Oh… I have a strange relationship with this one. I don’t believe it and I do believe it. Potentially I have way too many things to do in each twenty four hours but these days I’m much, much better at being satisfied with what I have done. So instead of stressing about what I haven’t managed to do with my day, now I congratulate myself on what I have done and sleep easy. Mostly.

And Now the Rant

But hell, the pressure is always there in today’s way of living. It’s so easy to get sucked into that whirlpool of mad activity and goals and things to do and things to have that we really can believe with all our hearts that we need more time!

Western culture, or maybe capitalist culture, I’m not sure which, has us acting like crazy people. We’re time sensitive, time conscious, cash rich/time poor (not everyone, I know), we’re supermums and dads rushing round being all things to everyone. We get to work early and stay late and we organize so many activities for our kids that neither they nor we have a minute of rest.

And having crammed so much in we still find to our everyday horror that there’s stuff we left out. No wonder we go to bed frazzled and dissatisfied.

But how many hours do we want exactly? And what are we going to do with it when we’ve got it?

Well, this is a blog about our creative instincts, so I’m guessing for many the answer would be to use the extra time being more creative. But how is it that an easy way to find out what we really, really want to do with our time is to ask ourselves what we are not doing with it now?

And how is it, exactly, that we can spend whole days or even weeks whizzing around like the proverbial blue-arse fly without getting close to the things we really want to do, or the people we really like to be with?

Did I say days and weeks just now? It can be years. Years of insane rushing and ‘achieving’ and promising ourselves that one day – one day soon – we’re going to slow down enough to smell the roses – maybe even plant some roses.

This is not something we should be saving for retirement.

We Are Greedy

When it comes down to it we’re greedy about the things we want to do with our days and the things we want to have in our lives. We’re like kids in a sweet shop/candy store – I want that – and I want this, and this and yes, lots of that and…

I guess our whole modern society is a bit like that. We are surround by so much stuff and so many tempting options. We have so much to choose from we end up not being able to.

But we have to choose. We have to choose not to have some stuff and not to do some things. Then we can finally find the time to do what’s really important better. So make some choices.

• Choose how to spend your time
• Choose how to relax without guilt
• Choose to reject other people’s definitions of success
• Choose to do less

And you know what? It’s the people who choose to do less who often end up getting a lot more out of life (yet another paradox – I love ‘em).

• More enjoyment of what they do choose to do
• More achievement in the areas they care about
• Morelong term fulfilment

All this is providing you choose with care. Because if you choose only to please other people – to conform to their view of how your world should be and how you should be using your time, then all the time in the world won’t be enough.

Right… must dash!

Don’t you just love inner dialogues:

Oh, I really do love this saying.

What? How can you say that? This saying is so far wrong it’s coming round the other side and taking a crafty peak at being right.

It is right! It’s one of the great personal development aphorisms. It’s a fantastic motivator for helping people get moving when they’re stuck. We love this saying. We use it all the time don’t we?

Well… that’s true, I suppose. But on the other hand it’s based on a total and fundamental lie. There is no such thing as no change!

***

O-o-o-okay then. You may notice that once again I’m in two minds about a wonderful/rubbish Sideways Saying. It’s a category that’s pretty good for that. I hope you’ll stay with me long enough to explain why this saying can be so very powerful for all we creative types – and why, when we explore the fundamentally flawed assumption at it’s core, we may find something far more powerful and perhaps, even a little terrifying.

How This Saying Can Work Brilliantly

There’s a single narrow scenario where this saying is fantastic – you are stuck in a bad situation, especially a repetitive, unproductive and negative cycle of events where your only response is to is to keep on doing the same old stuff. You hope that what didn’t work before will miraculously begin to give you better results.

For instance, you desperately want to spend more time on your artwork, but your other life activities seem too important or difficult to change. So you keep struggling by on the scraps of time that come your way.

Here’s the harsh reality – if you don’t find new solutions, new attitudes, you will not gain the creative time you desire. Simple as that. So here is your stark choice – do nothing and get used to it – or do something to knock you out of your uncomfortable status quo.

A Call To Bravery

In this scenario if nothing changes, nothing changes is a call to bravery. Ideally – you gather your courage and do something different. It’s in this sense that this saying is a superb personal development catalyst for your creative projects, and for all the other parts of your life. Here are two similar adages that augment it.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

If what you are doing isn’t working – do something different

All three sayings are fabulously useful in jolting you out of the horrible incapaciting effect of inaction and repetition.

Why It’s Also Fundamentally Wrong

So on the level I’ve described above it works – in fact it works exceptionally well. But here’s the killer: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NO CHANGE. If you haven’t already, you’d better get used to this: nothing stands still. Sure, things can endure for a very long time, but never for ever.

I’d like to offer a modified version that takes this into account. Here goes:

If nothing changes, expect things to get worse.

Now I know that’s a tad paradoxical, and maybe it’s a bit… well – heavy. But doesn’t it have a ring of truth to it?

If, using that example above, you aren’t making enough time for your creative expression, and do nothing about it, the likelihood is that the situation will gradually deteriorate. What time you do have will feel less and less satisfying and will probably get eaten away by other concerns. And continued lack of improvement and quality output will almost certainly cripple what little motivation you manage to maintain.

Unfortunately this tends to be true for most negative situations: left unchanged things get worse.

• Your theatre group has one bad member who disrupts everything. Eventually your good members drift away.
• You keep making do with faulty equipment. Eventually you’ll end up with no equipment at all.
• You suspect your agent is screwing you and not working in your best interest, but you don’t like to rock the boat and so you say nothing. Either: s/he will keep screwing you until it really hurts – or if s/he’s being straight, your relationship will fail because you let your unjustified thoughts fester rather than finding out what the truth is.

And guess what? Even success withers away if you do nothing more than repeat the same formula over and over again.

That’s why successful genre fiction constantly challenges its own genre.

It’s the reason that rock music has been able to keep alive and kicking for so long – it is constantly developing and changing. When it stops it will become a dead art form, like rock and roll.

And it’s how Picasso maintained his stature – by movement, development and evolution of his art. What would Picasso’s influence on art have been if he’d stayed firmly in his Blue Period?

Of course, there’s always a risk that the changes you make either won’t work or will make things worse. That’s inescapably true and I’m not suggesting you make change just for change’s sake. Another saying: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it comes to mind here.

But if it is broke or you can see it’s going to break sometime soon – then you need to do something about it.

Whether we like it or not – unless we are proactive with our life, unless we strive to make positive change happen, negative change will eventually happen all by itself.

Does that sound bleak? I prefer to think of it as exciting. Life is like a plane – take the controls and fly.

***

Other articles:

You Can’t Live Well With a Malnourished Soul
7 Tips to Shock You Out of Your Creative Rut

# 2 of the series in which I take a swipe at daft sayings

Don’t even get me started on this one.

This saying is so wrong I scarcely know where to begin. Now I know that sayings are often metaphors, but here even the metaphor doesn’t work. I mean – of course you should judge a book by its cover – the cover’s been specially designed to tell you what kind of book it is. So if you get cowboys on the front you’ve got a pretty good chance that the good guy will wear a white hat and some character or other is going to sidle up and say howdy.

Then again, lots of other things have covers besides books. Fish fingers for instance. Fish fingers I can go with. Don’t judge a fish finger by its cover is much more useful. Have you noticed how some brands of fish finger are definitely not as full of fishy goodness as the box would have you believe?

Note: Fish fingers: are they a purely British thing or an international phenomenon? This blog needs to know – so non-UK readers please comment. I realise that a worldwide fish finger survey has little to do with creativity, but I’ll make a good creative point later – promise. And if you don’t have fish fingers in your part of the world, they are thin cuts of fish, sometimes improbably so, covered in breadcrumbs.

Anyway, fish finger packaging can be deceptive and rarely a reliable indicator of the quality inside.

And… okay… it’s true also that book covers occasionally make claims about readability that aren’t strictly true.

But don’t we make a judgement even then? I know I do. I look to see who the glowing reviews on the cover have been written by. If it’s from something like my local weekly freebie there’s a fair chance the publisher had to look quite hard to find the required tribute. So if the review reads: Brilliant! – Worksop Guardian, I think: Rubbish! – Everyone else.

I should add here that when I finally publish my first book and it says Brilliant on the cover, you’d better believe it.

Of course, this saying isn’t about books or even fish fingers, it’s about people. I suppose you could translate it as Don’t judge people by how they look and dress – and I’ll grudgingly admit there’s some truth in that.

After all, research has shown that we do judge attractive looking people as being more likeable and intelligent. Tall people do get the top jobs regardless that there may be shorter, abler candidates available. And for some reason the world’s foremost democracies generally agree that there is a direct link between a good head of hair and the ability to lead a country. And wearing a snappy suit helps too.

What that shows, perhaps, is that regardless of whether we should or should not, we habitually do judge a book by its cover – though despite the examples above, it’s mostly fairly helpful. It helps us show the world who we are, and it helps us judge the kind of people we are meeting. Not judging simply makes no sense

Yes, we can be deceived at times, but we can also be very accurate – especially if we are aware enough to look for the tell-tale signs of insincerity.

And in our own creative life and creative output it’s vital that we take both sides of the saying into account. Be aware of how you present both yourself and your work, because regardless of the quality within, people will be judging by the cover. On the other hand, do remember that people with lots of ability don’t always come across that way, while many people without much to shout about make sure that their cover tells a very different story.

So – Don’t always judge a book by its cover?

And ignore it at your own risk.

***

See also:

Sideways Sayings: A Thousand Miles to Eat an Elephant

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

So what’s this all about then, I hear you ask. Well you could be lucky enough to be in right of the start of this soon to be legendary series of whimsical deconstructions of much loved, much hated, overused, misunderstood or just plain stupid quotations and sayings.

My intention is to drop one of these into the mix every now and again and see how it goes. We might get bored with them quickly, in which case it’ll not quite reach the legendary status of my dreams, or they might be a raging success and take over the world. I can’t see any middle ground here.

You may also find much wisdom – and if that’s the case I’d appreciate it if you could feed it back in the comments for those of us (myself included) who might have missed it. In fact I will choose sayings and quotations that have some impact on our development as people and creative artists. They’ll always be relevant to The Creative Instinct.

Special two for one offer!

To launch this exciting new service I’d like to make you this special introductory offer of two sayings for the price of one – though as they aren’t going to cost you anything in the first place, this offer isn’t quite so good as it sounds.

Coming very, very soon:

• A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step

and

• How do you eat an elephant?

Tell your friends.