ll make it better.

Further, the struggling artist cliché is just that. It’s tired. Maybe it was special and inspiring when such and such musician moved to New York with $11.00 in her pocket, but we have the internet now, so there’s not as many excuses anymore. My point is not to diminish hardship, but rather to ask yourself if you have TRULY exhausted all resources for help towards prosperity, or are you clinging onto some “idea” of what it means to be a struggling genius?

When you look at agony as a badge of honor, recognize that that is your ego speaking. Beyond the fact that romanticizing struggle sabotages you by keeping you from changing, it’s a clever way for your ego to trick you into thinking you somehow like it. That you are revered as one of the great geniuses whose story will be taught in universities, and who Tom Holland will depict in the epic biopic of your life. It’s all a lie.

Or perhaps it’s more sad than that? You might even think you deserve this pain, or rather, don’t deserve to feel happy and fulfilled. This illusion of what it means to sacrifice everything for your art and dreams is toxic. A comedian doesn’t have to be enslaved to his pain to write material about it, he just has to know how to recognize, process and express it when it shows up.

Additionally, when you get locked into idealization, it brings about secondary habits that will hinder your growth. Perfectionism, comparison and self-doubt to name a few. You’re not perfect. You never will be. No one else is either. Those “geniuses” you worship? They failed. A lot. And not in the cinematically explosive way you’ve heard about, but in the form of many unfinished sheets of music and ripped up pages of drafts upon drafts. They sought the advice of mentors and trusted friends to proof-read and give thoughts, and you need to as well.

We all want the story of our success to reflect our character more than our achievements. That despite all odds, we persevered and pushed though to greatness. But a film (more often than not) only has one credited director. Lesser-known, are the dozens to hundreds of people who supported that director’s vision. Finally, creating from a place of joy doesn’t make your work less authentic. In fact, it can make it more resonant and more impactful. 

Pain isn’t your only story and struggle isn’t your identity. Creation is. Find your tribe, ask for help and go build.