An Interview with Eric
Maisel
Author of Making Your Creative Mark
Eric Maisel
is the author of Making Your Creative Mark and twenty other creativity titles
including Mastering Creative Anxiety, Brainstorm, Creativity for Life, and Coaching
the Artist Within. Maisel is widely
known as a creativity expert who coaches individuals and trains creativity
coaches through workshops and keynotes nationally and internationally. He has
blogs on the Huffington Post and Psychology Today and writes a column for
Professional Artist Magazine. Visit
him online at http://www.ericmaisel.com.
You’ve
organized the book around nine keys. Can you highlight one or two of them for
us?
I start with the
“mind key” because I believe that getting a grip on our thoughts and doing a
better job of thinking thoughts that actually serve us are supremely important
skills to master. Most people do a poor job of “minding their mind” and
choosing to think in ways that serve them. It is a completely common practice
for people to present themselves with thoughts that amount to self-sabotage and
to refuse to dispute those thoughts once they arise. If people did a better job
of “minding their mind” by noticing what they were thinking and by making an
effort to replace defensive and unproductive thoughts with less defensive and
more productive thoughts, they would live in less pain and they would give
themselves a much better chance of living the life they dream of living. This
is doubly true for artists who can doubt their talent, take criticism too
seriously, find a hundred ways to avoid the hard working of creating, and more.
There’s really nothing more important than getting a grip on your own thoughts!
Why
do you think someone would want to gamble everything on a life in the arts when
it’s so hard to make it as an artist?
Human beings crave the psychological
experience of meaning. We want that almost more than we want anything else.
There are maybe a score of ways that human beings regularly generate that
psychological experience: through service, through relationships, by excelling,
by seizing new experiences – and by creating. Creating is one of our prime
meaning opportunities and for many people the most important. Therefore folks
who decide to devote themselves to an art discipline aren’t making some sort of
calculation about risk versus reward. What they are doing is honoring their
need to make their own meaning. If you look at a life in the arts as a smart
career choice it doesn’t make that much sense; if you look at it as a
tremendous meaning opportunity, it makes perfect sense.
You
present what you call “the stress key.” What are some of your top tips for
reducing the stress that a life in the arts produces?
Life produces
stress, the artistic personality produces additional stress, creating produces
even more stress, and living the artist’s life is the topper! An artist must
learn how to deal with all of these stressors—and how to deal with them
effectively. There are many tactics an artist can try—the key is actually trying
some! You might try “writing your stress away.” Research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association
suggests that writing about stressful situations and experiences can reduce your
stress levels – and can actually lead to improvements in immune functioning,
fewer visits to the doctor, and an increased sense of well-being. You can
reframe a given demand as an opportunity, turning your “stressful” upcoming
gallery show into a golden opportunity. You can have a fruitful conversation
with yourself and answer the following four questions: 1. What are my current
stressors? 2. What unhealthy strategies am I currently employing to deal with
these stressors? 3. What healthy strategies am I currently employing to deal
with these stressors? 4. What new stress management strategies would I like to
learn? An artist needs to honor the reality of stress and make plans for
dealing with it!
Is there one habit or practice that
really makes a difference between getting your creative work done and not
getting it done?
Yes. The most
important practice an artist can institute is a morning creativity practice
where she carves out some time bright and early every day, five, six or seven
days a week, to work on her novel, practice her instrument, or get right to her
painting studio. There are three important reasons to institute a morning
creativity practice. The first reason is the most obvious one—you’ll be getting
a lot of creative work done! Even if only a percentage of what you do pleases
you, by virtue of working regularly you’ll start to create a body of work.
That’ll feel good! A second reason is that you get to make use of your “sleep
thinking”—you get to make use of whatever your brain has been thinking about
all night. Create first thing and capture those thoughts that have been
percolating all night! The third reason is that, by creating first thing,
you’ll have the experience of making some meaning on that day and the rest of
the day can pass in a half-meaningless way and you won’t get depressed! Getting
right to your creative work first thing each day provides you with a daily shot
of meaningfulness. That’s a lot of goodness to get from one practice.
I’d
like you to chat a bit about what you call the “freedom key.” What sort of
freedom are you talking about?
Many different
sorts—let’s look at just one, the freedom not be perfect; or, to put it
slightly differently, the freedom to make big mistakes and messes. Not so long
ago I got an email from a painter in Rhode Island. She wrote, “I'm a perfectionist and I want my artwork to be
perfect. Sometimes this prevents me from getting started on a new project or
from finishing the one I’m currently working on. I think to myself: If it's not
going to be the best, why bother to do it? How do I move past these feelings?”
One way to get out of this trap is to move from a purely intellectual
understanding that messes are part of the creative process to a genuine visceral
understanding of that truth. You
need to feel that freedom in your body. As an intellectual matter, every artist
knows that some percentage of her work will prove less than stellar, especially
if she is taking risks with subject matter or technique. But accepting that obvious truth on a
feeling level eludes far too many creative and would-be creative people. They
want to “perfect” things in their head before turning to the canvas or the
computer screen and a result they stay in their head and never get started. You
have to feel free to show up and make a big mess—only then will good things
start happening!
Another
key that interested me is what you call the “relationship key.” What sorts of
relationships did you have in mind and what can an artist do to improve his
relationship skills?
All sorts of
relationships! And relationships in the arts are frequently very complicated.
You may be very friendly with a fellow painter and also quite envious of her.
You may actively dislike a gallery owner or a collector but decide that he is
too valuable to cast aside, maybe because he is your only advocate or your only
customer. You may respect your editor’s opinions but despise the rudeness with
which she delivers them. There may be no such thing as a genuinely
straightforward relationship anywhere in life but relationships in the arts are
that much more complicated and
shadowy. The main improvement an artist can make is to actually think about the
matter! You can decide how you want to be in relationships but only if you
actively decide. You get to decide if you want to be honest and straightforward
even if others aren’t, if you want to be polite and diplomatic even if others
aren’t, if you want to be quiet and calm even if others are stirring the pot
and making dramas. It may not prove easy to be the person you want to be at all
times and in all situations, especially since the marketplace has a way of
throwing us off our game, but you can nevertheless hold the intention to try your
darnedest to be the “you” you would most like to be. This takes thought and preparation!
If you'd like to purchase your copy of Maisel's new book via my amazon associate book store, please feel free to use the links that I provided above.
Until next time, all the best from my Creative Oasis to yours,
Jill
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