I wanted to share this powerful conversation from Film Courage with director and producer Deborah Correa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8diN-UPPd_o
Deborah opens up about the pressure she put on herself to reach certain milestones, like directing a feature before 30, and how that mindset led to burnout, toxic comparison, and self-doubt. She later found peace and confidence by letting go of those external “success markers” and learning to define success from within.
This interview really resonated with me because I’ve been there, too.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to do the same thing with my life: write books and make movies and television shows. From the time I was five, that was my answer whenever anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. Most adults chuckled and said I’d change my mind, but I never did.
I poured everything I had into that dream. I spent every waking moment of high school working at my Community Theater to learn about producing, performance, tech, directing, etc. I left my small hometown for film school in a major city where I didn't know anyone. I moved to Los Angeles right after graduation, lived off peanut butter sandwiches and Wetzel’s Pretzels, had multiple roommates even after I was married, and worked multiple jobs to get my foot in the door. Even after years of hard work, sacrifice, and 14-hour days, I constantly felt like I was behind, like everyone else was moving faster.
When I finally made the difficult decision to leave LA and step away from my executive job, I was haunted by the fear that I’d failed, that I was walking away from everything I’d worked my entire life toward. But I realized that pressure was entirely self-imposed. Changing my path didn’t erase my experience, my skills, or my passion. In fact, it made room for new growth, happiness, and creative freedom.
Imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear overnight; it’s something we learn to quiet with time, perspective, and community.
So, I want to open this up to you:
What kind of pressure have you put on yourself in your creative journey, and what helped you let go of it, or what are you still learning to release?
Let’s talk about it. You never know who might need to hear your story today.
3 people like this
thanks for the link!
3 people like this
I put unreasonable deadlines on myself sometimes, Ashley Renée Smith!. I've gotten better at making the deadlines reasonable. Thanks for sharing the video!
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I'm definitely guilty of self-imposed deadlines that are really tall orders (like finishing an entire feature script in a month, or hitting 10,000 words for a novel in a week). Not impossible but sure as hell not easy. I wanted very much to be a published author before I graduated university, nevermind that back then I didn't know how to effectively write anything longer than a novella. Now, of course, I'm learning that there's no shame in being a de facto late bloomer, that having a later start can actually be beneficial because I've had time to work out personality quirks and flaws making me more capable of actually accepting success (let's be real, sometimes that's when the real anxiety begins and where it can all go wrong like never before). Mind you I'm still impatient and want to get as much of my works finished and even released as I can before I die so that's gonna be a hard one to let go of (nevermind that I'm healthier than I give myself credit for, especially being just 35 lol).
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The key issue with comparison and imposter syndrome is not knowing what the people you're drawing comparison with have lived through up to this point. It's easy to treat life like a game or a race where everyone started from the same point and the results are only down to your own effort and commitment, but it's not like that at all.