Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Terry Runyan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Terry, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome used to be something I experienced quite a bit. I never felt like a “real” artist but only good at emulating other’s style or had creative success by some fluke. I thought being a real artist meant that you had creative ideas flowing through you and an innate talent to put it down on paper or some other substrate.
I thought I had to work really hard to get halfway decent at drawing and painting and couldn’t create much of anything out of my head without looking at an object or photo or some other type of inspiration. This made me think I wasn’t a real artist. It didn’t come naturally to me. This, coupled with a lot of perfectionism and inner critic, made for a pretty stressed unenjoyable experience with creating anything. I avoided it for years and only chose it as a career after exhausting other possibilities.
Something started to shift within me a few years after my career at Hallmark began. I started getting a bigger view of what being an artist looked like and that no one creates in a vacuum. Every person is inspired and shaped by their experiences in life and what they see. What a revelation!
In addition to this, I was getting a broader view/understanding of who I truly am. The sense of innate worth and okayness was dawning on me and I started to see and know that this worth did not come from anything I do or create. This gave me the freedom to play and make mistakes. The sense of being an imposter dropped away and although it still pops up from time to time, as habits of thoughts do, I simply don’t believe these thoughts like I used to.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
After retiring from Hallmark in late 2016, I’ve been running my own art business consisting of lots of cat painting and other furry, feathery and female friends. I’ve enjoyed sharing my work on social media, particularly Instagram, and loved connecting with other creatives and encouraging them to play and have fun with art. I also do this through my YouTube channel and my books; Painting Happiness and Painting Cats! These are both watercolor and mixed media “how to” books with a lot of conversation around dealing with what stops us from creating.
I’m kind of obsessed with kitties in general and have two lovely tabbies who inspire me daily; Tucker and his sister Rylee. Cats make for such fantastic and funny story telling in art because of their nature. They do rule the world you know! Weekly, on Wednesdays, I usually share a new #catonheadwednesday piece of art which depict cats as hats! This has made for a fun art theme that I have been sharing for years! Plus, this is where cats would be in reality if they could!
Besides creating a bunch of art, I do online classes now and then plus share time lapse videos of my painting process to inspire others. I also sell my original work and license my images as fabric, calendars, cards, puzzles, home goods, art prints and various other formats.
My greatest love in life, besides cats, is to inspire and encourage others by sharing with others about creativity and who we truly are.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The qualities that most impacted my journey were my perseverance and desire for happiness. I suffered a lot early in my journey with my own learned inner demons. I knew there had to be another way and I started looking for this way as a teenager. What a rollercoaster ride!
My suffering motivated me to keep looking, to keep exploring. I was graced with an opening, a possibility that there may be more to life, to me, than I thought. My spiritual journey started in earnest at the age of 31 when I could no longer distract myself from my personal torment. I jumped in head first to finding what I thought was missing. After years of searching I came to know, to experience, my true nature that we all share right now, always.
My advice to anyone early in this search is to be curious, follow bread crumbs, lean into what lights you up no matter how small. For me, practicing things that keep me in the moment is very helpful. Meditation can be an opening for some. Mindfulness in action, particularly when creating, can keep us present with the process rather than striving toward an outcome. Life happens now, this instant, and not at some future point that never comes. In this now, anything is possible!
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Although I no longer study or practice with this book, A Course In Miracles was very helpful and impactful for me in opening the door to a new way of seeing. If you are stuck in your head like I was, the Course could help to disentangle the thinking and clarify what lies beyond. This book is certainly not for everyone. It was very helpful to me at one point.
A couple quotes that really helped me:
*Seek not to change the world but how you see the world.
*Would you rather be right or happy?
*Now is the closest approximation to eternity that this world offers.
*Deep within you is everything that is perfect ready to radiate through you out into the world.
The Course also helped me to work through my issues with Christian terminology and masculine pronouns. I found these simply did not matter and I now see them as neutral rather than a problem. Words are notorious for misinterpretation and complexity.
After the ACIM, many books and teachers have come and gone. I have also looked into several religions and practices but seemed to always find myself back to my initial glimpse of simplicity and stillness and, as the Course says “I need do nothing.” All is well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.terryrunyan.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terryrunyan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terryrunyancreative/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terry-runyan-a6025233/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/terryrunyan
Image Credits
Terry Runyan
