How To Skyrocket Your Creative Growth

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was an avid tennis player. I spent my summers at the local community college, practicing my strokes against a backboard and picking up a few games here and there.

One of the top men’s tennis players back then was Jimmy Connors, and he was my idol. I was mesmerized by Connors’s powerful, two-handed flat backhand, and the way he threw his entire body weight into each groundstroke. I copied his style and played with the same T-2000 tennis racket.

“Use it or lose it.” -Jimmy Connors

My parents recognized my love for tennis and hired a kindly tennis coach named Charlie T. Sharples to help me improve my game. I had a few friends that played tennis, and we played nearly every day. My game improved, but then I hit a wall.

My mother encouraged me to join a tennis phone-tree. It was published by a local tennis association and contained brackets and rankings for different ages and abilities. Lower ranked players phoned higher ranked players and challenged them to a tennis match.

This is where I ran into trouble. I was shy and felt embarrassed calling strangers to challenge them to a tennis match. My mother encouraged me by saying:

“The only way you’re going to get better is to get out of your comfort zone. What’s the worst that can happen? Even if you lose the match, you’ll learn from it and become a better tennis player.”

Begrudgingly, I started to call players on the tennis phone-tree. I won some games, I lost some games. But unlike hitting balls against the backboard, these challenge matches forced me out of my comfort zone.

I was now facing new players on a public tennis court. The matches helped me overcome my shyness, and my tennis game improved immeasurably. I would go on to letter multiple times on my high school varsity tennis team.

Don’t capitulate to it

My father was an accomplished, weekend oil-painter. I used to love the smell of the turpentine as I watched Dad paint beautiful landscapes and historical scenes.

I grew up with a love of drawing and cartooning but came to oil painting later in life. I was mid-way into my 26-year law enforcement career when I decided to try my hand at oil painting.

I hired a local artist to tutor me on the finer points of landscape painting. I took a few workshops and painted in the evenings and weekends. Then one day I discovered the artwork of Scott L. Christensen online. I was inspired by Scott’s abstract yet representational landscapes and started to copy some of his paintings to learn more.

My wife suggested I take a workshop with Scott, but I found a million reasons not to travel to Idaho where Scott’s studio was. My wife shot down all my excuses, made me sign up for the workshop, and booked my flights.

The landscape in Idaho was beautiful, as was Scott’s impressive, Craftsman studio. I was excited to be there but also a bit intimidated. All the other students were either professional or highly accomplished painters. At times I wondered what I was doing there.

At the end of each workshop day, Scott had us layout our paintings for everyone to critique. We were also given ten ticket stubs to place in front of the paintings we liked the most. Then Scott would talk about our paintings, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses.

I had plenty to learn and knew my work was not as good as most of the other painters. A few days I even thought about skipping the critique exercise, but somehow I set aside my shyness and insecurity and suffered through it.

“I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.” -Kobe Bryant

Much to my surprise, on a few occasions I received numerous ticket stubs in front of my paintings. Apparently, some of the other students saw promise in my work that I didn’t see.

I would return several more times to study landscape painting with Scott. My confidence had grown, all thanks to my wife’s insistence that I set aside my fears and take Scott’s workshop.

Had I stayed safely at home in my little studio, I would never have developed as fast as I did in those workshops. By stepping outside my comfort zone and sharing my work with other artists, I learned a great deal faster.

Listen to constructive criticism

One of the workshop students I befriended (named Jim) asked me if I had an artist website. I told him no. He recommended the platform that he used for his website, to which I said, “I thought about a website, but honestly, I don’t think my work is ready. I think too many artists put work out there before it’s ready. I’m going to wait until I’m further along before I invest in a website.”

I remember Jim looking at me quizzically and saying, “Now why would you do that? I think it’s better to put a website up as soon as possible. That way you’ll get feedback from other people, and your artist ego will drive you to work on improving your paintings.”

I acknowledged that he had a point. Not long after that I went ahead and created my artist website at JohnPWeiss.com. I started to post my best work. Sure enough, I received some feedback. At first, it was mostly family and friends, praising my effort. It’s nice to get positive comments, but I knew the more valuable input would come from strangers.

I also started blogging when I created my website. I had always enjoyed writing and figured it wouldn’t hurt to share my thoughts on art and life. I was still a bit insecure about sharing my work but took Jim’s advice to heart.

“Be patient, work hard and consistently, have faith in your writing, and don’t be afraid to listen to constructive criticism.” -Jonathan Galassi

Much to my delight, readers were mostly positive about my writing. But there was also some constructive criticism and a few haters. If you write and publish online, sooner or later, you’ll encounter haters. They’re the ones with a chip on their shoulder or some dogmatic political agenda.

Occasionally a reader would leave a snide remark or call me names. It used to bother me, but I quickly learned to take it all with a grain of salt. Sometimes, and this isn’t easy, I’d step outside myself and try to see things from the reader’s point of view. Just remember, they’ll always be critics.

Haters may lack civility and diplomacy, but every once in awhile they are right. It might make you angry or defensive, but if you can rise above your ego, even stinging criticism can be instructive. It can help you become better at your craft.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it

Author and popular blogger James Clear wrote in a blog post that successful people start before they’re ready. They don’t wait until they’re in the perfect mood or when all their ducks are lined up perfectly.

Irish poet John Anster, in his loose translation of Part One of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s tragic masterwork “Faust,” wrote:

Lose this day loitering — ’twill be the same story
To-morrow–and the next more dilatory;
Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.
Are you in earnest? seize this very minute–
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it,
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated —
Begin it, and the work will be completed!

In modern times, the above has been abbreviated to:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

There’s a powerful strategy you need to embrace if you want to skyrocket your creative growth, and that strategy is this:

Begin before you’re ready, and practice in public

As James Clear elaborates in his article:

“If you’re working on something important, then you’ll never feel ready. A side effect of doing challenging work is that you’re pulled by excitement and pushed by confusion at the same time.”

James Clear continues:

“You’re bound to feel uncertain, unprepared, and unqualified. But let me assure you of this: what you have right now is enough. You can plan, delay, and revise all you want, but trust me, what you have now is enough to start. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to start a business, lose weight, write a book, or achieve any number of goals… who you are, what you have, and what you know right now is good enough to get going.

We all start in the same place: no money, no resources, no contacts, no experience. The difference is that some people — the winners — choose to start anyway.”

A new momentum

How about you? Are you putting off your creative dreams because you don’t feel ready? Are you discouraged that it’ll take you too long to reach proficiency? Maybe lacking a little initiative?

If so, I get it. We all feel insecure sometimes about our creative work. We compare where we’re at against the work of our idols.

But the thing is, how do you think Jimmy Connors got so good at tennis? How did Scott L. Christensen become such an accomplished painter? How did Kobe Bryant become such an amazing basketball player? How did James Clear become a best-selling author?

The answer is that all these accomplished individuals practiced in public, and they started before they were ready.

“Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” -Tony Robbins

We all start off as amateurs. We get out there in public. We fall down. Maybe people laugh. But we get back up, we keep practicing. We learn from the feedback. And before we know it, we get better.

Others just starting out ask our advice. They want to know the secret to our success. When they ask, tell them:

Begin before you’re ready, and practice in public

Before you go

I’m John P. Weiss. I draw cartoons, paint, and write about life. Get on my free email list here for the latest artwork and essays.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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