There is a very famous film of Picasso painting live. About halfway through creating an effortless masterpiece he says “ Ca va tres mal” (it’s going very badly). Even someone like Picasso struggled to get a painting to go where he wanted it to go. It’s his self-belief, confidence and self-trust that allows him to work through the “bad” stage and experience that tells him that he can make it right. I’m certainly not in that league, but that helped me to understand that I should push through (although sometime you can try too hard and take a sketch too far) and trust my instinct.
Belief, imagination and creativity are powerful things; they shape the world as we wish to see it.
Beliefs are our past, but they shape our future. Optimism drives our future. Optimism drives us to create. Optimism creates and shapes cultures. Optimism is an evolutionary survival strategy.
In his remarkable book “Atomic Habits” James Clear suggests that the solution doesn’t lie in trying harder, but instead trying smarter and working with how our brains work. Working in small, simple, and achievable steps is the way to achieve successful and lasting habit change.
Innovation and creative minds are the natural state for humans, we’ve used it to change and adapt throughout our evolution, and as a result, we have our place in the world.
Is it joy that makes us grateful or is it gratitude that makes us joyful? Mathew McConnaughey tells us that gratitude and happiness are more than just a state of mind.