The Negative Nancy that lives in my head

Last week in my art class, we began our first project.  After a lot of useless talking, my teacher finally gave us some examples of what we would be creating, from past students.  She hung five or seven pieces on the wall for us to examine, and briefly talked about each.  Almost instantly, I thought, "There's no way I can pass this class.  I can't do that kind of art; it's way too good."  It was the second day of the first art class I'd ever taken, and already I was anticipating failing it.

After a few moments, I realized this line of thinking was wrong.  I thought to myself, "I can, and I will."  I realized that I needed to silence that little voice of doubt in my head, or else I would end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy, and actually fail the class.  To give myself credit, my first attempt at this project was actually awful.  Just like I thought it would be.  (see for yourself below!)

I scrapped that, though, and after staring at my new 6x6" square of construction paper, just started to  do.  I tried not to think about it, and created something that flowed together.  Once I shut the door on Nancy, I realized that I could actually make something cohesive and a real piece of art.  Breakthrough!

Does anyone else have a Nancy living in their head?  What do you do to control her?   xx