“You take great pictures”
“You should do this professionally!”
“Why don’t you sell your pictures?”
These compliments scare me. The idea that my pictures are worth anything is still a very alien concept to me. And it’s not even just for photography. It’s with anything that I feel I am good at or have been told I am. As soon as that validation comes, I cower away. I take on the anxiety that comes from pressure.
I know that everyone who has ever said this to me, are saying it because they truly believe in me and thier hopes are genuine. But it still scares me. It scares me to put my skills forward and either get judged or have the fear of failure hold true.
However, whenever I have found myself able and ambitious, I have never failed. Even if I didn’t get the expected results I still learnt valuable lessons that helped me fight my fear of ambition the next time it comes knocking.
So yes we may fear our own success, but the one thing that fear hates the most, is ambition.
