Experience Is Useful—Until It Takes Over

Most artists and treps don’t move from doubt or fear to freedom and flexibility in a straight line. There’s almost always a suspended moment in the middle—a pregnant pause—where one part of you can clearly see the big, impossible goal, and another part whispers, How will I ever do that? What if it doesn’t work?

That hesitation isn’t weakness. It’s not a red flag. It’s self-protection—especially if you’ve tried before and it didn’t stick, or it demanded more than you could give. As Sheryl Crow put it: I’ve been down this road before.

Experience matters. But when the past is allowed to run the present, fear of change slips in through the back door—a quiet, sophisticated form of sabotage. When old outcomes dictate new decisions, big dream projects don’t get enough oxygen to breathe, let alone grow or thrive.

Important because the pause isn’t the problem. Dragging yesterday’s memories into today’s project is. The work doesn’t need a distress signal from the past. It needs space.