On my office wall, I tape images that inspire, motivate, and hearten me. Some stay for a long time, some resonate for a short time until I take them down. My all-time favorite is Ugo Mula’s photograph of Lucio Fontana approaching a blank canvas, below. I look at it every morning as I start my day. Improvised Life always presents a blank canvas that requires a certain amount of moxie to maintain.
Recently, I taped up a greeting card from that said PROCEED AS IF SUCCESS IS INEVITABLE. Although the words seemed right, they had curiously little impact…
UNTIL something compelled me to pair it with a photo I’d clipped from a magazine: a straight-on punch from Mohammed Ali. It brings those words alive.
Big lesson: Why take what’s given, as is, as though unchangable? Hack, edit, rearrange, make it work better…for you.
WHATEVER WORKS!
I’m talking Motivators: “A person or thing that makes someone enthusiastic about doing something”.
It can be anything!
Books. Leave ’em open...
Collaborating with someone can be very energizing and motivating. It breaks isolation that can stymie moving forward. At best, the collaborators equal way more than the sum of their parts. The image is evidence of a good afternoon’s collaboration with assistant Mira Keras, when we worked hard, bounced many ideas around, hatched plots and made something of a mess. (In the mirror you can see the office signs.
Art can be a motivator. Holton Rower‘s beautiful pour painting, above, inspires and motivates me every day.)
Music of course…PLAY IT LOUD!!!
Motivators can also be random. A Sharpie I found in a field in the nearby park inspired..
…my first graffiti…written on the sidewalk. (It’s still there.)
It’s a sign that I keep in my head and carry with me…always useful and inspiring…
