The phone call?

It wasn’t anyone I knew.

The caller may have called me “mate” a couple of times but he was from my printer supplier wanting to know if I needed more ink.

Before he mentioned his company or ink, though, I knew it wasn’t anyone I knew.

It’s intriguing how we know who’s calling within a few words (unless they’re pretending to be someone else)  – we recognise so many people’s authentic voice.  As I picked up the phone, I’d been thinking about authentic voices as a metaphor the art we produce from our lives.

There’s an interesting line dividing plagiarism and imitation from innovation and uniqueness.  Those who charge people with plagiarism most likely overlook where they themselves got an idea from.  Whether it be a thought, movement, composition, musical riff, way of delivery, they all began with things other people have created, the artefacts they’ve left behind.

It’s what we go on to make and produce from these that often becomes exciting – and the more we mix things up, the more amazing the creation.  I’ve still got my vinyl copy of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells from the beginning of the 1970s.  Oldfield’s ability to combine contemporary and classical music was nothing short of brilliant, and took the musical world and markets by storm (mind you, not so many people have heard of Hergest Ridge his follow up album, which I also have – here’s the first google suggestion, but this is the one you want).  But Oldfield  began by learning his music from others like everyone else.

Steven Covey held that to find our voices and to help others find theirs is the most important life-habit we can develop.  We learn from others but then we have to develop our own voice.  None of us can share a voice with others, but we can harmonise.

There are lots of things we have to wrestle with if we are to hear our own voice and develop it – pressure to: fit in, to pass an exam, to get a job, to keep a job, to avoid conflict, to avoid hard work, the belief that the chance has been missed, that now is not the right time, others do it the right way, there’s only one way to do it, it would never work, you have to be born talented, fear of failure … .

But finding our authentic voice is not only possible, it’s essential.  Your take on things, the way you combine ideas from many different places in a way no one else has thought of maybe just what the world needs – at least someone’s world, but possibly more more than one person’s world.

And who knows, someone may be waiting for someone like you to to do that thing you do, so they can take this and make something from this and other places you’d not even thought of.

You are not in control.

This is number four out of five elemental truths I try and keep in mind.*

I might like to imagine I am in control, but if I think about all the emails, phone calls which come my way, the flow of conversations I’m involved in, what I’m really doing is trying to bring the best of who I am in response, and to make sense of it within my story, and hopefully help others to do the same within their own stories.  More of an impro-dance.

(Some even believe what we think of as the Self is simply a series of responses to the things around us.)

Keith Johnstone writes, ‘An inexperienced improviser gets annoyed because his partners misunderstand him.’  This person makes  a blind offer: expecting a certain response.  When we “offer” something and the expected response doesn’t materialise we can be upset, or, we can remind ourselves we’re not in control, and perhaps need to go with the flow and see what happens because maybe something more will emerge from the dance, something with flair and joie de vivre.

(*I’ll mention the other four another time, but  these five comprise what a child passing into adulthood might learn within an ancient culture.)

Offer-block-accept.

In three words, the success or failure of impro-theatre.

Two actors on stage.  The first says, “Where’s my elephant?” – here’s the offer.

The second actor replies: “What elephant?” – block.

But the second actor could have said, “You know he’s being stuffed?” – accept.

The first reply allows the scene to go nowhere, the second leaves us wondering, “What next?”

Impro may exaggerate, but it does shed light on life: we are the ones who daily block or accept offers and possibilities.  (I’m thinking of the positive and good kind, not the nasty ones.)

Life offers us opportunities to produce our art – art is the essential work of our lives when we’re connecting with the world, with others, and with our future Self.

We can block  – the industrial mindset still prevails, and life is the production of more same old same old.

Or we can accept – because we are perhaps living at an unprecedented time in history.

Your turn.

Two world views, but which is yours?

Those who go with a scarcity worldview believe there’s not enough to go around: only some are special, you have to look after number one.  They’ve probably swallowed this error from somewhere and someone else (give people permission to give up their scarcity worldview and see what happens).  In a world of scarcity you need lots of people who aren’t special, (our systems appear to reinforce this error, including education systems which are set up to identify and stream the best of what schools and colleges include).

But what if Humans are set up for abundance, for abundant creativity – not only the ones who measure up in our schools and present-day businesses?

(Interlude: What are you going to do on the first sunny weekend of the Spring?)

What did you think about – what did you imagine?

You have just imagined something which doesn’t exist yet.  This is an astonishing ability we exercise hundreds and thousands of times a day.  Your ability to imagine is evidence that you have what is necessary for creativity.  I don’t mean the way someone else is, but the way you are.

Yesterday, I was meeting with a couple of people imagining the content of an event we’re working on together.  Amazed by the things they were picturing and combining, I came away wondering, What if everyone gets to be  as excitedly imaginative as these two, awakened to the life only they can live?

This is what I am intent on imagining and pursuing; what do you imagine?

Responsibility.

It’s important to do what you’ve been entrusted with – the normal way of thinking about responsibility.

It’s more important for you to identify what you must do and do it – a sharper definition of responsibility.

Break down the word responsibility and it’s about having the ability to respond.

The first definition helps you to respond when something or someone needs your help – a friend, a situation, work.

The second definition means you get up every day ready to do that thing you do with courage, generosity, and wisdom, and not to do it hurts – in relationships, work, leisure, interests.

Courage, because true humility has allowed you to be more who you really are in an uber-connected way: with others, the world, and your future.  Generosity, because gratitude has made it possible to see you have everything you need right now to begin.  And, wisdom, because your faithfulness in daily practicing your talents and being grateful in everything you do and every relationship, means you’re living wisdom – nothing wasted.

Maybe this is resilient living – able to be who we are in every moment and situation. or, maybe its more, what Nassim Taleb has named antifragility – the ability to flourish in difficult places and situations.*  (Flourish is another way of saying passionately create your art.)

Of course, it’s easier to make others responsible for creativity – partners, employers, teachers, best friends, politicians, God.

And, yes, clearly, there’s the possibility of failure.

And the possibility of the best of futures.

(*I’m not suggesting stupidly dangerous ways and places where we’d get squished rather than flourish – the things which are akin to walking in front of a moving bus.)

E is for experimenting.

The way by which Humans shape their future.

When you consider the ways in which Human talents and passions come together, the resources they have, and the ways and means they invent to experiment and express (habits, practices, and behaviours), you may conclude Humans are by essence, future-shapers.

Future, though isn’t the F word.

Right at this moment, in different places around the world, there are people who are shaping your future, your children’s future, and your children’s children’s future.  They know the future is not fixed, and, for good or ill, they are grabbing their opportunity make some kind of difference.

If we’re awake to how we’re all capable of shaping the future – through our art in small ways or in larger ways – then we can begin experimenting, proto-trying our thoughts and ideas and dreams in the laboratory for research each day offers: whether it be someone we help or we give extra at work or peruse and pursue an idea or bake a cake for someone or offer a kind word with someone or … (you know where this is going).

Here’s the F word.

Failure.

When we experiment we fail faster, which also means we learn faster and cleverer.

I know we’ve been brought up that to fail is not an option.  Wrong.  Not to try is not an option.

Maybe it started with education.  You failed or passed an assignment, then an exam, then you failed to get the grades you you needed.  Many education systems appear to set us up to fail, whilst failing to recognise they could all be figuring out how to connect education with how to make life better on earth: taking on the challenges of poverty, crime, and human rights, or energy conservation, space exploration, and genetic technologies, or cancer, AIDs, and Parkinsons.

The good news is, we live in a world where we get another opportunity, because the barriers to education and expression are breaking down.  E and F are waiting to be added to our daily alphabets.

Full?

Empty?

How would you finish the sentence?

Suzanne Segerstrom suggests seeing the glass as full or empty has more implications than we perceive on the surface.

Half-full and you’re more likely to push ahead.

Half-empty and you’re more likely to quit.

One opens up possibilities, the other blocks possibilities.

In Yes Man, Jim Carrey plays ace-blocker Carl, coerced by a number of personal circumstances and relationships into saying Yes to every proposition which comes his way (though he later finds out he had more choice than that).  Although a funny look at optimism and pessimism, there’s perhaps a serious point in this dynamic of saying Yes leading to more good things happening for Carl, and having fun along the way.

I’ve been exploring how concepts of humility and gratitude might lead to the things Humans most seek: autonomy, mastery, and a greater purpose than themselves.  So is Carl’s experience replicable in real life?  Can all of us become more positive?

In the conversations which make up my work, I meet wonderful people able to do amazing things.  I’m not just saying this, nor do I see them being someone they are not – only more who they are.  It seems, sometimes, people are using something positive in a negative way, or trying to be someone else, when life is only asking that they be creative, enjoying, and generous with who they are.

Half full?

Half empty?

What now?

The third question is the most important one.

Are two different things.

Businessman Mark Johnston is suing a Las Vegas casino after losing half a million dollars whilst drunk – the casino kept plying him with free drinks, allegedly.

An interesting news-story on the radio this morning, as I happened to be reading some Dan Ariely, who has studied the effects of something FREE! on people:

‘Zero is not just another discount.  Zero is a different place.
The difference between two cents and one cent is small.  But
the difference between one cent and zero is huge.’

If so, then then there’s both an upside and downside to FREE!  The upside is, offer something good for people free, like health screening, and people will be far more likely to accept, over against a reduced rate for this of, say, five pounds.

The downside is, people are blinded by FREE!, making decisions not in their best interest.

All of which made me wonder.  Maybe not everything that is easy in life is the bargain we think it is – effort-FREE! or pain-FREE! – and we need to stop and take a closer look.  It might well be the difficult and more costly choice offers the freedom we seek, the thing we really want.

That’s the downside, but the upside of easy may be how, when we’re living closely to our talents and passions, and an idea for what to do next comes to mind easily and effortlessly, then the next step might well be the one we must take.

It’s worth taking a closer look.

To stay where you are.

We like the idea of doing something more with our lives.  We like the idea of somehow being creative.  We might identify what this might possibly be.

What will be your next step towards this?

And what will the thing be that you do tomorrow towards this?  (And if you read this early enough in the day: what will you do today to make this happen?)

Creativity has just become more difficult.

How come?

Too risky?
Maybe not sure where to begin?
Perhaps fear of the unknown?
Or maybe something will have to be given up?
Then, the cost may be too high?

Really, without taking a step, we don’t know if any of these things will prove to have any substance.  The thing you do know for certain is, if you stay where you are, doing the thins you do, nothing will change.  This may sound risk-free, but it’s the riskiest place to be:

“All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life,
just to arrive at death safely.  But dear children, do not
tiptoe.  Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.”
(College professor to his class)

Another reason it’s risky is because we’re living in a world of increasing possibilities, where our learning and experiences are changing in ways we couldn’t have imagined thirty years ago.  Who wouldn’t want to be part of this?

A few places to begin:

Order the book that’ll help you figure out what you must do: here’s one for starters

Join a local group who meet to enjoy together the thing you’re interested in.

If there isn’t one, start one: meetup.com is one, here’s another (all you need to begin is one other person).

Find or help build a new kind of library, one in which the librarian is “a data hound, a guide, a sherpa, and a teacher … the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.”*  (I’m part of a group wondering how we build such a library.)

Or something else which fills your imagination.

Dance, skip, run, or hop – up to you.

(*Seth Godin shares a wonderful picture of what the library of the future will look like: “The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and to coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. … The next library is a house for the librarian with the guts to invite kids in to teach them how to get better grades while doing less grunt work. And to teach them how to use a soldering iron or take apart something with no user-serviceable parts inside. And even to challenge them to teach classes on their passions, merely because it’s fun. … The next library is filled with so many Web terminals that there’s always at least one empty. And the people who run this library don’t view the combination of access to data and connections to peers as a sidelight—it’s the entire point.  Wouldn’t you want to live and work and pay taxes in a town that had a library like that?)

Yesterday was a day full of value.

In a meeting of Creative Edinburgh* in the morning, I had three conversations focusing on value one after the other.

A photographer found himself underpaid for one of his pictures which appeared on the front cover of one of yesterday’s national broadsheet.  It was a wonderful image which was worth far more than the price the paper paid.  Interesting: this picture was worth different amounts depending on where it appeared in a paper, its size, and whether it would be reproduced in colour or black and white.

Then another conversation with a designer of mats and cards and T-towels and more – I’ve just been on her website and it’s very attractive produce.  Our conversation focused on the question of how much do you charge for the things you design and make?

A thought was forming, which I’ll share in a moment.

I then had a third conversation with another photographer who was sharing how customers struggled to value his work, like not understanding how turning up for two hours at a wedding can cost as much as it does – the tip of the iceberg phenomenon.

Later in the day, I was meeting with someone describing his exploratory ways for lecturing in university, creating a learning environment for all, including himself.  An exciting conversation as we’re both passionate for producing creative people – he didn’t want to simply train students to pass an exam.  By this level of education this can be the driving factor, so were the students and university authorities valuing this new approach?

My thought formed some more.

Only you know the true value of what it is you do.

Whilst you need feedback, you cannot trust your “customer” to know what the value is or to set the “price”**  – you may produce the most amazing food but if someone is just looking to have a quick snack, they will not value your art, or pay you what it’s worth.

There’s another dynamic at work here: you must recognise as valuable the thing you do – which may be anything from a unique product you make to a wonderfully generous outlook on the world which you express in the ways you treat everyone you meet.

I can’t emphasise how important it is to know what your art is and to value it.  If you don’t, you may make a tradeoff which disadvantages you in life – trading the valuable thing you do at a low cost for something which is not valuable, but has a high cost.

One last word: you don’t have to look for something crazily different to everything or everyone else.  When you know what your art is, and you value it, whatever comes to mind is an expression of your uniqueness: ‘An artist who is inspired is being obvious‘ (Keith Johnstone).

(* A not-for-profit supporting creative industry businesses and individuals in Edinburgh.)

(** I’m not talking about being extortionate.)