“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
– Pablo Picasso, quoted in the book “7” (a compilation of quotes, thoughts and ponderings)
This book was a gift from my sister, and there are a number of ponderings in its pages worth, well, pondering.
If you’re a frequent reader of the Daily Difference at all, you’ve read my question, “At what age do we start sucking all the creativity out of kids?” and I think the answer is “too soon, and it’s getting earlier all the time.”
But we do it to adults, too.
We try to control everything, or force everything into a process. We try to mandate, regulate or debate every little thing. We take things way too seriously and it can adversely affect our performance when we do.
The past two evenings, the Middle of The Three and his Little Sister have headed up to the golf course with me for some practice ahead of Saturday’s Father / Son Championship.
Tuesday night, we laughed and giggled and messed around — and shot 4 over par in an alternate shot format. Tonight, we were practicing, preparing, plotting strategy and “working at our game,” and were five over. On the first TWO holes.
We sucked. I mean, we. Were. Awful.
When Middle got frustrated once, I said, “Aw, heck, Wyatt, just hit it out there.” He calmly striped a 3-wood 181 yards off the deck and turned and grinned at me, as if to say, “Why don’t we do that all the time, Dad?” In fact, I’m pretty sure he said, “Why don’t we do that all the time, Dad?”
So, on the next hole, I did, too. And then he did. Par. Then another par. We let the artist back in. And the pictures got prettier.
Even if business, the more we trust our instincts, get in the moment and place intuition, creativity and aggressiveness where safety and fear would sneak in, the more we’d like the outcomes.
When we leave the art in the child and the creativity in the professional, we make a difference.
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