Ray Bradbury

"Don't think.  Thinking is the enemy of creativity.  It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy.  You cannot try to do things.  You simply must do things."

— Ray Bradbury

American Novelist

1920 - 2012

Thinking too much often gets in the way of our success.  We spend too much time thinking, planning and thinking some more.  Analysis often causes paralysis.  Get out of your head and find the way to your heart.  Look with wonder on the world you inhabit and learn new things. In the worlds of that immortal ad, just do it.

Do you find yourself using the word, "try"?  I'll try to write today?  I'll try to paint this week.  I'll try to practice.  Get rid of the word, "try."  Most people when they use the word, "try", mean that they are not going to do it.  Simply commit and say that you are going to write 500 words today or that you are going to paint 2 pictures this week.  Just do it.

Here is a link to a few Ray Bradbury stories. Don't think.  Read and enjoy. 

http://byliner.com/spotlights/remembering-ray-bradbury 

e. e. cummings

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."

— e. e. cummings

American Poet, Painter

1894 - 1962

Ask any teacher and they will tell you, if they are being honest with themselves: that it is easier to learn something yourself, then to teach someone else how to do something.  It is easier to write a novel then to teach someone else how to write a novel.  It is easier to paint a picture than teaching someone to paint.  So never badmouth a teacher.  They deserve respect.  What they do is special.  And the good ones have been given a gift that most of us will never have.  As another school year is coming to a close, celebrate the teachers in your life.  Celebrate those who fostered your creativity and talent.  Give thanks for those who inspired you and mentored you.

Susan Ertz

"Millions of persons long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon."

— Susan Ertz

British Novelist

1894 - 1985

Do you ever find yourself bored?  I did when I was young, but rarely am I bored today.  Even when I am in a boring meeting, I find something to keep me entertained even if it is only my own thoughts.  If you are bored, the problem is not where you live and work.  You are the problem.  You are not happy with yourself.  You are bored with who you perceive yourself to be.  Learn to love yourself.  Happiness is an inside job.

Most of us want to live longer because we don't want to die.  We don't know what happens after death and that makes us afraid.  Even people who have a strong religious faith don't know for sure what will happen.  If we knew what happened after death, we would either fear it more or take our lives so that we can get there sooner.  Fortunately, we don't know and we must live with the uncertainty.

For those of us who create works of art, whether it is poetry, novels, paintings or music, we have a shot at immortality.  Maybe our works will last beyond us.  You have probably read that Ray Bradbury died at 91.  In an article in the USA Today (June 7, 2012), David Cohen quotes Terry Pace, a collaborator with Bradbury, as saying: "He (Bradbury) knew that through his works he'd somehow live forever."

In the words of another mythical figure:  "Live long and prosper."

Harold Pinter

"Whatever the next thing is I write, it's got to be even more naked than the last."

— Harold Pinter

English Playwright

1930 - 2008

How vulnerable are you in your writing?  Can people discover who you are through your art?  How naked are you?  Do you open yourself up and share?  Or are you hidden and unknowable?  Creativity demands that we be true to ourselves.  That we share ourselves with others.  That we make ourselves vulnerable to the biting criticism of critics.  That we give and give and expect nothing in return.

Wilson Mizner

"I respect faith but doubt is what gets you an education."

— Wilson Mizner

American Playwright

1876 - 1933

I am a doubting Thomas.  Faith does not come easy for me.  I question almost everything.  Yet I feel my doubts have made a better and stronger person.  Others might not agree, but then they can not look inside my heart.  As creative leaders, I believe it is part of our role in society to question and not to take everything at face value.  I think that the more we are able to question the better our art will be.

Eugene Ionesco

"I am writing the memoirs of a man who has lost his memory."

— Eugene Ionesco

Romanian/French Playwright

1909 - 1994

If you had no memory, what would your life be like?  Memory is a crucial part of who we are as human beings.  Without memory we probably would not have writing or painting.  Memory helps us create both the past and the future.  Without memory we would not have stories or even history.  Yet for some of us as we grow old our memories begin to fade.  First, we lose that important short-term memory.  Even a trip from the bedroom to the kitchen is full of doubt and question.  The the long-term memory develops holes.  We lose a part of who we were.  Cherish your memories.  Put them down on paper.  Incorporate them into your paintings.  We need our memories in order to function.  We need our memories in order to create.

Richard B. Sheridan

"Won't you come into the garden?  I would like my roses to see you."

— Richard B. Sheridan

Irish Poet, Playwright

1751 - 1816

I have spent the weekend helping my wife transform our yard into several gardens.  This is not a normal pastime for us.  What gardens we have our daughter created a few years ago.  We have a large yard (.9 acre) with lots of trees.  I would prefer to live in the woods with no grass.  We almost bought a house in the woods in Indiana 27 years ago but it was too small.  We want gardens that require very little maintenance. 

As artists and creative leaders we are all in a sense gardeners.  We plant the seeds of our hopes and dreams in our writings and paintings.  We are tilling the soil of our hearts, looking for answers to our questions.  We must pull the weeds out of our writing and our painting.  We must fertilize the creative soil.  And when we are done, we can share the beauty of our creation with others.  So this week, be sure to tend the gardens of your creation.

Soren Kierkegaard

"Life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards."

— Soren Kierkegaard

Danish Writer, Philosopher

1813 - 1855

Do you understand who you are and from where you have come?  Only in looking back at our lives can we begin to have inkling of who we are as we begin to connect the dots in our lives — as we begin to tell the stories of what has happened to us.  Some of the dots in my life begin with my loud voice.  As a child, I was asked to participate in church programs because I had a booming voice.  When I was a sophomore in high school I decided to become a preacher.  I have spent the last 25 years of my life as a motivational speaker.  Three dots that when I look back at my life begin to tell the story of who I was and who I became.  And there are other dots that connect me to my father and the father that I became.  And dots that point to my perception of myself as an outsider, an underdog.  What are the dots in your life that you are beginning to connect and therefore to understand?  What are the stories you are telling yourself but nobody else?  What are the stories that you are sharing with the world?

Ernst Bacon

"A teacher's hardest lesson is to limit his explanation to the minimum."

— Ernst Bacon

American Composer, Pianist, Conductor

1898 - 1990

Sometimes less is more.  For creative leaders this is a valuable lesson.  Writers often put too much into their works.  Sometimes what is not said is more important than what is said.  Too much explanation can destroy the novel.  We need to learn to leave out the kitchen sink.  The same is true for painters.  What is left out of the picture is more important sometimes than what is included.  Photographers understand this.  What can we take away from this photo to make it even stronger?  Remember less is more.  What sentences or paragraphs can be left out of the story?

Here is a short piano piece by Ernst Bacon.

Pat Conroy

"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."

— Pat Conroy

American Novelist

1945 -

What is your favorite music?  Do you listen to various genres of music depending on your mood or the time of the day?  What impact does music have on your creativity?  Does music speak to your heart and spirit?  Do you listen to music when you read a book?  Do you prefer to dance to music?  What is your favorite song?  Who is your favorite musician?  What would your life be like if you could not hear music?

Let's make music together?  Can you play an instrument?  Can you sing? Or can you dance?  Do you sing in the shower?  Or do you sing along with the radio while driving a car?

David St. John

"There were times when depression, anxiety, whatever, would keep me from writing.  I still get depressed and anxious, but I just don't let it stop me.  I've learned to move it to one side if I want to work."

— David St. John

American Poet

1949 - 

Sometimes we let our emotional and mental states become excuses for why we are not working.  We tell ourselves that we are too tired, too agitated, too depressed, too unhappy, too nervous, too worried or too upset.  The work must continue no matter how we feel.  We must work through the emotion and the pain.  We must keep working and not let our feelings become a barrier.

Emile Zola

"There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman.  One is born a poet.  One becomes a craftsman."

— Emile Zola

French Writer

1840 - 1902

There are two sides to every artistic creation:  the creative and the analytical, the poet and the craftsman, the writer and the editor.  These are two sides of the same coin.  We need both the spontaneity of creation and the analysis of the editor.  The poet is who we are on the inside — who we were born to be.  The craftsman learns certain behaviors to fit into the expectations of society.  If you draw it this way, you are accepted and considered a genius.  If you deviate from the expectations of the masters, you are an amateur and labeled no good.  If I had to choose between the poet and the craftsman, I would choose the poet.  I would rather create than edit.

Terry Pratchett

"Real education happens when you pick up a fact here, and another fact there, and put them together and get an insight."

— Terry Pratchett

English Novelist

1948 -

One of my greatest pleasures is when I create a moment of insight by combining multiple facts into a new idea.  I believe we are in charge of our own education.  Books, classes, schools are just tools to help us gain information.  The real education is in the application of the information to how we live our lives.  Some people are book smart but have no idea what living is all about.  Some people are street smart but may have lost their souls in the process of surviving.  The education for creative leaders occurs during the process of creating.  This is where we synthesize all the information we have accumulated in our brains and bodies.  This is where our souls are reborn.

David Steindl-Rast

"Impatience makes us get ahead of ourselves, reaching out for something in the future and not really being content with where we are, here and now."

— David Steindl-Rast

Austrian Writer / Catholic Monk

1926 - 

Many creative leaders don't live in the here and now.  They are always looking forward to tomorrow when they sell their first book or have their first gallery showing or have enough money to create their works of art full time.  They spend most of their time in the future and ignore the beauty around them.  They are not grateful for what they have and the people in their lives.  They want to be where they are not.  Then one day they wake up and life has past them by and they have grown old and there is no tomorrow where they can dwell.  

Are you living in the world of tomorrow?  Or are you living in the now?  Are you grateful for what you have and what you have been given?  Or are you seeking new opportunities, living in a time beyond time where only dreams exist?

I am not saying that one should not have goals or dreams.  Both are necessary for living.  We just shouldn't spend all our time there.  We need to appreciate where we are now and what we can learn from this moment in our lives.  We need to enjoy the people in our lives and appreciate their friendship and love.  Don't let your impatience for success keep you from enjoying the moment.

Take a few minutes to watch this video and listen to the words of David Steindl-Rast.

Roger von Oech

"If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered."

— Roger von Oech

American Writer, Speaker

1948 -

Celebrate your mistakes.  Each mistake you make is an opportunity to discover a path to a new idea.  For many people mistakes and errors are failures and they quit.  Some people even deny they made a mistake.  Creative leaders understand that mistakes are only the first step on a journey to finding a new idea.  So celebrate your mistakes.  Welcome your errors.  Give thanks for new beginnings.  

Bertolt Brecht

"It's alright to hesitate if you then go ahead."

— Bertolt Brecht

German Poet, Playwright

1898 - 1956

Making decisions is often difficult.  We hesitate, not sure if we are making the right decision.  Sometimes we need to trust ourselves and move ahead.  It is normal to second guess one's self — to question if one is doing the right thing.  But ultimately, one must stand up and be counted.  What decisions are you facing that you are uncertain about?  What decisions are you regretting having made?  What does your heart say?  Don't let your analytical mind win.  Trust your heart.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"A painter should be solitary.  Solitude is essential to his art.  Alone you belong to yourself only; with even one other person you are only half yourself, and you will be less and less yourself in proportion to the number of companions."

— Leonardo Da Vinci

Italian Artist / Creative Leader

1452 - 1519

Our society is filled with noise and distractions.  Some days it is difficult to think because there is so much activity.  A creative leader must have solitude if he is to create.  People can block the flow of creative juices.  But we also need people for stimulus and inspiration.  So it becomes a balancing act between too many people and too few people.  If we have too many people in our lives, we stop creating.  If we have too few people, we fail to incorporate new ideas into our work and become stagnant.  What is the balance in your life?

John Cleese

"We don't know where we get our ideas from.  What we do know is that we do not get them from our laptops."

— John Cleese

British Actor

1939 -

Sometimes we need to walk away from our computers and walk back into the real world.  Inspiration does not come from spending hours and hours in cyberspace.  Inspiration visits poets who take long hot showers and artists who take walks through wooded parks.  Where do you find your ideas?  In your coffee cup?  Dancing under a full moon?  Behind the piano?  Surely not in the software on your computer.

T. S. Eliot

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.  The good poet welds his theft into a whole feeling which is unique, utterly different from that which it was torn."

— T. S. Eliot
American Poet
1888 - 1965

Every aspiring artist and writer needs to expose his mind and heart to the creative works of others.  Originality comes not from creating something from nothing, but from putting a new twist on old material, by changing what was into what is.  What writers are you reading today?  What artists are you studying?  

Edgar Degas

"I frequently lock myself in my studio.  I do not often see the people I love, and in the end I shall suffer for it . . . painting is one's private life."

— Edgar Degas

French Artist

1834 - 1917

Sometimes we sacrifice our relationships because of our commitment to our creative work.  We ignore the people we love because of the creative work we must do.  The challenge is to find a balance between the work and the people.  We need the people to hold us to this earth so we don't disappear into thin air — so we don't drop off the deep end.  So if you have been ignoring those you love, go give them a hug and a spend a few minutes with them.