Start Drawing. Repeat. Apr 13, 2017

A friend on facebook was asking about how to learn how to draw the other day. He usually puts up quite humorous posts, so I thought I'd write something a little tongue in cheek. But as I started to reply, I thought of a way of offering good advice while also being funny. My response was: Start drawing. Repeat.

So I've been drawing since I was a kid. This guy knows this. So at first this might come off as some callous reply from someone who already has that skill. But it's really good advice actually. Of course, I'm not the first to come up with this advice. Seth Godin tells people to ship. A famous adage says practice makes perfect. Nike says Just Do It. There are plenty of variations on this theme. But I felt my reply kind of says, stop wondering how to get started and just get started. Dave Grohl kind of nails it here:

Often people think that talent is what makes you great. But here's the thing, anyone who is great at something sucked at it to begin with. Yes, there are child prodigies and there are people who may try forever and not succeed at certain things. But almost anyone can be great at something if they stick with it—and to be great at something you have to actually put in the work. Hendrix didn't just pick up a guitar for a few minutes before busting out Little Wing.

I suck at guitar. And I've sucked at it for a good many years. I couldn't even get my brain to let me sing what I'm playing. As soon as I opened my mouth my strumming would go to hell—sometimes even thinking of opening my mouth would send my hand out of rhythm. So if I wanted to play a song I had to be a mime. It's only within the last year or so I've overcome that for just one song—Zombie by The Cranberries. I've owned quite a few guitars for several years, and while I'd go through a few bouts of playing every once in a while, I've been playing a lot more recently. And I've been actually working at being able to play and sing. And you know what? Not only can I now play and sing more songs, but they've even gotten into more complex strumming patterns—from Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun to The Animals' House of the Rising Sun. And most of that gain was from just this past week where I've probably played an hour or more a day and focused on these songs. I couldn't figure out Johnny Cash's strumming patterns, but after all my practicing I not only got it down, but I can sing with it too—and even though it's relatively simple, that was a big leap for me. And it's been so rewarding that I feel like I passed some invisible gate that's held me back. And that makes me want to play more. And all it took was some actual practice and figuring out how improperly I was actually strumming to begin with.

We were shooting for a client a week or two ago, and a kid came up to us and asked us about photography and how to get into it since he enjoys it. And I gave him some advice that's on the level of shoot and repeat. But I elaborated an important point. Be reflective. That was a lesson that was hammered home to me at Tampa Jesuit—though religion wasn't—and it has served me well for quite a while in many areas of my life. I told this kid to shoot a lot. If you have a digital camera, you can shoot as many images as you want. But don't just shoot them and throw them on a hard drive. It's not just the act of shooting or doing something that really helps you grow. Go back. Look through those images. Look at your drawings. Listen to yourself play guitar. Create and then go back later and analyze. Reflect on what you did wrong, what could be done better. Look for ways to improve. A lot of it can even be done while you're creating—which is one reason I love playing guitar. Music is so engrained in us that you can immediately tell when you've messed up or if something sounds terrible while you're in the middle of it.

If you're a creative person, you're never going to feel like what you make is completely satisfying. And it's that nagging voice in the back of your head that tells you that something isn't good enough that keeps you moving forward—that keeps you growing. Become friends with that voice. It's the quickest way to learn how to improve. And challenge yourself. Take bigger leaps. The bigger the leaps the bigger the fall, but the bigger the lesson. Start something. Repeat.