Awesome advice from a concept artist, for fellow creatives. 8-min clip. It took me two years to learn the hard way the stuff he talked about... and those were the two slowest years of artistic growth I experienced. It sounds weird, but we have to DIVORCE ourselves from our work. It feels like your baby... but it's not. It's a dump. When you take a dump, you feel satisfied for a moment... and then you move on. We don't go, "that poop looks great! I want to keep it" or "I should quit while I'm ahead, because I'll never take a better crap in my life." Not de-valuing our hard work, just saying that this parallels what the guy says about how we so easily get emotionally attached to what we make. It's understandable... but it generates defensiveness and fear, and causes stagnation. Seeking to people-please only makes matters even more difficult. One thing the guy doesn't talk about, but is also relevant, is something I'll just call "illusory victory paralysis." During those two years, my artistic growth was super slow not only because I was defensive toward critiques of my work, but also because every time I created something better, and got more positive response, I idolized it - put it on a pedestal, in my heart's trophy case. And after this "victory" in which I deluded myself into thinking that what I just made was my best piece ever, I immediately was paralyzed with fear: "what if my next piece isn't as good/well-received?" "what if I can't duplicate this success?" That fear cripples, and you end up wasting a lot of emotional energy and time. Time spent NOT drawing. Long post, I know... no art, I know... just feel really passionate about stuff like this. If I may offer any encouragement, let's listen to Dory from Finding Nemo, and "just keep swimming." Bad day? Just keep swimming. Low or no productivity? Just keep swimming. To tell the truth, a lot of my old artwork embarrasses me. But I keep some of it online for one reason - to remind myself where I came from, and how far I've come. It challenges me to stay relaxed about my artwork, knowing that I still have so much more to learn, improve, grow. It's humbling to know that five, ten years from now, I'll look back on some of my work from these days, and probably cringe.