Success. The word has a different meaning to different people. In the poetry world, success can take shape in a number of different forms. To some people it\u2019s getting up on stage and performing in front of a crowd, to others, it\u2019s releasing their first collection. Some poets are happy developing their skills on a more private level and others just want to vent onto a page, never revealing that page to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n However you view success, everyone has their own idea of it and everyone is struggling to achieve it. When I began performing poetry my goal was simply to move people; to try and make them feel something from my words. Three years on, that\u2019s still my goal, alongside developing my reading and writing knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n Poetry opened so many doors for me, it gave me a whole new community and made me feel part of something, after spending so many years as a solo writer. However, the more I performed poetry, the more I found myself comparing myself to other poets. I would leave a gig thinking, \u2018oh their delivery was so much better than mine\u2019 or \u2018the way they use imagery is far more advanced than me\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n A lot of the time art seems to be a combination of having an ego and the confidence to step onto the stage mixed with having the ability to be a massive quivering self-doubting mess on the floor. It\u2019s a tricky line to walk! However, I\u2019d gotten to the point where I\u2019d created a competition in my head where I was coming in at last place all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, a bit of competition is healthy. It\u2019s good to strive to be better and progress, but not at the expense of mental health. We all compare ourselves to other people and it\u2019s easier than ever to do on social media. But it often makes us unhappy. As writers we can forget that crafting something takes time and that everyone wants different things from their work.<\/span><\/p>\n A wise poet once said to me, don\u2019t spend your life looking sideways. If you\u2019re always comparing your work to other people\u2019s or always focusing on other\u2019s successes then how can you celebrate your own? Success isn\u2019t a straight line, it\u2019s a big squiggle that does up and down and round and round, does the hokey pokey then comes back.<\/span><\/p>\n I think we often forget that as poets, we\u2019re different people and we have different strengths. There\u2019s no point me comparing myself to some one like Luke Wright and thinking how unfunny I am, because I\u2019m not trying to be funny!<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not about being the best poet or writer, because the act of writing and reading is totally subjective. It\u2019s about being the best you can be.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019re not in a poetry race and this isn\u2019t some weird word game show.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve finally written a piece you\u2019re happy with, feel good about yourself. If you\u2019ve done your first open mic slot, feel good about yourself. If you\u2019ve got something published, feel good about yourself. Celebrate yourself!<\/span><\/p>\n I always try and think of my life and achievements in years. When I\u2019m feeling bad about myself I sit down and think, what did I do last year? Then I make a note of my achievements this year and find that I have always developed in some way. This is something that really works for me and for anyone lacking confidence, I\u2019d advise you to do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s so easy to think, I can\u2019t do this or I haven\u2019t done that, but looking at what you have done is what\u2019s important. We often forget to focus on that.<\/span><\/p>\n The industrialist Henry Ford said: \u201cWhether you think you can or whether you think you can\u2019t, you\u2019re right.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I never used to understand that quote as a child. Finally, I do.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n First published July 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The simple fact we often forget Success. The word has a different meaning to different people. In the poetry world, success can take shape in a number of different forms. To some people it\u2019s getting up on stage and performing in front of a crowd, to others, it\u2019s releasing their first collection. Some poets are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[30],"article_type":[9],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-as","tag-sophie-sparham","article_type-read"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":49,"label":"A+S"}],"post_tag":[{"value":30,"label":"Sophie Sparham"}],"article_type":[{"value":9,"label":"Read"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AS_holder_2-1024x589.png",1024,589,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"D237","author_link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/author\/d237\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":49,"name":"A+S","slug":"as","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":49,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":192,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":49,"category_count":192,"category_description":"","cat_name":"A+S","category_nicename":"as","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":30,"name":"Sophie Sparham","slug":"sophie-sparham","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":30,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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