Creative Director: Trust

I Create: Creative Director of My Life

(*Special announcement ~ Book Birthday ~ details below!)

Trust: Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc, of a person or thing; confidence.

Trusting yourself and your instincts. Building this trust can take time. As you get to know yourself over years and years. You get familiar with how you stick to your word, your commitments, and your morals or ethics, when tested.

Once you’ve built up the confidence, you find that trusting yourself is just a natural step. You have confidence to trust your instincts. Confidence and self-trust do go hand in hand. You trust yourself so therefore have the confidence to take the action needed. Or you have confidence about yourself, so you can trust the decisions and intentions and instincts that come through.

Trusting I was making right decisions for me, was a gradual process. I used to question a lot, should I have done this or that? Should I have gone right or left? And I would worry too much about little things that really were inconsequential. I gradually let go of a lot of silly doubt and began to ask myself- so what? What is the fear about? If I realized I should have gone right, I can find my way and make a plan to get back to where I need, can’t I? I began to trust, that I could figure it out. I have demonstrated and proved enough times that I could change course or correct things that weren’t what I wanted. So if I make a mistake, I can trust myself to figure it out. It was all a growth in confidence and trust. Life is about that growth. The journey is about that growth.

I had gone to school for art, but I doubted too much. How can I make a living? What job could I even do? I doubted and ended up doing things that didn’t align with me. Jobs like bookkeeping or estimating. They were all valid and useful for my journey but they weren’t ‘the’ job for me.

Years out of college, I realized that I loved Children’s books. What I had always loved was Children’s books. They were so full of magic for me, when I was a kid. I adored looking through the illustrations.

I’ve come to realize that my style or even my ‘purpose’ of creating Children’s books isn’t for everyone. But I have learned to trust that this is for me, as my art always came back to this. Maybe people think it’s juvenile.. my ‘wonder’ at things. This purpose isn’t for everyone but it’s for me. And that’s who I am. I love finding the joy and the magic in little things. I appreciate ‘wonder’ when looking around the world around me. I would rather be the one looking for magic and being in awe, than someone who is too cool for it. I don’t care about being cool (not that much), because I’ve never been good at it.

Once you Trust yourself and your purpose, I feel like nothing can hold you back. You just trust what is meant for you will find you.

As far as my announcement: the book I’ve illustrated is ready for purchase. It’s ‘live’ on Friesen Press, which I’ve linked here on my homepage ~ see the *New* My First Illustrated Book button! [local friends and family, the author is looking into a pre-order option in consideration of shipping costs].

I feel in awe that this day is here. My book birthday. Imagine if I hadn’t trusted? Except when you know something is meant for you, there is no choice but to trust. I look forward to holding the book in my hands. That’s all I need.

Until next week,

Devon