Your career should scare you — especially when you work in a creative field. You’re taking a massive leap. You’re choosing to bet on yourself. You’re blindly hoping your talent, passion, and dedication is enough to propel you toward your dream destination.

When you follow your passion, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s hard to picture yourself five years from now or even five months from now. The path of an artist is unpredictable. Your audience size could double overnight or your platform could become completely irrelevant. There’s no telling what the future holds. There are no guarantees.

No matter how much talent you have, no matter how many people compliment your work or follow your social media handles, a part of you is always going to be afraid you aren’t good enough to succeed. And that’s perfectly fine! You should be 75 percent inspired and 25 percent terrified of what you really want to do with your career.

As long as your fear never overshadows your passion, you are going to be okay. You should be able to push passed your concerns because you are confident in your abilities, passionate about your work, and excited about where your career is going to launch you.

Even though it’s terrifying to follow your dreams, it’s also exhilarating. There’s no better feeling than waking up in the morning and getting to do what you love for a living. You don’t have to answer to anyone else. You get to be your own boss. You get to make your own rules and set your own schedule. You get to follow your passion while most of your friends are stuck in careers they can’t stand, counting down the hours until they get to head home.

Even if you’re not doing exactly what you’ve always dreamed you’d be doing at this exact moment in time, you should be proud of yourself for taking steps in the right direction. You should be excited about what the future holds. When you think about what kind of content you ultimately want to create, it should motivate you to try your hardest, to put in the work, put in the hours, put in the effort.

When you think about what you really want to do with your career, your relief should be stronger than your fear. After all, there are people your age who have no idea what they want to do with their lives. They have no direction. They haven’t found their passion yet. You should feel fortunate you have a dream. You should be happy you know what you want out of your career. You should be inspired to keep going, to never give up on what you want the most.

When you work in a creative field, every single day is an adventure. You don’t want to forget that because you’re too busy worrying about when your next paycheck will arrive or when your audience will hit another hundred. If you allow your fear to take the wheel, then you’re going to miss out on all of the things that make creative careers fun. You’re going to be too busy overthinking to actually enjoy the ride.

You’re allowed to question yourself from time to time. You’re allowed to worry about payday. You’re allowed to wonder whether you’re good enough to make it far in your field. But that fear should only take up 25 percent of your thoughts. The other 75 percent of the time, you should be inspired. You should be excited. You should be proud to be doing what you love to do.