Working as a creative requires balance. You should to be a life-long learner, or else you may need a new job soon. That’s why some photographers who refused to switch from film to digital lost significant work when the digital revolution took place. Yet, where do you draw the line between continual growth and incessant anxiety?

At the time of writing, I work as a media designer at a growing church. My biggest task is to tell stories about how God is at work in the lives of those at our church. My gut instinct when given this creative challenge was to find out what other folks are doing to tell stories. I researched other churches, I studied their approaches, and I reviewed basic analytics of their tactics. Normally, if I’m not careful, this method overwhelms me with anxiety. I see other churches’ progress and I sink in discouragement. We have so far to go. How can we ever reach this level of influence?

You and I teeter on the tightrope of growth and anxiety. We want to perform well, but this can be an anxious task. Also, designers at churches who seek to do well can become misguided in thinking that other churches are their competition, instead of partners in gospel ministry. But, what if you and I don’t need to be or beat our competition? How can we better balance on the tightrope of growth and anxiety?

1. Pursue learning without mere copying.

I love learning from others because I realize that I do not have it all together. When I research the work of other artists, I am looking for more than copying their design into my project. I want to understand how and why they did it. I want to know how they solved problems similar to the ones I face. In order to reduce anxiety on the tightrope, learn from others without merely copying. Call them, send a message, analyze, do whatever I takes to understand their thought-process.

Aaron Draplin is a great model for this concept. He claims that “vectors are free” because you don’t have to pay for someone else’s art files to be effective. You can make your own artwork that is fully yours to own if you can understand the simple shapes that make up a design.

2. Study strategies not tactics.

Organizations of all sizes feel the temptation to look like their competition. Here’s a secret for creatives and organizations alike: the people you serve (coworkers, customers, members, guests, etc.) want to see your unique value, not a duplicate of another creative or organization. So, keep your value safe by not sacrificing your uniqueness in pursuit of what other people are doing. For churches struggling with the copy-cat syndrome, Brady Shearer reasons that there is a difference between “studying strategies versus copying tactics.” Similarly, when you research other creatives, figure out the reasoning behind what they did. You can then bring that reasoning – their strategies – into your context in a meaningful way.

3. Be okay with baby steps.

Much of my creative learning is on the job in large organizations. These contexts are unique in that I have to pace applying what I am learning with the pace of the organization. If you are on a jet ski and need to turn around, you can whip it towards a different direction in seconds. If you are on a cruise ship, however, a turn is much more calculated and takes longer to execute. Your life is a cruise ship as much a large organization is. Some creatives can learn skills faster and better than you, but don’t let that make you anxious as you walk the tightrope. Be satisfied with the baby steps you make. Celebrate small iterations because they are indicators of your progress.

As you walk the tightrope today, what steps can you take to grow with little anxiety?