Duke Ellington

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

Duke Ellington

American Composer, Musician

1899 - 1974

Many of us waste energy complaining.  We need to learn to transform our frustrations, fears and failures into positive energy that inspires us to create great works of art.  Are you feeling down today, maybe even depressed?  Great.  Use that negative energy to create.  Write through the frustration.  Paint a picture with large dramatic brush strokes.  Are you angry and upset?  Transform that negative energy.  Splatter the canvas with paint.  Quickly write a poem in very large letters and don't rewrite it.  Read the poem aloud to the universe.  Is your heart broken and you can't stop crying?  Give yourself a hug and sing in a loud voice a country song about your broken heart and the mean person who broke it.  Be sure to sing off key.  Paint a picture of a heart in agony.  Dance wildly about the living room and do a belly laugh.

Emotions are a part of being human.  What most people don't realize is that they can control and change their emotions.  Don't wallow in self-pity, take charge of your life and choose to change your emotions.  Do something that gets you out of that rut.  Climb a mountain in your backyard.  Take photos of squirrels chasing each other in fun.  Go for a swim.  Listen to Duke Ellington.

Abigail Adams

"Learning is not attained by chance.  It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence."

— Abigail Adams

Letter Writer

First Lady, Wife of John Adams 

1744 - 1818

I am a strong believer that creative leaders should be life-long learners.  One of the main reasons we are here is to learn and grow as human beings.  Learning comes in many ways and from many places.  Other people can teach us a lot if we are paying attention.  People come into our lives to teach us something.  And sometimes we resist learning what they have to teach so we make the same mistakes again and again.  Are you paying attention to what the people in your life are teaching you?  Are there people who make you angry?  What are they trying to teach you?  Are there people who have hurt you?  What are they teaching you?  What are you learning from the pain?  Are people giving you advice that you have chosen not to listen to?  Are there people who encourage you and you ignore them?  What are you learning from the people in your life?  What are you learning that will improve your relationships and improve your artistic creations?

James Baldwin

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

— James Baldwin

American Novelist

1924 - 1987

Think about the people in your life who you don't like, who irritate you and who you may even hate.  Often when someone hurts us, our response is anger and prolonged anger can turn into hate.  If we learn to appreciate and accept the pain for what it teaches us, we can move beyond anger and hate.  If we can harness the pain, we can funnel it into our creative process.  Pain is important to our success and can help us become better people and more creative leaders.  Pain is a powerful teacher if we take the time to learn the lessons it has to teach.

Robert Frost

"A poem . . . begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. . . . It finds the thought and the thought finds the words."

Robert Frost

American Poet

1874 - 1963

Does your art grow out of your emotions?  How often does your pain find expression in your painting, your poem or your story?  Does your joy find the words to express itself?  Many times we forget the original emotion that triggered the thought that ultimately finds its expression in our art.  Some art begins in anger, some in love.  And if we paint or write well, our audience feels the emotion.  




Here is my favorite Frost poem.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.