I just started walking through that path. And I feel that what you went thru will happen to me. Even maybe to every artist. We have to brace ourselves for the struggle. As @reinhard-schmid said, "You have to be your biggest fan".That's rule №1... Otherwise, we are anchoring the fail to our legs! What we will encounter after the next turn is up to our decisions.
Cheers!
It's kind of like a crucible. Where times like this separate the artists that can't, won't or don't want to do anything else.