The Creative Instinct

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I love these two sayings, but wow! they’re overused these days. It’s become accepted wisdom that if you want to achieve a long term goal, or even a large, grey, wrinkly goal, you only need to start small and keep going – and you will reach your dreams.

Well – I can almost agree with that – small steps, small bites can get you a long way. It’s a powerful message. But it shouldn’t be the whole message.

First of all I’ll assume that you’ve set yourself a compelling vision of what you would like to achieve from your creative and artistic instincts. Well done. Now let’s take that sideways look at the guidance from these excellent sayings.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a Single Step

Confucius wrote this. He was very wise. Recent research has uncovered his draft versions, which show he was even wiser than we thought. Here, for the first time anywhere, is what he also wrote -

A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step:

- so make sure you’re heading in the right direction, dumbo – you are walking far enough already

- but check to see if there are any rickshaws running, or better still, go by plane

- and make sure that wherever you are going is worth the effort

- and (this is an important one) try to figure out what you will do when you get there

And now some suggestions for our second saying.

How Do You Eat an Elephant? One Bite at a Time:

- but make really sure you like elephant!

- and don’t be scared of snacking on the odd meerkat for a bit of variety – but do avoid giraffes as you’ll not want to eat the elephant afterwards

- and why not ask some friends around for a Barbie?

See what’s being said here? Whatever your creative shtick it’s great to have something to aim for. Just make sure it’s the right goal, be creative in getting there, and don’t be scared to get some help if you need it.

A final thought: if you are setting off on a journey of a thousand miles – don’t take an elephant as your packed lunch.

* Photograph courtesy of John Hobson