Spring Cleaning Your Creative Blocks: 5 Lies Keeping You From Pursuing New Skills
Spring is the season when we throw open the windows, clear out the closets, and let go of things that no longer serve us. So I've been thinking — what if we did the same thing with our mindset?
Because here's the truth: most creative women I know aren't being held back by a lack of talent. They're being held back by a collection of lies they've been carrying around for years. Dusty old beliefs that have piled up like boxes in the attic, taking up space where new dreams are supposed to live.
I know because I carried every single one of them.
When I got laid off from my corporate job — a job I'd given years and years of my life to as a Vice President — I didn't immediately leap into my creative chapter. I sat with a pit in my stomach and a voice in my head that said, "Who do you think you are?"
I'd discovered surface pattern design and knew in my gut it was what I wanted to pursue. But I'd never opened Adobe Illustrator in my life. I didn't have an art degree. I was well into my fifties. And the idea of starting from scratch — especially with technology I didn't understand — made me want to crawl back into the "safe" world of corporate resumes and LinkedIn profiles.
But I didn't. And today, I run a multiple six-figure creative business helping women over 50 do the very thing I was once terrified to try.
So consider this your spring cleaning intervention. Let's open those mental closets and toss out the five lies that are keeping you stuck.
Lie #1: "My Art Isn't Good Enough — I'm Not a Real Artist"
Ah, imposter syndrome. The lie that whispers, "Sure, other people can do this… but not you."
I hear this from women every single day. They look at beautiful patterns on Spoonflower or Society6 and think those designers were born with some magical gift they missed out on. They show me their sketchbooks almost apologetically, as if their doodles need to come with a disclaimer.
Here's what I want you to hear: those "real" designers you admire? They started with doodles too. Wonky flowers. Lopsided leaves. Patterns that didn't quite repeat. That's not a sign you don't belong — that's the starting line. Every designer you admire stood right where you're standing now.
One of my students, a woman in her late sixties, told me she almost didn't sign up for my program because she was "just a doodler." Six months later, she had patterns on products she was selling and gifting to her family. She wasn't a "just" anything. And neither are you.
Your art doesn't have to be gallery-worthy to be the beginning of something extraordinary. It just has to be yours.
Lie #2: "I'm Too Old — I Should Have Started This Years Ago"
This one makes me want to stand on a rooftop and shout. If I had a nickel for every time someone said, "I wish I'd found surface design twenty years ago," I could fund an entire art supply store.
Can I let you in on something? I started my creative business in my late fifties. Not my twenties. Not my thirties. My late fifties — after decades in the corporate world.
And I'm not the exception. My students are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. I've had women in their mid-seventies open Adobe Illustrator for the very first time, learn to create seamless repeat patterns, and go on to sell their designs. These aren't unicorns. They're women who decided that "too late" was just another story they were tired of telling themselves.
Here's the thing about age: it's not a limitation. It's a library. You've lived through decades of trends. You've decorated homes, wrapped gifts, chosen fabrics, noticed details on wallpaper in hotel lobbies. You have a visual vocabulary that a twenty-five-year-old designer simply hasn't had time to build yet.
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today. It's never too late to create — and yes, I mean that with my whole heart.
Lie #3: "I'm Scared of the Technology — I'll Never Keep Up"
Oh, this one. This was MY lie. This was the one that almost stopped me before I even started.
When I first heard about Adobe Illustrator, I pictured something only engineers and twenty-somethings with computer science degrees could navigate. I imagined hundreds of buttons and tools and menus I'd never understand. My palms got sweaty just thinking about it.
And then I actually opened the program. And you know what I discovered?
You only need to learn about five percent of Illustrator to create beautiful, sellable patterns. Five percent. The rest is just noise you can completely ignore.
In my From Doodles to Dollars workshop, we focus on just three tools. Three! And with those three tools, you can create your first seamless repeat pattern — the kind that could go on fabric, wrapping paper, or greeting cards.
I've had students tell me, "Anne, I can barely attach a photo to an email." And those same students are creating collections of patterns weeks later. The technology isn't the mountain you think it is. It's more like a small hill, and I promise — you've climbed much harder things in your life.
The women who succeed aren't the ones who are "tech-savvy." They're the ones who decided to try anyway.
Lie #4: "I Didn't Go to Art School, So I Don't Have the Skills"
Let me be direct: I didn't go to art school either. And yet here I am, running a thriving creative business, teaching thousands of students, and creating patterns I'm proud of.
Art school is wonderful for those who have access to it. But the absence of a formal art education doesn't disqualify you from being creative. Not even a little bit.
Some of the most original, vibrant, joyful patterns I've seen have come from women who never set foot in an art classroom. Women who learned to draw by watching their grandmothers quilt. Women who developed an eye for color by gardening or decorating their homes for forty years. Women who spent careers in corporate offices, banking, nursing, or teaching — and brought all of that rich life experience into their creative work.
The skills you need for surface pattern design aren't locked behind a degree. They can be learned — step by step, tool by tool — at any age, from any background. What you bring to the table is something no art school can teach: your story, your perspective, your eye for beauty shaped by decades of living.
That's your real qualification.
Lie #5: "What if I Fail? What if People Judge Me?"
This is the lie that hides behind all the others. Underneath "I'm too old" and "I'm not good enough" and "I can't do the tech" is a quieter, more vulnerable fear: What if I put myself out there and it doesn't work? What if people think it's silly that I'm trying this at my age?
I understand this fear deeply. When I made the leap from corporate VP to creative entrepreneur, not everyone in my life understood. Some people thought it was a phase. Others worried I was making a mistake.
But here's what I've learned: the people who judge you for trying something new at 55 or 65 or 75 are usually the ones who are too afraid to try anything new themselves. Their judgment says everything about their own limitations and nothing about yours.
And failure? Let's redefine that. In the creative world, failure is just data. It's a pattern that didn't quite work, so you adjust. It's a color palette that clashed, so you try a new one. It's a design that didn't sell, so you learn what your audience wants. None of that is failure. That's the creative process working exactly as it should.
The only real failure is letting fear make the decision for you. The only thing you'll regret is the art you never made because you were too worried about what someone might think.
Time to Take Out the Trash
So here's my spring cleaning challenge to you: Pick the lie that resonates most. The one you've been dragging around the longest. Write it down on a piece of paper.
And then throw it away.
Literally. Crumple it up and toss it in the trash. Because that's where it belongs — with the expired coupons and the broken things that no longer serve you.
You deserve a creative life that's full of possibility, not weighed down by old stories. And if you're sitting there thinking, "But Anne, you don't understand MY situation" — trust me, I do. I've been the woman who was scared of the technology, who didn't have an art degree, who wondered if she was too late. And I'm standing on the other side telling you: it's worth it. Every uncertain, messy, terrifying step of it.
It's never too late to create. And spring is the perfect time to start.
Xo,
Anne
P.S. Doors to the 2026 Immersion course close on February 24.
Enroll in Immersion here. It won’t be offered again until 2027. That sounds so far away, doesn’t it?
I’m a proud affiliate partner of Bonnie’s Immersion program, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you enroll through my link.
It’s Never Too Late to Create®
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
