You're The Only One Who Can Stop You

On the importance of externalizing creative impulses

I’m becoming acutely more aware of own mortality as I age and health issues seem to arise out of nowhere. Naturally—being the helplessly neurotic and morbid person I am—I can’t help but think that if I lived a less long life than I am hoping for, that on my deathbed, one of my biggest regrets would be getting in my own way and not sharing my thoughts and my stories with a world (in a way that could help myself and others).

Knowing that the internet is (essentially) a permission-less, gatekeeper-less medium — what’s really stopping me from bringing these ideas into existence? Is it a fear of being ignored, a fear of not being good enough, a fear of not being liked?

This thought of deathbed regret helps me realize that I am the one getting in my own way.

Mark Ruffalo famously went on 800 auditions without booking a single one, but never gave up and is now a household name. And when asked by Sean Evans what advice he’d give to a young actor who was going through a similar struggle, replied:

You’re the only one who can stop you. As any kind of artist, you are the one who says it’s enough.

If I get out of my own way, I can begin to transform my ideas, my learnings, my pain into art, or healing, or innovation, or anything that nourishes the soul.