Learning to let yourself create

I'm re-reading Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way: . (This is an excellent book if you feel you could be creative, but aren't sure how to start.)

Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse. This happens in any number of ways: beginning work is measured against the masterworks of other artists; beginning work is exposed to premature criticism, shown to overly critical friends. In short, the fledgling artist behaves with well-practiced masochism.... Mistakes are necessary! Stumbles are normal. These are baby steps. Progress, not perfection is what we should be asking of ourselves....There will be many times when we won't look good - to ourselves or anyone else. We need to stop demanding that we do. It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time.
Remember that in order to recover as an artist, you must be willing to be a bad artist. Give yourself prmission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

I may have to frame this. Most of my students suffer from this in one form or another. This week they can play a little Mozart piece - great! But why can't they play Rachmaninof? (After maybe 20 lessons.)

We don't have to set the world on fire. We do need to set our own hearts on fire, by playing at music with the same serious intensity of a young child learning to walk. The new toddler will fall down a hundred times, but she or he keeps on getting up and having another go.