“I Would Never Normally Do This, But…”

On letting go of limiting beliefs

Welcome (or welcome back!) to Multifaceted. I’m Jess Barker, here exploring what it means to find direction and fulfillment in a multi-passionate creative life. ✨

What’s one creative thing you would never, ever normally do?

The quirky little practice that’s absolutely fine for other people to do – wonderful, even. But if you tried it? Awful. Cringe. Stupid. Silly. Just plain bad.

As multifaceted artists, writers, and makers, sometimes the things we avoid can actually define us more than the massive web of creative curiosities we allow ourselves to be drawn to. But those limiting beliefs about what we can, should, and want to try can keep us feeling stuck. Maybe we’re trying All The Things, but shoving One Important Thing away without realizing it.

For instance, I always held a belief that I wasn’t a “creative writer.” That “creative writing” is something I couldn’t do – and very much did not want to try. It felt great to be surrounded by friends stitching together stories and dreaming in poetry, but that was never my thing.

The mere thought of dabbling with words in that way felt awful. Triggering, even. On the surface, it sounded so self-indulgent. And beneath that, it seemed far too exposing. I figured anything I might like to say would be painfully trivial and uninteresting, and the resulting prose would be obviously pathetic.

Yikes, right?

But lately I’ve been trying to push my boundaries as a writer. If ever my creative projects start to feel too easy, boring, simple, or safe, I know deep down I’ve stopped growing. So, I’ve been tiptoeing out a little further, to learn and try new things and see how I might develop my craft.

Everything I’ve ever written in my whole life (outside of the occasional class assignment) has been solidly non-fiction. Articles. Marketing assets. Historical overviews. Research papers for scholarly journals. Essays.

In attempting some essay-writing, I stumbled upon the category of creative non-fiction. That got me thinking, Well, maybe creative non-fiction could be okay for me. It’s still non-fiction, so that feels safe. But the “creative” aspect could offer lots of interesting layers to play with.

So far, that’s proved to be a worthwhile avenue. And as I’ve gotten more used to the idea of me and this more approachable form of creative writing, I’ve sort of loosened my grip on those old limiting beliefs.

I never expected to drop them, though.

It’s like as soon as I switched the flip in my brain, as soon as I accepted the basic premise that I could maybe do some creative writing and that could be okay, my whole world shifted. And I don’t say that to sound dramatic; I really mean it.

Suddenly, a deluge of ideas – huge, heavy, impossible, important – rushed to the surface as if they’d been waiting down there in the dark for years, hoping to be set free. Concepts I’d always struggled to express through other art forms, never really understanding what was trying to come through and suffering as a result.

But once I opened the lid and said, Hey, maybe I could give it a shot, these ideas ran to meet me halfway with a resounding YES.

Now, this is not to say I’ll have any grand and magnificent creative writing coming to Multifaceted anytime soon. If only! 😅 It’s hard work. But that’s what I signed up for. And it’ll certainly keep my writing life interesting.

That said, I think it’s worth us all checking in from time to time:

What’s something creative you would never in a million years do? Maybe once you open your heart and mind to it, you might crack open your art, too.

P.S. I’m so, so excited to share that I recently recorded a podcast episode with the lovely hosts of The Everything Podcast!

Maria Garcia

(who writes The Everything Creative’s and

Kelly Van de Vliet

(who writes The Girl Who Tried Everything) are fellow multipassionate creatives and all-around lovely women to chat with.

In the episode, we talk lots about making creative pivots – including the whys, the weirdness, and the wonder of it all. That’ll be coming out on July 2nd. But in the meantime, I highly recommend catching the first few episodes of The Everything Podcast here on Spotify.