“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” —Pablo Picasso
This great quote Duncan shared yesterday got me thinking about how as we get older we all lose not only our innocence but also our artistry or creativity.
Ever notice how a child acts? Somewhere along the way we lose our imagination. We start putting filters and biases on everything. Why is that?
Thought I would share a poem I read years ago by Robert Fulghum titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life – learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned – the biggest
word of all – LOOK.
Kindergarten had very simple rules. As we get older, we forget many of the simplicities of life and complicate everything. Sometimes things do not need to be as complicated as we make them out to be. What filters or biases are holding you back because you believe something is complicated or hard?
Have a great weekend.
—Vijay
About Friday Food for Thought (FFfT)
I frequently attend conferences and retreats on entrepreneurship and leadership and while I am away, the J2 team picks up the slack, allowing me to learn to be better at what I do. I wanted to share what I was learning with my team, so I created the weekly FFfT emails in November of 2015 and have been writing them ever since.
Before long, the J2 staff began sharing the FFfT emails with their friends and family and now other leaders have asked to be included, which led to the creation of this newsletter. I hope you enjoy!