We love starting over. It wipes the messy slate of our past clean, and lets us start fresh. We can put on a new face, a new attitude, a new effort. It seems like we can create a whole new identity when we do a new article, book, or website.
The gallery is in Yarmouthport, Mass.
Soon enough, that new effort is overwhelmed by the old ideas fueling the effort–the old us. Alcoholics Anonymous figured this out years ago when they said, “If you are a drunk in Cleveland, moving to Peoria for a fresh start isn’t the answer. You’ll be a drunk in Peoria, too.” It’s a wise saying, although a
tough one. (AA never pretended to have easy answers.)
When I went to Catholic school (I’m not a Catholic, but that’s another story), I loved seeing my friends go to confession. They’d say their prayers and their sins were wiped away. Poof! Just like that, they were brand new and sin free. Unfortunately, the old habits didn’t vanish, and my guess is that the same sins got repeated in the confessional time after time. And since there were different priests, no one really noticed or cared, and little personal growth resulted.
And that’s the danger of new projects. They seem free of the past baggage, but they are not free of us. We show up with our past, and relive it because it’s familiar. In a few days that new project looks like the old us. If we don’t like the old us, we’ll hate the new project, too.
Teresa Jennings Robinson read this post and sent me the gorgeous hand-lettered quote she made for her art journal. See more of her work at rightbrainplanner.com
I have friends who are start-up junkies. Addicted to new beginnings, these eager people will start up a company with the fervor of Ron Popeil selling the Veg-O-Matic. But they aren’t good at running a company, which seem tedious and boring, so they dash off to do another start-up, leaving the clean-up team to handle the rest.
The phrase I hear most often when people find out I’m writing another book is, “Oh, if you need some creative ideas, let me know. I’m really creative!” When I ask if they would help with some research, checking some facts, I get turned down. “Oh, no, my skills are creative ones!” I never say it to them, but creativity is not defined by one brilliant ideas. Creativity means showing up every day to do the hard work. The book I am writing is hard work. It’s satisfying, and I enjoy it, but it’s not fun and doesn’t involve sitting in Starbucks drinking coffee and writing. My editor has often reminded me that books aren’t written, they are re-written. I often think of this at midnight, when I’m re-writing.
Creative work is hard. We want to give up, we hate what we’ve done in the past, we want to do something fun and new. Yet what gets the work done is moving steadily ahead, when it’s not fun and not new. The secret to creativity is determination and persistence. Learning from your mistakes and getting up every time you fall is what the real creativity looks like.
--Quinn McDonald is a life- and creativity coach. She watches her clients start a lot of new projects for many different reasons. Sometimes they figure out why.
The similar quote I remembr is “Wherever you go, there you are.” I’m working with your theory right now on two fronts. Very hard to change habits.
It IS hard to change habits, we bring all our 404-coding errors with us. And re-coding is such hard work.
Brilliant post Quinn! Thanks for the encouragement that doing the hard yards is what matters. I love it that enjoyment can be found in the persistence of hard work. Thank you, Tonia
Brilliant post Quinn! I am in the process of discovery of just what you said – creativity is about persistence and hard work. It’s time to slow down, pace myself and just do the work. I was perplexed at how you said writing your book was hard work but you were enjoying it – a reminder that the destination is not the soul purpose of an action but enjoying the process, the actual doing, is. Thank you so much, Tonia
I’ve been thinking about this idea of a completely fresh start, of wiping the slate clean and beginning again. While we know it’s impossible, I wonder how many people would want to do it if it were? To wipe all memory and habits? Too extreme for me . . . I’ll settle for getting a little self-directed shift in direction any day and work to stay the course.
I love you for that peace of real wisdom–it takes some living to come to that conclusion.
Yes it’s a fact, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always have what you’ve got – maybe the circumstances or surroundings will be different but that’s all. Change requires much persistence!
I love that phrase at the beginning of your comment–it’s not only true, but clever.
I wish I could claim the phrase as mine Quinn – I can’t for the life of me recall where I heard it – the simple wisdom of it made it stick.
I know that Bobby Knight (basketball coach) said “Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to come to practice,” but I don’t know who said it first, or about the Super Bowl. I’ll settle for Bobby Knight.
In your April 7th post you mentioned that you practice Creativity as your religion. You just delivered a powerful sermon. Thank you.
What was the sermon about? What did you share that was meaningful? Don’t leave us hanging!
Great post and insightful thoughts! In our eagerness to “start fresh” it really does seem as though we end up right back where we started. Like they say “you can run away from … but you can’t run away from yourself.”
If I keep taking the same route and expect to arrive at a different place then I ask myself if the “route” I’m taking is REALLY the right way to the place I’d rather be.
On my creative journey I have found, more often than not, the reason I’m back at the same place is not only because it’s familiar (fear of the unknown) but also because I forgot “to clean up my mess”. In other words I haven’t taken the time to learn my lessons from my past that will allow me the clear path to move forward.
Unfortunately, my path is not always nicely paved or flat and straight – it’s kind of bumpy, sometimes has a pot hole or 2, it’s most certainly not flat and straight; there are a couple of hills that I have to climb and forks in the road where I may need to choose an entirely new direction.
Thanks for sharing your words of encouragement and inspiration!
Ahh, the bumpy path. I don’ think we’d enjoy it as much if it were a paved four-lane divided highway. Exploring the potholes and sharp turns is part of the satisfaction of discovery. You said something really important: “On my creative journey I have found, more often than not, the reason I’m back at the same place is not only because it’s familiar (fear of the unknown) but also because I forgot “to clean up my mess”. In other words I haven’t taken the time to learn my lessons from my past that will allow me the clear path to move forward.” Those lessons are so important for change to happen. Thank you!
“The secret to creativity is determination and persistence.” This is what I need to hear the most. Such a great reminder!!! Thanks!
It’s the hardest lesson of all. Being unpopular or not in the mainstream of anything–art, opinion, child rearing–can be very lonely.
I so agree!! People seem to ignore the sheer grunt work required by any great enterprise, like the prep-chef and the fact-checker, or proofreader. I almost think a touch of OCD is required for any great work.
The sous-chef of creativity never gets ANY of the credit!
Agree with Deb – very insightful and thank you Quinn for sharing – also know that there are days when i am just too tired to do the work – and wish i could get off the merry go round – doing the work is hard – and it is so important that we remember to stop and enjoy – not only the work (so it doesn’t seem like a merry go round) – but the down times that are necessary to keep doing the work.
Ron Popiel! Great analogy for making a very important point. Thanks!
He was great–a real lesson in how to keep going.
“Everybody wants to win the super bowl, but hardly anybody wants to come to practice.”
-some coach (I forget who)
So true. Because practice isn’t fun, but winning the Super Bowl demands practice.
New book???? Exciting!
Very insightful post Quinn. I have a saying “you are who you are” which can be annoying to those hearing it.
But it is true. You are right in that you can’t just move to a new city or a new house or a new job and change. You have to do the hard work if you want to change, and most people don’t really want to do the work. They want easy and quick answers and results. A product of our current culture, no doubt.
Our culture does seem to promise that we can be anyone we want to be. I am a big fan of reinvention, but the harder kind that starts on the inside and works out.