On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift up.

Sometimes you just need a creative pep song.

Hey, you're listening to the Creative Pet Talk podcast.

I'm your host, Andy J. Pizza.

I don't know if it feels like this to you, but to me, it feels like the only metric of creative success today that the mainstream is really keeping track of is, did it or did it not go viral?

Like, how many views does it have? How many likes did it have? Wow, that many views? Wow, pay attention. Wow, it must be something of note.

I mean, is it just me or does that feel like the only litmus test for whether something is good in the mainstream public's view?

If this is true, if it's good, it will go viral. If it didn't go viral, it's not good.

You have two options as a creator. You either try to go viral with your creative work or you just accept that your work sucks.

Or at least will not be seen as good and see if you can keep showing up to the blank page day after day and stay motivated to making stuff when you are convinced that your work sucks.

Now, spoiler alert, you probably won't stay motivated.

Who wants to finish a day's work and be like, well, another bad day's work that nobody cares about, like that takes a certain kind of weird fuses, not functioning quite right in your brain for that to keep going.

Because we're social animals. We know we're on borrowed time. If you're spending insane amounts of time on stuff that your convinced sucks and is no use to anybody, that is not a long term strategy for disciplines, motivated, creative making.

So what do you do? You don't try to go viral. You don't accept that your work sucks. You go for the invisible third option that we're going to talk about in this episode today.

But before we do that, click word from the old and the new sponsors.

Quick shout out to the sponsors. Darkboard is a new ultra light ergonomic drawing surface for your iPad. It's developed by the creators of AstroPad Studio, long time friends of this show.

They created Darkboard to fix some of the most common pain points of artists like hand cramps, bad posture, bean stuck at your desk. Later in this episode, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about Darkboard.

But the Kickstarter to fund Darkboard is out now. Go be one of the first backers. They get the best rewards. Go to darkboard.com to learn more.

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Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com slash creative pet with a free trial. Later in this episode, I'm going to tell you about a class that I was checking out called Windback Your Creative Confidence by crushing your inner critic.

I added that bit to the title. But it looks awesome. It's by Lucy Lambrix. And I will tell you about it later.

Hey, this is part five of our human rhythms over algorithm series. I told you part four was going to be the last one, but I lied to you because we have one more. It's a bonus. It was just something I felt like we couldn't leave unsaid, which was addressing the the pressure of going viral.

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