Giving ourselves our own credentials



award
It is all too easy to feel we don’t have the right credits, enough credentials, or sufficient acclaim such as awards to be truly competent people and creators.

Massage therapist and actor Cynthia Waring writes in her interview/article that one of the things she wanted to do through her solo performance show was “to inspire people to give themselves their own credentials. You want to write, you want to perform, you want to sing – DO IT. So many think they have to get UCLA’s or some school’s stamp of approval. I certainly want my doctor to be trained; that’s different.

“If you are wanting to be a writer, just write. If you want to be on the stage, find something you need to say and just get up there. It’s the doing of it that will teach you.”

Tama J. Kieves, in her book This Time I Dance: Trusting the Journey of Creating the Work You Love asks, “Is there a place in your life that you would like to enter, but feel like you might not be up to snuff?

“Maybe you’re telling yourself you don’t have the experience, credentials, contacts, or right stuff.

“But truly I believe, we are drawn where we belong. We may feel awkward, but that doesn’t negate the dynamic grace within us.”

As many of the interviews on this site with artists, writers, psychologist and others confirm, there are multiple paths we develop throughout our lives, with or without awards and credentials.

And many high ability people deflate their talents by being so self-critical they don’t really acknowledge their true abilities – see my article Being Creative and Self-critical – and the page impostor feelings. Even having an Academy Award [for The Hours] has not prevented Nicole Kidman, for example, from feeling she might be “a fraud” – as she commented last year, about starting a new film: “They’re going to look at me to fire me. Which is what I always think anyway.”

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12.10.06   By Douglas Eby
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  • Douglas Eby

    Thanks for your stimulating comments. Certainly in the entertainment industry, looks are a significant aspect of many people’s ‘resume’ to be considered as an actor or other performer. But looks only go so far. Casting decisions and achievement as a performer require talent, not just good looks. There are any number of models who have tried to be actors with only marginal success. And there are many very talented working actors – not movie stars – who have unusual and distinctive looks, rather than conforming glamor.

  • http://katelandishaw.com Kate Landishaw

    It’s easy to say “just get out there” and do something, but in order to get hired/paid to do it credentials are needed, unless you have contacts or money. Or look beautiful/interesting, in which case someone with money will decide s/he can make more money via casting/hiring/photographing you.
    “Just do it” is excellent advice for writing or creating art – anything that has a material result. But then credentials are often needed to get exposure for that creation – or, again, contacts and/or money.
    I notice most of your comments about feeling like a fraud come from beautiful actresses who’ve been given a chance to use their talent, and who are indeed fabulous additions to the pantheon of people making positive contributions to society. And they couldn’t have shown their talent to the world without being hired. So to have them say “just do it” is a tad misleading for the average (in terms of looks and wealth) artist. What we need is suggestions on finding a cohort of support, or an entre to the world of people who appreciaste and recognize talent even in those of us not born beautiful and/or wealthy!


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