I felt a kind of sadness in an odd way when my Grandad died. We were at his house, sorting out the stuff. Grandma had died a few moths earlier. Apart from the funiture and his war medals there was nothing else to say he’d been here on Earth for the past 80 years. None of his memories, thoughts or feelings had been recorded in any form. No writings or drawings, no collections or indications of hobbies, just a few photos of the cat. Of course I’m viewing this from my perspective of being a creator, so I’m looking for these things. It’s not to say he didn't have a happy and fullfiling life, he probably did. But there’s no evidence to show that he did.

My other Gandma on my dad's side had left her play scripts, songs and musicals along with photos of her and my Grandad and their cast performing their concert parties and music hall entertainment during and after the Second World War. I know that she created a lot of pleasure for people. Everybody has a story to tell of how she touched their lives.

What stories will people tell about you? What will you leave behind to pass onto the next generation? We can all expect a digital footprint these days perhaps in the form of left-over information on a long forgotten social networking website profile, but what more can you proactivly do with your talents and your life? Will there be something of worth left behind for future generations? What will it be?

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www.aydinstone.com

Labels: digital footprint, legacy, memories

Can you use a pen or pencil to write your name? Can you catch a ball from a distance of two metres? Can you thread a needle? If you can, then you can draw. If you can write your name you can hold a drawing impliment and make marks on paper. If you can catch a ball you can judge distances. If you can thread a needle you have the dexterity, accuracy and patience. Those are the skills needed to draw, there are no others. The only other element is practice. You'll need to practice the secret of drawing. Want to know what it is? It has nothing to do with art or talent. It has nothing to do with what you were good at when you were at school.

It is simply to look at the object you are drawing. This is the secret that so many get wrong. In my workshops I've positioned a four-legged chair for people to draw. I positioned it in such a way that they could only see three legs from where they were sitting. But they all drew a chair with four legs because they 'knew' that the chair had four legs. When drawing something, never, ever draw something. Never name it or any part of it. It is not a chair, a car or a person. It is a collection of lines, shapes and shades. Look at it and see and you'll open up your non-verbal right brain and the joy and peace of the moment.

Never mind those logic problems, crosswords and sudukos, drawing is a great work out for the brain and it will enhance your creativity.

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www.aydinstone.com

Labels: Creativity, drawing

In my workshops I teach people to draw. Actually I don't teach them at all, I just prove to them that they can draw, it's just them telling themselves they can't that stops them. I received this from one of the delegates:

"After your talk I was thinking about what you'd said, about how the conscious mind can't draw but the unconscious can, and I picked up a notepad and pencil and just sketched what was in front of me (a dressing gown on the door). To my surprise it actually looks like my dressing gown!

"I am writing a book on the unconscious mind, and its role in happiness. I am planning to use music as an example. When you mentioned that drawing was an unconscious activity I immediately realised that the techniques I have developed for allowing the unconscious mind access to the body (e.g. the hands) without conscious "correction" - techniques that have allowed me to play the piano in a few months without tuition - should work just as well for drawing, since both activities are best done by the unconscious. Hence, it was not difficult for me to ask my unconscious mind to draw something, rather than play the piano.

"None-the-less, it was your talk that inspired me to try drawing when I had long-since given up!
Thanks again, and best wishes, Paul Rudman"

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www.aydinstone.com

Labels: art, drawing, learn to draw, piano

There's a Monty Python sketch where Michael Palin's character is an accountant who's gone to a careers advisor played by John Cleese. The accountant says he's fed up with being an accountant. He wants to be a lion tamer. The careers advisor says he doesn't suit such a career. Couldn't he work his way towards lion-taming via say, banking.

I had the misfortune of going to a careers advisor once. They asked me some dumb questions about exam subjects and then asked what I wanted to be as they had lots of pamphlets on various career paths. Well the answer to that was obvious to this 16 year old. I wanted to be a rock star. So I told her. She shook her head and said I should take this seriously. I was taking it seriously and I asked her where the relevant pamphlet was. There wasn't one. She advised instead that I join the YTS (the Youth Training Scheme designed for non-academic pupils a bit like an apprenticeship). I said no thanks.

That careers advisor is in our heads, holding us back from what we really should be doing and being 'realistic' and pushing us into mediocrity. Think of the jobs that you've done and that most people do. They all have job titles, but let's be honest, most of them mean absolutely nothing. When you or people around you were children I bet you wanted to be a clear-cut interesting profession like an astronaut, doctor, film star, or vet. No-one wanted to be a marketing assistant or sales manager. How did they become them? There's nothing wrong with any particular job, unless the person doing it isn't satisfied and is capable of doing more. Then it's a cage.

Most workplaces don't know how to deal with talent, it gets in the way. They can't reward it or promote it and it doesn't fit into a neat box. That's why you can't rely on your job or others to give you satisfaction without you doing something about it yourself. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you got paid for doing what you loved doing? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we found the courage to find a way to make that happen?

Click here to read more about creativity.

www.aydinstone.com

Labels: careers advisor, Creativity, jobs, monty python, Talent