"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" goes the familiar rhyme.
Hmmm...
Words in fact can do more damage to your creativity, confidence and self-esteem than any physical pain.
So how do we use words to limit our creativity? First there are the obvious negative words that exist in our minds.
These come essentially from two sources - ourselves and other people.
There are the discouraging or barbed comments from another person we're close to, like "Yeh it's a good effort for you, but it's obvious your sister got the lion's share of creative talent in this family" or "You've spent all that time and come up with this?!".
Painful.
Then there are the self-produced negative comments, the voice of the inner critic.
"You haven't got any real creative talent, why do you bother?", "You'll only mess up if you try something different" and "No-one's going to even see your work, what's the point of creating anything", are all popular shots down at your local "Beat Yourself Up bar".
These two sources of negative comments, though they can of course be very damaging, are fairly easy to spot.
And because of this, it's easier to take action to combat them.
What's potentially even more destructive and can slowly unravel your creative confidence over time is the less obvious negative language.
Take this example.
Say you're writing your first novel and you're only a couple of chapters in.
A friend asks what you've been up to in your creative life lately.
You could say: "I'm working on my first novel.
I've only written a couple of chapters though, so I've got a long way to go.
Plus this is only the first draft so it's going to be a long time until I can even think about finishing...
" Sounds honest enough.
But it's loaded with less than positive language.
And if you're saying this to your friend, it sets up the mindset that you're going to carry throughout the time you're writing your novel.
It's not going to help you create more, and over time it's actually going to eat away at the creative confidence you do have.
So what if instead you said "I'm writing a new novel.
I've already done a few chapters and it's going very well.
I'm focusing on enjoying my writing and letting the story develop naturally.
I'm really pleased with how it's going, thanks for asking!" Now you've not changed any of the actual facts.
But you've framed the whole experience in a far more positive light.
And, as before, the way you spoke will influence your mindset and attitude towards your writing as you proceed.
As you can see, it's not only the obvious negative language you use that can limit your creativity.
Be vigilant to ALL less than positive language you use when you speak to people - and to yourself - about your creative work and life.
This simple observation technique can make a huge difference to both how much you create AND how much you enjoy creating.