I’ve
been trying to read more lately and a friend gave me a copy of last
months Shambala Sun*. It had a number of interesting articles in it but
one that I particularly enjoyed was called “What’s Your verdict?” by
Bonnie Friedman. While it was written with the writer in mind it also
applies to the artist.

The
premise of the article is that people tend to diminish their happiness
over success when it is finally achieved. So you achieve success and
allow yourself only a little happiness if any at all. This explains the
dull feeling people sometimes get after achieving success. As an
example, let’s say you have an art journaler you respect, you decide you
want to share work with that person (in their ning group) and you hope
that someday that person takes notice and says something good about
 your work. FInally it happens and for a fleeting moment you feel good
but you discount it by telling yourself, “Eh, it’s just one comment.”
Or, “What she said wasn’t that great.” even though something good
happened you let your inner critic diminish the impact.

Basically,
the idea of the article is a good one about your inner critic and how
to deal with it, which is a very Chapter 2 of JF365 type of thing. You
should check it out.