On Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld asked Jimmy Fallon this question: “Do you ever wake up and think, ‘I can’t get in front of these people.”?
But he gave the clearest answer to the question himself, saying that he’s fine, “Once you walk out there. When the lights hit you, yes. But sometimes, backstage, I think, ‘I don’t know why I even picked this business. I don’t have what these people want to see–they want to see a funny guy! That’s not me.”
This falls clearly under what Seth Godin would call “Reassurance is futile.” There is literally no amount of success that will quiet that part of your brain that will say anything when you feel cornered (like, when you’re about to walk on stage).
The trick, then, is to recognize, as Seinfeld surely has, that this feeling isn’t a sign that you’re actually in the wrong profession; it’s a sign that you’re doing something that is risky. And risky is the best way to make art.
Creativity is repeatedly doing things that make you say, “That’s not me” – right before you do them and prove the opposite.