Sister Corita Kent (1918– 1986) was a major 20th-century American artist and a charismatic teacher at Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood, California. She believed that everyone was capable of great creativity. 

Sister Corita was inspired by the bits and pieces of life around her, from billboards and newspaper headlines to international folk art. She changed the potentially stuffy classroom atmosphere into a cauldron of queries and assignments, encouraging students to question most of what they thought they knew about art and many other things.

One of Corita’s favorite teaching tools was a finder, a scrap of cardboard with a window in the middle through which students discovered design elements in unexpected places such as a supermarket, a gas station, cracks in the sidewalk. She immersed students inflow (the creative practice of observing and working with single-minded concentration ) and overflow (doing lots of it). 

Learning art Corita-style meant serious observing and serious play.

‘Defamiliarization’ is based on the same theory.

In a recent article, David Epstein, the author of the bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World talked about ‘defamiliarization’ a technique championed by Russian writers. 

It is about describing usual things in unusual ways and thus providing a different perspective on experiences we normally take for granted. 

The idea is to “reawaken our senses by making the familiar ‘unfamiliar.’

Most of us look right past familiar items, something Tony Fadell talks about in His TED Talk — “The First Secret Of Design Is…Noticing.” Tony Fadell is known for Apple’s iPod, but he is even more proud of his second act — making the household thermostat more efficient and less of an eyesore.https://neeramahajan.com/media/5ac8095d0ea48613fbf38eea39873180Source: TED Talks

After leaving Apple, Fadell traveled the world for a year and a half before settling on his next product idea. 

“I had to pull back and get out of Silicon Valley to gain perspective and see the world in a different way to then re-enter it to be able to do Nest.” —  Tony Fadell

How to practice ‘defamiliarization?’

Make a cardboard viewer

I took Sister Corita’s advice and made my own cardboard viewer went to my backyard to experiment. As I looked through the hole, the very first thing I noticed was a single rose amidst the daffodil foliage. I have several rose bushes in my backyard, but none where this one was growing. Surprised I went closer and found that this solitary bloom was coming straight from the ground and the stem has no leaves whatsoever.

That solitary rose gave me an idea for a story. Without the cardboard viewer, I would have completely missed it. 

Find a child

Sister Corita’s second suggestion is to find a child. A child can help you see things from a completely different perspective. If there is no child in your household she suggests borrowing one and letting him give you beginning lessons in looking.

It will take just a few minutes. Ask a child to walk from the front door of your house to the back door and closely observe his small journey. It will be full of pauses, circling, touching, and picking up in order to smell, shake, taste, rub, and scrape. His eyes won’t leave the ground, and every piece of paper, every scrap, every object along the path will be a new discovery. 

A dog does the same thing. I neither have a child nor a dog in my house. But last week, while visiting a friend of ours in Melbourne, we went for a walk with their dog. The dog stopped every few steps sniffing, exploring, looking. At first, it was annoying but then I started noticing the things he was noticing and was truly intrigued by his finds.

Change the language

Writing in a language that is not your mother tongue helps you say things in new ways. English is not my first language. After migrating to Australia, for a long time, I was still thinking in my mother tongue (Punjabi) and then translating in English. I used to think of it as a limitation but it was in fact an asset. As I didn’t know the slang and cliche, I was saying things (rather translating) in a completely different (hence fresh) way.

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami writes his first draft in English and then translates it back into his native Japanese. Novelist Jhumpa Lahiri went a step further and abandoned her native language (English) entirely, went to Italy to learn Italian, and wrote her next novel in Italian in order to gain a new perspective.

Read backward

David Epstein narrates his experience as a fact-checker earlier in his career. He would go back through an article he was checking, ticking off each fact as he went. Invariably when he went his usual way he would unconsciously just glance over and miss some of them. 

Many times I read articles from back to front, forcing my mind to concentrate more. 

David Epstein also has a little couch in his office that faces the opposite direction of his desk chair. He flops onto that when I need a shift of perspective.

Draw rather than write

Drawing a sketch is a great way to get a point across. It is also a great way to get a different perspective. These days, when I’m stuck with my article, rather than banging my head against the same wall, I start sketching.

Write by hand

Another thing I do to get out of my temporary block is to write on a notepad rather than on the computer. Switching from computer to notepad is a great way to change perspective. I am much more fluent on notepad than on the computer.

Give advice to others

This is a cheeky one. We are much better at giving advice to others than to ourselves. So whenever you’re in need of good advice, find someone else to give advice to, and you’ll end up having a fresh perspective on your problem.

That is why it is a good idea to write inspirational and self-help articles. 🙂

Takeaways

Practice ‘defamiliarization’ for creative inspiration. Some of the ways to do that are:

• Make a cardboard viewer
• Find a child.
• Change the language.
• Read backward.
• Draw rather than write.
• Write by hand.
• Give advice to others.

 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 

Are thinking of writing a book but don’t seem to get time. You don’t need to block out months to write your book. You can do that in one week. That is what I did and since then have been writing my books within a week or at the most ten days.

Find out how you can do it too. For a short time, I am offering my book for free. Click here to download it.

Advice #1

A young man approached Henry Kissinger, a renowned diplomat and a former U.S. Secretary of State, and asked, “Mr. Kissinger, can you give some career advice.”

“No,” said Kissinger in a gruff voice.

Disappointed, the young man turned around to go away. Kissinger stopped him and explained, “My advice is ‘no.’ Always let your first answer be a no.”

To move mountains, you have to learn to say no. You have to learn to be selective in the tasks you say yes to. You have to learn to focus. Because energy flows towards the place, you focus your attention on.

Advice #2

Once there was a donkey who was thirsty as well as hungry. The donkey spotted some hay on one side and water on the opposite side.

But the donkey didn’t know which one to go to first.

The donkey looked at the hay; then it looked at the water. Looked at the hay looked at the water. Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I hungry? Am I thirsty?

And eventually, the donkey died of dehydration.

Sometimes we are that donkey. Should I make this? Should I make that? Should I write this? Should I write that? And we don’t even start.

But for some reason we feel productive. Because we are thinking about it. Thinking about stuff is not doing stuff. It’s the complete opposite of doing stuff. We fall int the trap of deliberation, pondering, questioning, thinking, strategizing, and debating, it might feel like we are moving forward, but we are stuck.

Doing a bit of this and a bit of that is like laying single brick of a million different houses and expecting that one day it will magically become a mansion. It’s not going to happen.

You can do ten things to one degree or you can do one thing to the tenth degree.

Rather than spreading yourself, do one thing. Draw the same thing every single day. Paint in one medium everyday. Sketch the same cartoon character everyday. Write a poem (or an an article or a short story) everyday.

And this is true for work too. This is true for dating versus committing yourself to one person friendship, everything. Really focusing and investing yourself into something you’re passionate about will always yield better results than scattering yourself around.

Advice #3

Adele Adkins is one of the world’s best music artists but there is something that not many people know. She is afraid of her audience. She has crazy stage fright.

Being such a talented artist, she still hates touring and putting on live shows. Because she has a crazy fear. What if the audience think that my recorded performance is better than my live performance?

So how did Adele overcome her stage fright?

Adele did something that made her stage fright manageable. She learnt a trick from a fellow musician – Beyonce.

Beyonce created an alter-ego to fight her stage fright. Her calls her alter-ego — Sasha Fierce. As soon as Beyonce would put on her shoes and hear the crowd, her alter-ego Sasha Fierce would take over. And Sasha Fierce has no fear. Beyonce created a character that she could put on, like other people put on clothes.

When Adele heard about it, she too created an own alter-ego. She called it, Sasha Carter, which is a mix of Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce and country music star June Carter. Sasha Carter could get on stage and blow the audience away.

Why did such a crazy thing like creating an alter-ego work?

Adele’s fear was not based on fact, but on belief. She criticized herself because of a what-if scenario.

The mind is a crazy thing. When it criticizes itself, it causes all sorts of problems.

Alter-ego builds distance between the mind and the behavior.

Self distancing is the key. Self distancing allows you to view yourself more objectively. It allows you to see the bigger picture and not be bogged down with feelings.

Alter-ego works because it helps you build self distance.

When I started writing I created an alter-ego too – Ms Jolly. Here is snapshot from my website where I introduce her.

Your alter-egos don’t have to be forever. Alter-egos are tools that help you accept yourself when you change your behaviour.

But your behavior changes you too. Acting confident indeed makes you feel more confident.

Beyonce acknowledged in 2010 that she had killed Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce helped Beyonce with public performances. But when Beyonce got over her fear she outgrew the need for her alter-ego.

Face whatever fear you have for your creativity by creating and alter-ego.

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Image by infographics from Pixabay

Are Olympic level swimmers naturally good at swimming? 

Are some people born with an eye for drawing, or throat for singing, or feet for dancing? Is there a gene for writing which bestselling writers have and we missed out on?

Some people seem to be way smarter than us. We all happen to know someone at school who was a genius in maths or wrote beautiful stories, or sang like an angel.

What makes people so good at something that others can’t seem to touch their heights. 

We all want to be good at a few things, but it doesn’t matter how much we desire it or how hard we try; it eludes us.

Did the talented people have different wiring?

Let’s take the case of three well-known talented people and figure out if they had something special going for them.

Was Tiger Woods born with a golf club in hand?

Tiger Woods is often considered a child prodigy. He was introduced to golf before the age of two by his athletic father. At age three, he shot a 48 over nine holes at the Navy course. Before turning seven, he won the Under Age 10 section of the Drive, Pitch, and Putt competition, held at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress, California. 

At the age of eight, he won the 9–10 boys’ event, the youngest age group at the Junior World Golf Championships. He first broke 80 at age eight. He went on to win the Junior World Championships six times, including four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991.

In 1996, Woods turned professional at the age of 20. By the end of April 1997, he had won three PGA Tour events and 1997 Masters, which he won by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance. He reached the number one golfer in the world in less than a year after turning pro.

Was he really born with a golf club in hand, or was there something else going on? 

His father started training him when you and I couldn’t take a spoon to our mouth without spilling food on our bibs.

All through his life, his training regime matched that of a navy SEAL.

According to his former trainer, Hank Haney, Tiger Woods used to have 13-hour marathon training days even when he was young.

“13-hour training days were not uncommon for Woods. He would have one of his two workouts at 6 a.m., then hit the range with Haney for a two-hour session on swings and short game. Afterward, they would play nine holes, have lunch, then play another nine holes. Afterward, they would continue working on other facets of his game until 6 p.m., when Tiger would do his second workout and then have dinner.”  — Hank Haney.

Often Woods would introduce variations to his training routine. He would start the day with a four-mile run, followed by a lift, hours of working on his game, and another four-mile run. If that’s wasn’t enough, he would play basketball or tennis when he was done.

Such laborious training gave Woods a mental edge as he knew nobody would outwork him.

Did Mozart has an inborn talent for composition?

Mozart could master a minuet and trio on the piano in half an hour when he was just four years old. He wrote his first opera at the age of 12.

Certainly, the composer’s extraordinary talents have never been in doubt. But according to Nicholas Kenyon, the author of A Pocket Guide to Mozart, agrees that the composer’s reputation as a genius was created only after his death.

“Mozart saw himself as a practical worker.” wrote Nicholas Kenyon.

“This myth tells us a lot about the difference between the Classical and Romantic ages. The Romantic composers who succeeded him perpetuated this idea that he composed thoughtlessly when all the evidence is that he wrote and rewrote his work.” — Nicholas Kenyon

‘Many people have the misleading impression, principally from Oscar-winning 1984 feature film Amadeus, that Mozart was a bawdy, undisciplined philanderer who occasionally had flashes of genius,’ said Grabsky.

“In fact, he was going to concerts every night, meeting musicians, listening to other people’s work, writing and rewriting his own. He was very practical about his work and entrepreneurial. ‘Of course, Amadeus was a creative reworking of Mozart’s story. But it had a lasting effect on people.”

Even Albert Einstein thought of him out of this world. 

“As an artist, or a musician, Mozart was not a man of this world.” — Albert Einstein

But, let’s have a look at Albert Einstein, someone who was indisputably a genius.

Was Einstein really a genius?

There’s no doubt that Einstein was whip-smart. 

In 1905, in just under four months, Einstein wrote four papers that gave the scientific field a whiplash. 

The first paper explained how to measure molecules’ size in a liquid; the second drooled over packets of light move around in packets called “photons.” The third was related to the first, namely determining molecules’ movement in the liquid—the fourth unwrapped special relativity. 

As sort of P.S., Einstein came up with a fifth paper that showed the matter and energy could be interchangeable at the atomic level. And that equation, E=MC2, is often associated with the genius of Einstein.

Now let’s have a peek into Einstein’s classroom. There were certainly others in his year that were better at maths—others who were exceedingly good at drawing. And we’re guessing here, but, likely, Einstein wasn’t the top student at physics in school. 

If you want to focus on Einstein as a genius, be my guest. But even Einstein was never considered anything more than average by the outside world. It was only in 1905 when his ideas caught up and saw the light. 

Einstein was one of those that needed more time.

Granted, his brain was wired differently, but all brains are wired differently. 

In fact, very efficiently. 

While we may not write papers in physics, we’re exceedingly good and can reach an extremely high standard in one or many disciplines.

We may not write five astounding scientific papers in a year. But we certainly can reach incredibly high levels of skill in many fields. 

A person who loses his sight becomes incredibly adept at the language of braille in about nine months.

A person who’s “hopeless at drawing” becomes pretty astounding in under a year. 

A person who hasn’t ever written an article can write two articles a day. 

We look around us and think people are better than us, and we give up.

When faced with such thoughts, remember, even Einstein fell off the bicycle, like the rest of us.

We make the mistake of looking at people’s results and not the effort they have put into getting there.

We see that Tim Denning writes 6 articles a day and thinks he must be a genius to come up with so much output without realizing how much effort he must put into crafting those articles and consistently coming up with insightful content.

Yet some people never wanted to do some and became excellent at it. 

Michael Phelps, for instance, is recognized as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. He’s won 28 medals. Born swimmer? Sure, except that Phelps hated swimming with a passion.

Many people who seemingly are good at some skills to the extent that we think they had an inborn talent for them have no interest in the field.

Let me wrap it up.

Today all of us can use computers.

Yet less than three decades ago, no one had seen a computer. 

Why did almost everyone believe they were not skilled at computers, only to become proficient at it within a few years.

Writing emails is such a simple activity that we can do it while sitting in a car waiting for a red light to turn green. 

Do you think Einstein would have been intimidated by emails?

Why was boring, everyday e-mail was so intimidating to entire generations that preceded the 90s?

Did the talent fairy douse us with e-mail skills in the late 1990s?

We were all bad at eating with a spoon, bad at walking without falling, bad at forming the most basic sentences. Yet, it’s easy to brush all of that ineptitude under the carpet. It’s easy to say that some people are naturally good at doing certain things.

And as we go across the spectrum of extremely talented people on the planet, we will find that they had put in an insane amount of work in becoming good at something we thought was their inborn talent.

They were not even smart at school. If they were child prodigies, they started early and practiced a lot, even as tiny kids in nappies. 

On the other hand, some brilliant kids didn’t do anything special as they grew up. 

And tens of thousands of ordinary kids became geniuses at making coffee, juggling umbrellas, fixing computers, or figuring out equations in their heads. 

It is up to you whether you want to use the excuse that you have no talent in whatever you ‘so much want to do’ or put in the hours and become a genius at it.

Photo by Ugur Peker on Unsplash

I am a bit late in posting this, but I thought it would be a good idea to put all my sketches in one place and show you the progress one can make by learning in tiny increments.

When I started the Da Vinci course in July 2019, we were required to do two things: 1) Draw for fifteen minutes everyday 2) Post your drawing on social media every day.

Drawing every day builds muscles, and posting every day gives you deadlines.

Noting gets done without the deadlines. So, at the end of the day, I had to make sure I had something to post on Instagram. It had a side-benefit. My classmates started leaving comments on it. That encouraged me to do my homework and make sure I don’t miss a day.

I was building a habit to draw every day.

I started with drawing circles, and for one week, I drew a page full of circles every day. Big circles, small circles, clockwise circles, anticlockwise circles, fast circles, slow circles.

This was intentional. Drawing different kind of circles uses different muscles which help avoid fatigue and leads to better control.

Besides, if you learn to draw circles, not the perfect circles, but circly-circle (ones with concentric rings that you keep on drawing until it is right), you can draw anything.

From circles, we moved on to draw animals – pig, hippopotamus, cat, dog, teddy bear – all from circles.

Our next move was to learn how to draw Peanuts characters. Snoopy, Charlie Brwon, Lucy, Sally and Linus.

Then came Kung Fu Panda. He gave me a lot of trouble. It took me a lot of time to get his expressions right.

By the end of the year, we were creating a character of our own. That is when Ms. Jolly appears, almost fully formed. It took me a little while to learn to draw her curly hair but apart from that, she was there with her unique personality.

Altogether I drew and posted 250 sketches of Ms. Jolly in 2020, without counting the practice one. This is a great feat for someone who couldn’t draw a circle twelve months ago. I have put aside 20 sketches for the cartoon book I intend to publish in 2021.

But I am most proud of my Da Vinci diaries where I hand wrote all the notes during the course.

My only regret is that I started the diary halfway through the course. I intend to finish the earlier lessons this year. It will be a great way to revise the lessons.

Towards the end of 2020, I started drawing flowers. See the improvement in just 12 days.

One of the analogies our drawing teacher gave us earlier in the course was – there are two ways to eat a cake. You can eat it in tiny pieces or gobble the whole thing down. Most of us would like to gobble, whether it is cake or learning. But like cake, learning needs to be tackled in small portions.

Fifteen to thirty minutes of drawing everyday proves that.