Draw on every experience and thought that you ever had

April 10, 2017 12:57 PM

Schultz publicly claimed that he focused on drawing one good comic strip everyday.

That was the secret to his success, the foundation of his legacy and the reason he became the most beloved and circulated cartoonist in history.

In fact, at time of his death, his total count was just below eighteen thousand comic strips. Which, if you do the math, is almost exactly one drawing a day, every day, for fifty years.

That’s not discipline, that’s devotion.

Of course, here’s the part of the story most people don’t know. Schultz also claimed that if a cartoonist was going to survive the demands of that kind daily production schedule, he would survive only by being able to draw on every experience and thought that he ever had.

That’s the standing creative challenge if you’re insane enough to pursue a career where the quality and frequency of your thoughts determines your livelihood.

Everything is fair game. Everything. You’ve spent a lifetime building a memory bank of experiences to draw on for your work, and now it’s time to make a withdrawal.

What an joyous and terrifying prospect. Knowing that your next great work of art is only a memory away. Trusting that if you plumb the depths of your full aliveness, something vulnerable or dangerous or shameful might show up.

That’s reason enough to sit down and get after it everyday.

Because you never know which little while ball the lotto machine of your mind might pick.

Proving, that an artist’s greatest resource is not his ability to create, but his willingness to remember.

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Which of your oldest memories are begging to be collected?
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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com