Here’s a good example of the point I was trying to illustrate in my last post, from The 40-30-30 Rule: Why Risk Is Worth It.
Only by trying something new, struggling, learning, and then trying again do we improve our performance. It’s a simple matter of acclimating to unchartered territory.
A hat tip to @joshr for tweeting the article.
I recently stumbled upon this talk on the excellent TED site: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity.
In the talk, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how we ‘unlearn’ creativity by becoming scared to fail. Coincidentally, I found myself thinking something like that a few days prior to watching the talk. I realised that I was scared to do anything that was ‘sub-standard’ and this was prohibiting me from practicing and developing new skills.
As the old adage goes, though, ‘don’t run before you can walk’, and this is something I keep having to remind myself.
I see other people doing fantastic work and take great inspiration from what other people create, but I also feel disheartened to know that I can’t produce what they do. I have come to accept that I don’t have to follow other people’s approaches. Creativity is about doing things for yourself in a way that pleases you.
Oft-imitated Illustrator/doodler Jon Burgerman summed it up quite nicely in a recent issue of Computer Arts magazine.
“Maybe there is some sort of doodle style, but the way I draw is just the way that I draw… I always assumed that I drew in a very bad way.”
If you try to imitate others from the off, you will only end up frustrated. Just do what makes you happy and keep doing it.
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