Leap: Advice on How to Stay One Step Ahead from Designer Philippe Starck, French Philosopher Baise Pascal, and Ronald Reagan
January 4, 2012 by Christa
Image from http://stuckonrepeat.tumblr.com/
When asked what allows him to remain so consistently ahead of the curve, cutting-edge designer Philippe Starck replied, “I never read any magazines or watch TV. Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners, or anything like that. I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.” ~ As told by writer Pico Iyer in his New York Times article The Joy of Quiet
Philippe Starck has designed a wider reaching assortment of products than perhaps any designer living today, from the interior of French President François Mitterrand’s private apartments to a toothbrush sanitizer. (Really!) I’d assume that someone with that kind of range would be networking out the wazoo and constantly taking in new information to fuel his creative engine. He does nothing of the sort. In fact he does just the opposite and completely turns the world off to dial up his own creativity. (You know what they say about assumptions…)
This is a tough, powerful lesson for entrepreneurs. We work our tails off networking, pitching, connecting, reading, and writing about our products and services. Too often we think inspiration is out there, in the ether of the world. It may be, but the richer, more authentic genius lies within each of us. It’s struggling against all the noise of our lives to be heard and heeded. We are sometimes pulled and prodded in so many different directions we hardly know where we’re going. And we have commitments and promises to uphold. Shut off the world? That’s madness!
Pico Iyer’s article goes on to detail our over-the-top addiction to communicating and our inability to ever be still or quiet. We worry about what we’re missing, who we’re missing, and who’s missing us. It’s a high we seem incapable of coming down from. It’s a permanent rush of energy that’s sapping our sleep, devastating our productivity, and wrecking our relationships. How can we have our devices and our quiet, too?
Enter Ronald Reagan and then 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal, in that order, to rescue us from ourselves. When faced with a tragic economy at the start of his presidency, Ronald Reagan famously said, “There are simple solutions – just not easy ones.” I fundamentally disagree with just about every policy Ronald Reagan put in place during his presidency, but on this issue of solutions I have to agree.We know we need to protect and nurture our creativity by shutting off our damn phones once in a while, but we just can’t seem to get ourselves to even try it much less adopt it as a regular practice.
This is where Pascal picks up and offers his solution. Again, simple but not easy. “All of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” So that’s it? For everything that ails us, we should find a way to sit alone as a means of curing it? In a French philosophical word, Oui.
You had to know I would find a way to loop yoga and meditation into this solution, right? Some of my friends and family members tease me because I tout yoga and meditation as salves that can be applied to all wounds in the healing process. Pascal thought the same thing, so now I feel supported in my bias.
The answer of how to heighten our creativity is very simple. You don’t need to buy any more books about creativity, read any other blog posts on the subject, or network with any more designers to find your own creative voice. (Those resources are good for lots of other things, but only you can determine your own artistic direction.) Rather than spinning around like a whirling dervish in the mad search for our inspiration and muse, we must sit, breathe, and be if we mean to grow as artists, no matter what our art is. This is difficult, but necessary.
How to begin:
1.) Set a timer for 3 minutes. (What gets measured gets done.)
2.) Take a comfortable seat, devoid of as much sound as possible. If necessary, use earplugs to filter out as much noise as possible.
3.) Inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts.
4.) Repeat. Every day.
5.) Your mind will wander and when it does, bring it back to counting your breath.
No tricks. Just effort. As you get comfortable with the 3 minutes, grow it by 30 seconds, then a minute and so on. Eventually, just sit without the timer and see how long you can be on your own in stillness. It will be difficult at first but it will get easier. We must learn to be alone if we are to fully be in the world and ahead of the curve. Our light, collectively and individually, depends upon it.
