What would you think of someone who said, “I would like to have
a cat provided it barked”?
The common desire to achieve or create great things provided it’s something that can be easily willed or wished is precisely equivalent. The principles of behavior that lead to great accomplishments are no less rigid than the biological principles that determine the characteristics of cats. Consider, for example, the life of Vincent Willem van Gogh.
He is generally
considered to be one of history’s greatest artists and had a far-reaching
influence on 20th-century art. His artistic accomplishments are not an
accident, not a result of some easily magic trick or secret, but a consequence
of his nature to work persistently on his art every day. He revered “the doing”
in art. He wrote about his hard work many times to his brother Theo. In a
letter he sent Theo in 1885 he stated that one can only improve by working on
your art, and many people are more remarkably clever and talented than him, but
what use is it if they do not work at it.
He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In the first years of his career, van Gogh displayed no natural talent. David Sweetman’s biography “Van Gogh: His Life and His Art” gives a detailed description of his intention to be an artist and his insatiable capacity for hard work to become one. He turned himself into an artist by acting like an artist and going through the motions by turning out mostly bad innumerable rough sketches, day and night. In Van Gogh’s own words he said, “In spite of everything I shall rise again and take up my pencil and draw and draw.”
He received mild encouragement from his cousin, Anton Mauve, who
supplied him with his first set of watercolors. Mauve was a successful artist
and gave Vincent some basic instructions in painting. Their relationship was
short-lived, however, as Vincent was incapable of receiving criticism of his
art from Mauve. Mauve even went to Vincent’s father and told him it would be
better for Vincent to stop attempting to be an artist and find another
occupation that better suited his talent. It was then that Vincent unveiled
what art critics label as his first “masterpiece,” The Potato Eaters.
He turned himself into an artist by acting like an artist and
going through the motions by turning out mostly bad innumerable rough sketches,
day and night.
LESSON #1 STOP WAITING AND TAKE ACTION
The lesson about creative thinking I learned from Van Gogh is
action. Just do it. Stop waiting and start working toward what you want. What
we think, or what we know, or what we believe something is, in the end, of no
consequence. The only consequence is what we actually do. In Van Gogh’s own
words “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in
the face like some imbecile. You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare
of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, “You can’t do a thing.” The canvas has an idiotic stare and
mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many
painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is
afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell
of ‘you can’t’ once and for all by getting to work and painting.”
It was very difficult
at times, but he believed nobody can do as he wishes in the beginning when you
start but everything will be all right in the end. Each day he made every
effort to improve because he knew making beautiful paintings meant painstaking
work, disappointment and perseverance. In the end, Van Gogh produced 2000 works
of art between 1880 and 1890 (1100 paintings and 900 sketches). That’s 4 works
of art a week for a decade, and he didn’t start making art until his
mid-twenties.
LESSON #2 COMMIT AND GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS
Van Gogh taught me to
commit myself to a desire and go through the motions of working toward
accomplishing it. His advice was if you do nothing, you are nothing. You must
keep working and keep working come what may. Even when your final goal is not
clear, the goal will become clearer and will emerge slowly but surely, much as
the rough drawing turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through
the serious work done on it and through the elaboration of the original vague
idea and through the consolidation of your fleeting and passing thoughts on it
as you work.
Think of the first
airplane. On December 8, 1903, Samuel Pierpont Langley, a leading
government-funded scientist, launched with much fanfare his flying machine on
the Potomac. It plummeted into the river. Nine days later, Orville and Wilbur
got the first plane off the ground. Why did these bicycle mechanics succeed
when a famous scientist failed? It was because Langley did the mental work and
hired other people to build and execute his intellectual design for him.
LESSON #3 DO YOUR OWN WORK
The Wright brothers
did their own work. When they were working and producing creative ideas and
products they were replenishing neurotransmitters which are linked to genes
that are being turned on and turned off in response to what the brain is doing,
which in turn is responding to challenges. When they constantly worked on their
idea and learned through trial and error, they were energizing their brains by
increasing the number of contacts between neurons. The more times they act, the
longer they worked the more active their brains became and the more creative
they became.
Their creative brains
made them aware of the range of many potentials for each adjustment they built
into their design. Their personal observations of the many alternative
potentials led them to constantly change and modify their ideas that created
the airplane.
When they constantly worked on their idea and learned through
trial and error, they were energizing their brains by increasing the number of
contacts between neurons.
I like to
metaphorically compare working toward a desired goal such the goals of Van Gogh
and the Wright brothers to weight lifting. If you want to build muscles
you lift weights. If the weight is heavy enough it’s going to damage the
muscles. That damage creates a chemical cascade and reaches into the nuclei of
your muscle cells, and turns on genes that make proteins and build up muscle
fibers. Those genes are only turned on in response to some environmental
challenge. That’s why you’ve got to keep lifting heavier and heavier weights.
The phrase, “No pain no gain,” is literally true in this case. Interaction with
the environment turns on certain genes which otherwise wouldn’t be turned on;
in fact, they will be turned off if certain challenges aren’t being faced.
LESSON #4 DON’T WAIT FOR PERFECT MOMENTS
Don’t wait until
everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be
challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started
now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and
more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. We are
what we repeatedly do.
START NOW
To get a feel for how
powerful the simple act of just starting something creative and working on it
is, try the following thought experiment.
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Take out a sheet of
paper and at least ten items, money, credit cards, keys, coins, etc. Your task
is to create an assemblage that metaphorically represents you.
Here are the
guidelines:
1.
In your mind, imagine an assemblage that metaphorically represents you. Do not
think about the materials you have in hand. Instead think about the shape you
would like your assemblage to have. What are the rhythms you want? The texture?
Where would you want it to be active? Passive? Where do things overlap and
where are they isolated? Think in general and overall pictures, and leave out
the details. Do not think about great art; just think about who you are and
what how you can represent yourself metaphorically.
2.
Now form a more specific idea of the final assemblage. As you look at the
paper, imagine the specific assemblage you want to create. Make sure you’ve
formed this image before you move to the next step.
3.
Place the items on the paper. Since the composing stage is already done, it’s
time to bring your creation into physical existence. How closely did it come to
your conception? Become a critic for the assemblage. Look at it for its own
sake, independent of the fact that you have created it. Take the items off and
go through the same procedures. Make the assemblage again.
4.
By conceptualizing and using materials you had on hand, you created an artistic
assemblage from nothing.
5.
If you performed this exercise every day with different objects for five to ten
straight days you will find yourself becoming an artist who specializes in
rearranging unrelated objects into art. It is the activity that turns on the
synaptic transmissions in your brain that turn on the genes that are linked to
what you are doing, which is responding to an environmental challenge (i.e.,
the making of an assemblage).
Michael Michalko
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