Create - Marc Silber

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10,000 hours of painting, drawing, photography, or whatever it is, music, dance, writing. You put those hours in while you’re doing other stuff that is giving you something to push against. Because when you’re unhappy, that can be fuel to propel you away from that unhappiness.

      If you’re not ready to leap, then use that unhappiness as a push, like in a swimming pool when you push off the wall. Use that to propel yourself away from that unhappiness. Know that when you get up at six in the morning, because it’s the only free time you have to write or practice your violin, that is fuel pushing you away from the unhappiness. And then, one day, hopefully you’ll see that you’re ready to leap.

      As a native American, you told me you view objects that most people consider inanimate as actually living. How does this influence your creativity?

      My grandfather died when I was thirteen, of cancer. Before he died, he called each one of us grandchildren into the room with him. He said this to me, “You are billions of years in the making and there is no one like you. You are born of this time, for this time and you carry the wisdom and strength of your ancestors with you and you can access that at any time. You are not alone. Your job is to figure out how you will serve and when you figure that out, you should do that.” He believed all of us lived in service to each other. Even a king, if they’re doing it right, lives in service to their subjects, and our president should be in service to the people and so on.

      We are always reminded that we are part of and must remain humble and respectful of all of our relatives, whether it’s a cat, dog, bird, fish, tree, plant, or flower. Those are all our relations and when you walk through life seeing everything as your relative, it’s much more difficult to do harm and it’s much easier to feel connected and inspired, rather than isolated, because connectedness versus isolation already implies a state of mental health.

      More and more, I’ve been speaking with young people, teenagers to university age. And I challenge them immediately and ask, especially to the college kids, “Why are you here? Why did you just decide to stay on the rails and get a university degree?” Many of them haven’t ever stopped to ask themselves a question like that. And I always tell them, this is your life, this is your story. You get to write it. Not your parents. They had their chance, don’t live or do stuff for them. This is your chance. What do you want to do? I think a lot of older adults who are already on the track and rails don’t ever stop to say, “Why am I on these tracks and rails?”

      Chapter Three

      “Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint, and begin to build.”

      —Robert Collier, author

      The power of visualization is the secret that artists, entrepreneurs, sports figures, and all creative freethinkers have used for centuries.

      As just one example, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys fully visualized the sound of each instrument used on Pet Sounds, his breakthrough album. He first heard in his mind the sounds of a wide range of instruments, many of them had never even been thought to be used before in rock songs. This included such unlikely ones as sleigh bells, a trombone, accordion, ukulele, and even Coca-Cola bottles. With his vision resoundingly clear in his mind, he then went into the studio where he was able to direct musicians to play precisely what he had already heard, like a craftsman following a blueprint.1

      As an artist, you use your imagination and skill to create work that will communicate effectively what you saw and even felt to your audience. This is inherent in the definition of art by Oxford Dictionary:

      The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination…producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

      From this you can see that art applies to any creative skill using imagination. It is much broader than simply thinking of art as painting, drawing, sculpture, music, etc. Let’s view art in this wide sense and apply it to any part of life.

      A common misconception is that one simply goes forth and works on their craft in the hope of somehow creating art that will be beautiful and have emotional impact. But this would be like a builder with no plans, simply grabbing wood and building materials and putting them in place in the hopes that they will come out fitting well and looking great.

      The first and most important step of improving your creativity is learning the skill of “visualization.” It’s another way of saying, “using your ability to imagine or get a mental view of something.”

      This term dates back to 1883 and according to the Oxford Dictionary means “the action or fact of visualizing; the power or process of forming a mental picture or vision of something not actually present to the sight; a picture thus formed.” It comes from a Latin word meaning “sight” and an earlier word meaning “to see.”

      Keep in mind visualization doesn’t just apply to visual art, as in the case of Wilson’s ability to visualize sounds. A dancer does the same with her movements. A gardener with their design, a parent with an outing for their kids, etcetera.

      Take a moment—can you remember a time when you visualized something you created before you set out to make it? It could be a birthday party for a friend, or redecorating a room, a presentation at work—any area of creativity. This is creating with definite purpose or intention, rather just letting it happen and hoping you’ll get what you want.

      The Key to Creativity

      With all of the steps of the creative cycle, why is visualization the central and most important part in the whole series? Because it guides every single step of the process, without which, as we’ve seen, it would be like trying to travel without a map or plans, or make a movie with no script, or sail a boat without charts. In all of these activities, you will end up wandering around and never achieving your goals, which would be wasteful and very frustrating.

      I can’t emphasize strongly enough that the fastest way to elevate your creativity is to visualize the final result before you work your craft.

      See with Your Mind’s Eye

      Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) was known as the “father of modern photography” and was one of the most respected photographers of his day. He emphasized that his process was to see in his “mind’s eye” the photograph that he intended to create, in order to convey what he “saw and felt” at that moment. He said, “I have a vision of life, and I try to find equivalents for it in the form of photographs.”

      Equivalent here means “something that is considered to be equal to or have the same effect, value, or meaning as something else,” according to Encarta College Dictionary. It comes from a Latin word meaning “be strong.” Thus, when you convey the equivalent of what you saw and felt, it can be very strong for the viewer.

      Having a “vision of life,” of what you see and feel when you view a particular scene, is what sparks the whole creative process. You are conveying a message including emotions to your audience that they can connect with. This same process applies to writing, music, decorating, or any art form.

      Electric Visualization

      My first major visualization of a photograph had a rather strange beginning in the eighth grade: Peninsula School, the grade school that I attended from age two to twelve, valued creativity, adventure, and freethinking above all else, which is why I had such a strong beginning in these areas early on. So, by the eighth grade I already considered myself a photographer and brought my camera along on our class trip in May shortly before graduating. As was traditional, the upper classes would take weeklong trips in the fall and spring, often with a specific purpose. This was our spring trip with the

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