The Fine Art of Pushing Yourself

Wisdom from Robert Genn

While it's generally a good idea to move in the direction of
successes and proficiencies, from time to time it's also
valuable to take a look at weaknesses. Pros try to understand
and disarm them. Amateurs either deny them or don't know they
exist. Here are a few thoughts on the fine art of pushing
yourself:

It's painful, but you need to make a "baddy inventory." You
need to identify no more than three at a time. If you pick too
many, the task overwhelms and discouragement can set in. Homing
in on specific areas of difficulty is easier if you see them as
"zones of temporary avoidance."

Get specific. Be honest. Give instructions. Make notes to
yourself: "Due to the persistent and chronic failure of looking
and seeing, my trees have become overly simplified, clichéd,
and limited in species identification. I must now resurface
with baby eyes and look again at trees. I must step outside in
all lights, open my eyes to variety, and rethink arboreal
anatomy by notation and sketch."

There's no better cure for mediocrity than a dose of truth. And
there's no better reason for taking the cure than the
challenge. Fall in love with potential accomplishment. Central
to this process is the realization that it's a personal quest.
It's not a mentor or instructor but the trees themselves that
give the demos and crits. Taking this course and building
accomplishments one by one is like putting shiny new coins into
your pocket. Accumulated pushes lead to creative wealth.

To push yourself to higher ground you need an attitude. The
attitude is both achievable and hard won. It's possible to be
deceived that this attitude is the result of natural causes.
Further, it's easy to give credit to what seems to be inborn
talent or irregular creative genius. Digging deeper, the better
artists often have many "eureka" moments when the way forward
is seen to be clearer. Eureka can happen by simply looking at
your hands and realizing that you have everything you need to
overcome. "Genius," said Thomas Edison, "is one percent
inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Perspiring
is part of the attitude. Evolved creators are just as curious
about their failures as they are of their successes.


PS: "If I have accomplished anything good, then it's mainly
because I've been driven by the need to know whether I can
accomplish things I'm not sure I have the capacity for."
(Vaclav Havel, playwright)

Esoterica: We artists are fortunate in that most of our tasks,
while often daunting, are also relatively pleasant. The
art-push needs to be noble and yet modest--one step at a time.
Helen Keller noted, "I long to accomplish a great and noble
task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as
though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not
only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the
aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker." This is
the nature of our theatre. "Work," when it involves "play," may
just be the key to "push." In the words of Arnold Toynbee, "The
supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and
play." To perspire in play is to know progress.