Courtesy of twentyfour students

I came across a podcast on Goins Writer last week where Jeff Goins interviewed with the author Robert Greene on Learning the Secret to Mastery, particularly as it relates to writing and creativity.

Mr. Greene gave many useful tips in his interview but the one that struck me the most was this:
That people know what they want to do when they're very young.

What if you're struggling to find your inner artist? What's the first step?

It's looking at your childhood.

First, look to when you were a child. What kinds of things did you like to do as a child?

Lately, I myself have been struggling with whether or not I'm a writer. Like, for the past month, I've been doubting myself. Was I wrong in my desire to write? Why is my writing not any good? Will I ever get better at it? Is writing not for me?

After listening to Mr. Greene's interview, I looked back into my childhood to see what I had loved doing. And I realized one important thing.

That even as a child I wanted to be a writer. 

I remember sitting at my grandma's house in her big tan chair with my black notebook and just writing stories in the lamplight while she watched westerns or the Andy Griffith Show.

I wrote stories about true love and my favorite beanie babies.  True, they weren't very good :). But they were written by me with all the innocence of a child. Which makes those stories very precious to me.

What memories do you have of yourself as a child artist? What did you love creating or doing? Was it writing, painting, sculpting with Play-Doh?

If you're struggling to find your inner artist as an adult or doubting your creative abilities, like I was, first look to your childhood. It may have all the answers you're looking for :)

As always, thank you for reading.
Melissa

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