In “Outliers”author Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours required to develop mastery. So many art classes that I have attended are filled with people who are frustrated by lack of progress but who only paint the few hours that they are in class. Even then people often race from demo to attempting to duplicate their version of the teacher’s masterpiece.

Ballet dancers take regular classes with bar work, stretches and arm work. They warm up. So do singers doing vocal exercises and rehearsals. During recent life classes I have started to appreciate the value of warming up with 1 minute sketches.

Whether you are warming up for a presentation at work, a special dinner out or a creative endeavour, do you have a way to loosen and prepare or is your habit to go in cold and expect miracles?

Every workshop that I can remember attending where the instructor asked about goals and intentions for the class included at least one person who wanted “to loosen up.” On the other hand there are also too many participants who are focused on getting it right… whatever that means.

I’d love to climb 100 feet above this way of focusing and pay attention to the joy of the physical sensations of moving a brush or charcoal across a page, to making marks that are as much yours as your signature and to being 100% in the moment with your process.

My goal is more than loosening up, the word unleashed comes to mind. Interested in joining me? How would you unleash yourself?

Ideas and threads that return and call for reflection… love to start a conversation if anything resonates