See the full blog post here: http://artistmyth.com/12-ways-fear-stops-artists-dead-tracks/ Fear can kill creativity... and the ability to be effective in our business. Here are twelve ways that fear paralyzes us, keeping us from success. (See solutions and ideas to how you can beat those fears in the slideshow...enjoy!) 1. Fear Of Criticism Criticism is when people comment on our art in a negative way. 2. Fear of Apathy Apathy is when people don’t have any reaction to our work at all. 3. Fear of Failure Ok, we all know what Failure is. Another way to say it is…CRASHING AND BURNING. 4. Fear of Success Believe it or not, many of us are afraid of actually succeeding. This can make us stand out, or make people close to us feel that we’re better than them. 5. Fear of Exposure Many artists are very shy, not wanting to stand out. Exposure is a fear much like stage fright. Our instincts treat it like a real, physical danger. 6. Fear of Commitment Also the fear of making decisions. We’re afraid to commit to a course of action because we want to keep our options open. 7. Fear of Copying Of course we shouldn’t copy, but many of us go to the extreme and become paranoid that anything we do has been already done before. 8. Fear of Being Copied Our instinct is to jealously guard our ideas like they’re gold... and we often go to extremes to avoid being imitated. 9. Fear of Being Misunderstood We hate when we put out something we worked so hard on, and people just don’t get it. 10. Fear of Disappointment It is natural to avoid pain... so we might go out of our way to try to prevent disappointment. 11. Fear of Ridicule This is the fear of being dismissed, scorned, or made fun of in a contemptuous way. 12. Fear of Deadlines Procrastination is not an effective weapon against this fear... Fear can’t be battled with the lack of fear... it can only be defeated with Bravery. BRAVERY is being able to act in the presence of fear. We are equipped to face our monsters...and tame them. What fears hold you back from making your best art? Let me know at mike@artistmyth.com. I’m an artist and coach who loves to help other artists break down the barriers that hold them back from having the creative careers and businesses they want. I would love to hear from you. Would you like to see more? Join the Artist Mythmakers for free at artistmyth.com/join and get a FREE starter kit that you can use to improve your art business.