I just finished reading “The Imagineering Workout,” a collection of thoughts and suggestions from employees of Walt Disney Imagineering.
In it, a variety of Imagineers offer ideas and perspectives on creativity, as well as exercises and daily routines that can help spark and build your creativity.
One page jumped out at me. It’s entitled “Choose Optimism,” from associate show producer Gary Landrum.
In his narrative, Landrum makes a case for remaining optimistic while creating, especially when one’s creative efforts don’t yield the hoped-for results.
It’s an excellent point.
I’ve talked a lot about how to get started with a creative interest, different strategies to stay moving forward, and so on.
What it all boils down to, and is most important to carry you forward, is optimism.
Optimism, in giving yourself a break when you’re trying something new.
Optimism that you are improving, whether you see it in your current work or not.
Optimism that if you keep going you will get to where you want to be.
Optimism that allows you to look at the efforts that didn’t work out and see ways to fix the issues and try again.
As Landrum states, optimism gets us started and through the hard times. He goes on to say that fear, pessimism, doubt, or lack of self-confidence can derail your efforts.
To be sure, it can be tough to be optimistic when you aren’t yet where you want to be and to keep going anyway. But optimism is vital to improvement.
As the saying goes, even if you’re on the right track, you won’t get anywhere if you stop moving forward.
Optimism is the engine that keeps you moving down the tracks.
Landrum suggests collecting success stories from people you admire to fuel your optimism and review them when you need a boost (we all do at one time or another). Make notes about how their story helps boost your optimism.
Other ideas for sustaining optimism include finding something - anything - in the project that went awry that you can count as a success. Something that shows that you are improving, or at least have learned something along the way that you included in your work that you wouldn’t have been able to previously.
If you’ve been working on your skills for a while, it can also be helpful to look back at earlier efforts and compare them to the project that’s giving you difficulty. It’s often surprising, especially early on, how easy it is to overlook growth in your skills.
Over time, you’ll find that your goal is a constantly moving target; the better you get, the higher your aspirations. As you master the basics of your creative skill, you will naturally want to refine those skills and add more advanced ones to your toolbox.
And if you’re working toward skills that are currently a bit beyond your reach (always a good goal, my friends and colleagues refer to it as ‘leveling up’), it’s easy to forget what your abilities were when you started.
Looking back at older work can provide a boost in those moments when optimism might be flagging. That’s why it’s important to keep track of your growth as you practice: specifically for these moments.
You can also solicit opinions from others, but do so with care. Look to people you trust, whether it’s family, friends, or mentors; anyone who will give you useful feedback rather than a generic “that looks great!”
That’s an excellent ego boost, but it’s not particularly good in helping you identify how to move forward.
And be especially careful looking to social media for advice! I don’t need to tell anyone who’s spent any time on a social media platform that there are people who delight in being negative to total strangers.
If your confidence and optimism is shaky, the last thing you want is some random guy sitting in a basement making snide comments when you’re looking for support and feedback.
Instead, look for online sites or groups that are specific to what you are trying to do. Those are generally monitored for snark removal, and the people in those groups are there to be supportive and inspired themselves.
Working on a creative goal can be a very isolating task. But coming up with strategies to keep your optimism up that work for you can carry you forward toward your creative goals.
Remember, the path to growth and skill mastery leads through a lot of efforts that fall short. That’s why optimism is so important.