A short time ago I was writing about finding your medium - the forum that fits most intuitively with your creative expression. Knowing your medium leads to using your medium, which leads to finding your freestyle – the place you transcend self-doubt, fear, and any anxiety about what you are actually doing or saying or writing or filming or drawing or… whatever. The self-evaluation ceases and that little critical voice… you know, the one that questions the validity of every move, just fades away. There is something emotionally engaging… even sublime about watching someone freestyle with fearless abandon, as if time itself skipped a beat just for that moment.
Personally, I think some of the most enthralling performers out there are the extreme sports athletes, even if they are borderline masochists. Observe the way a skateboarder or BMX rider moves when they compete. It’s astonishing. If you don’t relax and flow with your body, you could end up literally broken. Even the way these athletes fall is stylish. Do you realize how many times they’ve fallen to get that good at it?
Watching a talented comic generate uncontrollable laughter or a musician move people to tears can be the same way. These individuals are in their element… their most present state of being. They have found their freestyle. Unfortunately, all disciplines do not possess this allure. Everything cannot be a performance. In fact, it would be just plain be awkward if you were here now watching me write. Ha.
Don’t worry… you might not know how to freestyle yet. This is one reason JAMLAB was formed… to help you learn. We believe everybody has his or her own method of freestyle, whether it’s in music, bioengineering, or teaching. Maybe you’re in the process of developing that fluency, which is great, because you know the “what” in the equation. Now it’s a matter of time and persistence, right?
It’s not all about talent… is it?
Our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge might have put it best with these words:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
This quote brings me to a fairly recent case study presented in Ken Robinson’s book, The Element and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. Both authors cite music legends, The Beatles as an example of outstanding creative success… or as I say… great freestylers.
Ken Robinson’s research revealed that neither Paul McCartney nor George Harrison, who attended the same high school in Liverpool, was thought to have much musical talent throughout their education. His joke goes something like this: “So at some point this teacher had half the Beatles in his class and missed it… you get the drift.
Outliers takes a different direction with the statistics, suggesting that ability is a function of practice – what Gladwell calls the 10,000 hour rule. Evidently, the Beatles’ early years were spent doing gigs in Hamburg, Germany, where the clubs stayed open all night. They would often perform for 8 hours at a time night after night.
Does this mean that they were not particularly talented musicians to begin with and that intensive practicing led to their musical fluency? Perhaps. Maybe they were always musically gifted, but a mechanical, un-stimulating learning environment stifled their creativity, as Ken Robinson suggests. Whatever the case, it is undeniable that both persistence and determination were essential to their success - staying committed and “doing it” every day… finding their freestyle.
NOT knowing is NOT an excuse?
So… what if you don’t know what your good at? It’s a more common problem than it should be. How do you freestyle when you don’t have any moves yet? Well… you start with what you like. Don’t know what you like? Start with what you’re interested in. Don’t know what your interested in? What books do you find yourself reading? What films do you watch? What do you dream about? Think about what you gravitated to as a younger person… as a child even. Can’t remember? Come on… go ask your mom. She doesn’t know. What about a sister, brother, aunt, or old friend? Not available? OK then… start with what you don’t like and use the process of elimination.
Whatever you do, don’t get distracted trying to figure out why you don’t know or whose fault it is. There are too many variables in the mix to know for sure. Ignore all that and focus on what you can do now to find your freestyle.
JAMLAB = FREESTYLE
I’m a creative generalist and a dedicated lifetime learner (or perhaps it really is legitimate ADHD). I have always been interested in practically everything, but never obsessed with anything. I marveled at the people that “knew” what they wanted to do from a very early age, whether it was drama or medicine. With the depth and breadth of choices available, how could they just know?
At age 39… after traveling to over 30 countries, receiving a B.S. in psychology and a Masters in Architecture, teaching English in South Korea, living briefly in London and a decade in Los Angeles, and becoming a full-time dad… I’m finally beginning to figure it out.
I’m fanatical about the creative process itself, the art of “making,” and about sharing that knowledge with others. JAMLAB is a way for me to harness this passion while keeping my love and capacity for many things alive. JAMLAB is my FREESTYLE (or… at least… it will be).
The Art of Improvisation…
Life is a non-linear path full of bumps, twists, hurdles, setbacks, and general unpredictability. You have to be able to improvise in order to negotiate the constant obstacles and problems that arise. A professional musician, recently interviewed by JAMLAB, talked about how studying jazz was the key to her ability to improvise as an artist. When she jams on keyboards or piano, she’s in her zone – she’s creating in the present moment. It’s literally “originality on the fly.” Life is improvisation, whether you like it or not. It’s a matter of how you choose to address it.
Prepare to improvise. Prepare to find your freestyle… or risk not knowing, at your own peril.
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