Eric Fischl

"If you worry about how good the art is, you're never going to make your own art."

— Eric Fischl

American Artist

1948 - 

For many of us we have a need to be perfect and  we punish ourselves when we don't live up to our expectations.  Some people go so far as to stop creating.  Their fear of not being perfect gets in their way and they give up.  If you create from your heart, stop worrying about technique and accept the fact that you will never be perfect.  And who says that you are a good judge of your own work.  There are many examples of creative leaders being remembered for some minor work that they dashed off in a very short time.  Do you really think that Charles Dickens thought that Christmas Carol would be his most famous, reproduced again and again in film and television?  Many times what the author loves does not sell well and is poorly received by the general public.  So don't worry about how good your art is.  Just paint, write and compose.  The public will do the rest.

Ten Breaths: Damage
(2007)

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The purpose of life is not to be happy.  It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that  you have lived and lived well."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

American Poet, Speaker, Writer

1803 - 1882

Too often people spend their time trying to find happiness.  Instead, they should be seeking ways to make a difference in the lives of others.  Happiness is never permanent.  We may experience moments of happiness, but we will not stay in that frame of mind.  Seek instead to be useful — to help others in their time of need.  If we focus on helping others and worry less about our own happiness, we will wake up one day and find that we are at peace with ourselves.

Why were you born?  What is your purpose for living on this planet?  When you reach the end of the road one day and look back across your life, what is the legacy you want to leave behind?  I believe we each have a reason for being born and part of our mission in life is to discover our purpose for being.  How would the world be different if you had never lived?  Ponder that question.  How many lives have you already touched?  A few years ago someone told me that I had inspired him to become a nursing home administrator.  I did not remember the young man, but he had heard me speak and was inspired.  And I sure you have made a difference in the lives of people you never met.  Has someone been inspired by a poem, a story or a novel you wrote?  Has someone been inspired by a picture you painted?  Maybe someone bought a painting from you and hung it in their living room.  And every time they look at it, they experience a moment of happiness. 

Here is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Maybe it will inspire you years after he wrote it.

The Apology

Think me not unkind and rude,

That I walk alone in grove and glen;

I go to the god of the wood

To fetch his word to men.

Tax not my sloth that I

Fold my arms beside the brook;

Each cloud that floated in the sky

Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,

For the idle flowers I brought;

Every aster in my hand

Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery,

But 'tis figured in the flowers,

Was never secret history,

But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from thy field

Homeward brought the oxen strong;

A second crop thine acres yield,

Which I gather in a song.

Winston S. Churchill

Churchill, Age 26

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

— Winston S. Churchill

British Artist, Historian, Writer and Statesman

1874 - 1965

Churchill painting (1946)

Churchill was a man who faced both failure and success multiple times throughout his life.  He did poorly in school, had a speech impediment, grieved the death of a child, smoked Havana cigars, and was captured and spent time as a prisoner of war in South Africa.  He wrote a novel, two biographies, three volumes of memoirs and several books of history.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.  He painted hundreds of paintings and several now hang in museums.  He served as the Prime Minister of Great Britain twice.  So when Churchill speaks of failure and success we all should listen.

We all face both failure and success in our lives.  How we respond to what life hands us will tell others a lot about our character.  When you suffer the humiliation of defeat and rejection, how do you respond?  Do you become angry?  Do you seek revenge?  Do you withdrawal into depression?  When you receive some honor and are applauded by everyone, how do you respond?  Does the recognition go to your head and you become arrogant?  Do you act like a diva and expect everyone to do your bidding?  How we deal with the successes and failures of life tells us a lot about ourselves.

Daybreak at Cassis, near Marseilles
(1920)

Cynthia Ozick

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."

— Cynthia Ozick

American Novelist

1928 -

Are you thankful for the abilities, talents and gifts that you have?  The gift of sight is something that many of us take for granted on most days and yet without it our lives would be dramatically altered.  Our ability to see allows us to navigate the world in which we live and gives us the opportunity to go where we want without assistance.  Writing that novel or painting that canvas would be much more difficult if you could not see.  You would not be able to read a book unless you learned Braille or listened to books.  You would not be able to see the faces of those you love.  Give thanks for your ability to see every day.




Are you thankful for your ability to hear?  What would your life be like if you were deaf?  You would not be able to listen to music or hear the words, "I love you."  Yes, you still should be able to write that great novel or paint that masterpiece, but you would miss out on much that happens around you.  You wouldn't hear the birds singing in the morning or the wind in the trees or the rain falling.  Be thankful that you still have your ability to hear.




Life gives us so many challenges and difficulties that we often lose sight of what we have.  We become lost in all the things we don't have.  We are unhappy because we have not published a novel or sold a painting.  We wish we were rich and famous.  Life is so precious.  We should be happy that we awoke this morning and are still above ground.  We should be happy that people love us and care for us.




Learn to develop an attitude of gratitude.  Give thanks every day for the gifts you have been given.   I challenge you sit down right now and write down ten things that your are grateful for.  Post them to this blog if you would like to share.




Here is a video of Ozick discussing her life and writing.

Catherine Lanigan

"I learned that writers make something out of nothing.  We make dreams into reality.  That's our nature, our mission.  We were born to it.  I will never give up my dream again.  Never." 

— Catherine Lanigan

American Writer

1947 - 

Catherine Lanigan gave up on her dream of writing while in college because a college professor told her she had no talent.  Years later after encouragement from a journalist, she returned to writing. 

We all have people who try to destroy our dreams and it takes courage to stand up to them.  If you are a beginning artist, writer, actor or singer, don't ask if you have talent.  No one can judge that but you.  Ask if you have the passion and persistence to keep creating even when others discourage you.  Ask if you have the heart and the courage to stand up for what you believe in.

Writers and artists make something from nothing.  They take a blank canvas and fill it with color.  They take a blank sheet of paper and fill it with story.  Believe in your dream.  Believe in yourself.  Believe in your creative gift.

Laura Kasischke

"Writing is really just a matter of writing a lot, writing consistently and having faith that you'll continue to get better and better.  Sometimes people think that if they don't display great talent and have some success right away, they won't succeed.  But writing is about struggling through and learning and finding out what it is about writing itself that you really love."

— Laura Kasischke

American Novelist, Poet

1961 - 

If success comes too early, it can destroy an artist.  Early success can create writer's block.  Artists become overwhelmed by the success and stop painting.  People start enjoying their celebrity status and forget about what brought them there.  And sometimes they start believing their own press clippings.  Sometimes it is better to wait until you are emotionally ready and have the wisdom to handle it.  

If writing or painting comes too easy, people often lose interest and look for something more challenging.  If writing is a struggle, then success when it comes will be sweeter.  Have the faith to keep writing, to keep drawing or to keep painting even when there seems to be no hope of success.  

Virginia Satir

"We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us."

— Virginia Satir

American Author

1916 - 1988

One of the challenges we all face is not letting other people's perceptions of us determine who we are and how we behave.  This development of who we believe ourselves to be begins almost from the moment we are born.  Our parents judge us based on our gender.  I have talked to women who say: "My father wanted a boy so he named me ___________."  Other people will tell us that we are big or tall or pretty.  And over the years these observations sink into our subconscious and we begin to believe them to be true.  Much of my childhood I was told that I was big for my age.  Over time that observation by people translated in my brain as "you are fat" even when I wasn't.

What observations have you heard throughout your life that you have come to believe as true?  How did these observations become translated into your brain?  Are these observations true or do you need to discard them?

As artists and writers we experience similar challenges.  People will criticize our creative works and often we come to believe these criticisms to be true.  We may even change our work to please the critics.  If we do, we are allowing their limited vision to define who we are and what we are capable of achieving.  Do not let those with limited imaginations limit you.  Stand up for yourself.  Choose to define yourself and your work by your vision, not that of others.

 

Eric Fischl

"What experience has shown me is that it takes your life to become an artist."

— Eric Fischl

American Artist

1948 -

Becoming a painter, a poet, or a novelist takes a lifetime.  We are always in a state of becoming.  If we stop growing and changing, if we plateau, we die as artists.  We are on a journey.  The work we leave behind is the record of our journey.

Where are you on your artistic journey?  What challenges are you facing today?  What challenges have you learned to overcome?  What are your dreams for tomorrow?  What paths have you taken?  What roads have you avoided?

Don't despair if you feel you have lost your way.  Maybe you have just taken a detour and you will soon find your way again.  What we sometimes feel are the wrong roads turn out to be the right roads in the end.  We often cannot see the forest because of the trees.  Climb up the nearest tree and your world will change.  

I often hear people complaining about the weather.  It's too cloudy.  Too rainy.  Too cold.  Too hot.  Can't see the sun.  Yet if we get in an airplane and fly above the clouds, the sun is there.  It is always there.  So don't become discouraged.  Instead change your perspective.

Here is Eric Fischl talking about one of his paintings.

Richard Wollheim

"Learning appears as a way of staying young, perhaps of staying alive, and also as a way of growing up, perhaps facing death."

— Richard Wollheim

British Author, Philosopher

1923 - 2003

Life-long learning is a powerful habit to develop.  Learning something new keeps us in touch with our youth and helps us to stay active and alive.  What have you learned in the last week?  Who has taught you something new about yourself or your art?  

We experience the world through our senses — hearing, seeing, tasting, touching and smelling.  And what we experience teaches us much if we are paying attention and alert to the possibilities.  Did you smell the wind today?  Did you hear the approaching storm?  Do you taste the rain on your face?

From the time we are born until we die, our purpose is to learn, to grow, and to change.  Most learning does not occur in school and we don't stop learning once we graduate.  Cultivate a learning attitude.  Unfortunately, many people do not learn from their mistakes.  They are not willing to change and grow.  To be a great artist or writer, you must be constantly learning about the world in which we inhabit.

And when we face death, it will teach us much that we have forgotten.  Do not be afraid of death.  Understand that it is a gift.  It is a door through which we pass, a gate that leads to another world.

Denis Waitley

"Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.  Failure is delay, not defeat.  It is a temporary detour, not a dead end."

— Denis Waitley

American Author, Speaker

1933 -

How do you view failure?  When you feel you have failed at something, do you stop doing it?  Failure for many people is a dead end.  They don't view it as a detour on the road of life.  How you respond to perceived failure says a lot about who you are and what you will accomplish in life.  

Every failure is an opportunity to learn something new?  To increase our understanding of the world around us.  What have you learned from your failures?  Do you use your failures as inspiration to work harder?  Or do your failures become your excuse to quit and give up?  Failure is a test of your character and your determination.

Playing sports taught me a lot about failure.  In baseball, no batter gets a hit every time he comes up to bat.  In fact, if a batter gets a hit three out of ten at bats, he is considered to be an great hitter.  In Little League, I was not a very good hitter despite my size.  My best game was two weeks after appendix surgery.  I played three innings and had 2 singles.

In basketball, no player makes every shot he takes.  In fact, if a player makes 50% of his shots, he is considered to be a good shooter.  When I was a freshman in high school, I dreamed of playing in and winning the state high school championship my senior year.  And while my team had a record of 28 wins and 1 loss, we never made it to the state championship.  That final loss and failure to play in the championship became a symbol for my loss of religious faith.  And for years I held onto that symbol and let it guide my life.  What I saw as a failure was actually a very successful year.  To play 29 games and only to lose the last one is a fantastic record.  Many teams would love to have that kind of winning record.  But in my mind's eye I saw it as a failure.

What failures are you holding onto?  What failures do you need to let go?

Benjamin Spock

"Trust yourself.  You know more than you think you do."

— Benjamin Spock

American Pediatrician, Author

1903 - 1998

 

Spock wrote these words to the mothers of baby boomers in his best selling book, Baby and Child Care, and he launched a generation.  And his advice is just as important to creative leaders.  As artistic people, we need learn to trust ourselves -- our intuition.  The knowledge we have to write, to draw and to act is inside of us.  We need to learn to hear that small voice when it speaks and then to do what it says.  Too often we second guess ourselves and do what we think we should do.

Believe in yourself.  Believe in your talent.  Believe in your creative gift.  Believe in that small voice deep inside.  If you learn to trust yourself, you will be successful.

David Frost

"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."

Sir David Frost

British Journalist, Writer

1939 -

There is a paradox here.  If you seek success, you rarely find it.  If you do what you love, you will be successful even if it is not in the way that you imagined it.  As I grow older, I begin to define success less as money and fame and more as loving relationships.  The same is true of my artistic work.  It becomes less about the money and fame, then it is about the process of creating.

What is your passion?  What is your love?  Are you following your passion?  Are you doing what you love even if it is for only five minutes a day.  I dreamed for years of writing full time, but it was not to be.  But I have spent lots of hours writing.  The value is in the writing, the creating, not in doing it full time.  I challenge you to find 15 minutes every day to do what you love.  Don't wait until you can do it full time because it might never happen.  Do it now and success will follow.  Just be ready for the unexpected.  If life throws you a wrench when you are making other plans, just tighten the bolts and keep going.

William Makepeace Thackeray

"The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."

— William Makepeace Thackeray

English Novelist

1811 - 1863

This is a very profound statement.  The world that we see is a reflection of ourselves.  I tell a story in my seminars about a little girl who lives in the mountains with her parents.  One day the little girl has a fight with her mother and she runs out of the house.  When she reaches the edge of the cliff, she stops and yells at the top of her voice: "I hate you.  I hate you."  To her surprise she hears a voice shouting back at her:  "I hate you.  I hate you."  This frightens the little girl and she runs back into the house and tells her mother that someone out there hates her.  Her mother realizing what happened tells her young daughter to go back outside and shout, "I love you."  The little girl tiptoes back outside and nervously tiptoes to the edge of the cliff.  She calls out: "I love you.  I love you."  Echoing back out of the valley, she hears the words, "I love you.  I love you."  The message is quite clear:  what we send out is what we get back.

What we expect to find in the world is what we find.  If we think the world is a negative hostile place where our competition is seeking to destroy us, we will find examples to prove our world view.  If we think the world is helpful and supportive, we will find examples to prove our vision of the world.  The world we see is a reflection of the person we are.  Have you looked in the mirror lately?  What kind of person do you see?

Bernie Siegel

"In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope."

Bernie Siegel

American Author / Physician

As a young writer hope is one of the few things that kept me going.  I would read a story about someone who was 50 or 60 or 7o and he had just published his first novel.  After years of toiling in the salt mines of writing, he found success.  These stories inspired me to keep writing.  I had hope that one day I would be discovered and become successful.  Even today I have that sense of hope, that belief that one day I will be proved right.  Yes, I am a writer.

When we lose hope, we give up on life.  We quit.  Some days all we have is hope.  As the old saying goes: every dark cloud as a silver lining.  We just have to find it — to look at the world with new eyes.  No matter how dark the night, there is always a sunrise.  Everyone faces challenges and difficulties.  The sad thing for me is people who see no way out of a problem but to take their own lives.  Never give up hope for a better tomorrow.

As creative thinkers, we need hope.  We need to believe in ourselves, our ideas, our art.  Have faith that you have been given a gift.  Have faith in your dreams.  Have faith that the sun will rise again.

Christina Baldwin

"The reason I spend thousands of lifetime hours creating something 99 percent of which no one else is likely to ever read is that writing itself is the gift."

— Christina Baldwin

American Author/Speaker

1946 - 

Sometimes as writers we become caught up in the business of publishing and experience the hurt and pain of rejection.  We become frustrated and sometimes quit writing because we don't think we are good enough.  The need to write, to express ourselves, is not about being published.  The need to write and to create is a gift in itself.  Celebrate and honor the gift you have been given.  Write for the sake of writing.

The same can be said of painting and any of the other forms of creative expression.  Painting is not about selling your art to the highest bidder or having your painting hang in a museum somewhere.  Painting is a gift to be honored and treasured.  Respect and appreciate the gift that you have been given.

Martin Luther King Jr.

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

American Civil Rights Leader/Preacher/Author

1929 - 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

One of those games we play is:  "Where were you when . . ."  On April 4, 1968, I was a nineteen year old college student at Goshen College in Indiana.  Two months earlier I had the privilege of marching with Dr. King at a Vietnam War protest march in Washington D.C. The murder of Dr. King on my birthday in 1968 impacted me both emotionally and spiritually.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

For the past twenty years I have been sharing this quote by Dr. King in my speeches on leadership.  I believe that work is spiritual in nature.  The work we do helps to cleanse our souls and free our spirits.  Many people see work as a negative condition.  They hate Mondays and grumble about having to go to work.  Many people wish they did not have to work.  But if you have ever lost a job and sat idle for a few months, you appreciate the value of work in your life.

As creative leaders we have a special opportunity to share the fruit of our labor with others. Most of my life I have dreamed of being able to give up my bill-paying job and write full time.  Fortunately, this never happened.  I think I am a better person for having the discipline to get up an hour earlier than everyone and writing before going to work.  Sometimes what we wish for is not in our best interests.  The bill-paying work and the creative work are both important and both have helped to make me a better person.

Be proud of the work you do.  Celebrate the work you do.  Be happy with the gifts you have been given.

Joseph Conrad

"I don't like work — no man does — but I like what is in work: the chance to find yourself."

— Joseph Conrad

Polish Novelist

1857 - 1924

Unlike Conrad, I do like to work.  I find that if I don't work I become bored and more tired than when I work.  Although, I do from time to time find myself procrastinating, particularly with creative work.  The creative side of me doesn't want to sit down and do the work.  But I strongly agree with the second half of the quote.  Work does give me a chance to explore who I am as an artist and writer.  Work helps me to understand myself better and to appreciate my talents and gifts.  Work also challenges me and pushes me to go farther than I thought possible.

I believe we ought to celebrate work.  All work is honorable if approached with the right attitude.  Housework and housekeeping is very important work.  So is child-rearing.  Raising and educating the next generation is probably the most important work of all.  I am in awe of people who are knowledgeable about the work they do.  When I meet a sales clerk in a store who knows his product, I compliment him.  I love to listen to the sales pitch of great sales people.  Sometimes I buy and sometimes I don't, but I enjoy the ride.  I celebrate people who work their hands — carpenters, farmers, mechanics.  I am not good with my hands because I am too slow.  Some people have the gift for gab.  I have heard some fantastic speakers in my life.  Work for me is both an art and a skill.

The work that creative leaders do should also be celebrated.  Sometimes people don't understand the creative process and so they don't appreciate the working habits of artists and writers.  Painting, sculpting and writing are not 9 to 5 jobs.  You may work for an hour here and an hour there, but your mind is always working both consciously and unconsciously.  In fact, the unconscious work for a creative leader is probably the most important work and the most difficult.  So celebrate and appreciate the work you do.