Елена Русанова – How to Hear Yourself and Start Creating (страница 2)

– By the last grade in school, you should have already decided on your future profession. Focus on what's fashionable, prestigious, pays well, and is rated by magazines. Once you've enrolled in higher education, stick to it, be consistent in everything, and be results-oriented. If you choose the wrong profession, endure it and reap the rewards.

– Live for your conscience, not for joy. You can't put joy in your wallet, but at least your conscience won't torment you.

– Living in one place and owning a home is essential, just like having a personal car. Otherwise, you're an outcast, and you could end up on the street at any moment, freezing to death under a lamppost.

– A hobby will never feed you, so you have to choose a recognized, normal profession and work in a factory/office/office, like everyone else…

I could go on and on; I think everyone could give their own example of an opinion or stereotype they've heard about life, work, and money that continues to hold them in the tenacious grip of its limitations.

Exercise: “Uncovering Stereotypes and Their Nature”

Here I suggest you stop and do this exercise yourself: Write down any limiting stereotypes you have ever encountered on a piece of paper and next to each one, note where they came from (parents, school, neighbors, relatives, a friend, someone said it on TV)?

In this way, you "separate" yourself from this belief and remember its source ("where the ears are sticking out"), which means you gradually remove the significance of these phrases for yourself. The important thing is simply to begin this process; gradually, you will increasingly notice how many limitations are "in the air."

* * *

But there are other examples:

– The creator of Geometry Dash, a musician and programmer, combined his two passions into a new product that has become a favorite among many children and adults.

– An artist and director who created the animated film "Flow" using the open-source design program Blender. The film even won a coveted Oscar. Creativity knows no bounds.

– Authors of books with a narrow target audience, writing fantasy novels and becoming million-selling authors on Amazon (Alexey Pekhov is an example).

...you can take on lesser-known stories; you don't have to be on everyone's lips! But at the same time, you can maintain a lifestyle and format with much greater freedom than usual:

– a freelance programmer who writes code for several projects from home and earns money from multiple sources simultaneously. He can work from Dubai, Bali, or his dacha in the Moscow region;

– a gaming professional who earns money from competitions and tournaments, as well as from the creation and sale of skins and “virtual gaming equipment”;

- a game technician, a board game or quest story leader, who comes to board game companies as a presenter and expert, including uniting the geek community;

– an artist passionate about blockchain, who exhibits his works as NFTs and sells them to a wide audience. He also takes commissions for custom sketch projects;

– a young investor with an entrepreneurial bent, interested in the stock market, cryptocurrencies, and projects: bought a car, sold it for parts, bought a garage and rented it out, and so on;

– a dancer who leads his own classes or works in theatrical productions of young directors, a participant in youth dance projects;

– a gaming blogger who makes videos about popular games for schoolchildren has found his own style and flair, creating engaging content with humor and memes, monetizing it through video hosting platforms;

– a musician who writes electronic music – rhythms and individual melodies – and sells them on platforms for downloading background music for music videos and videos.

There are many such examples of self-discipline and self-paced creativity. It requires courage and perseverance, as well as a genuine love for one's work.

That's what this book is all about, because hearing your inner voice and what your heart desires is the most important thing. Everything else will follow...

First-hand: “What stereotypes about work, profession, or education have you personally encountered?”

Zakhar, 14 years old:

“Adults or peers in the yard say that work is necessarily boring, tedious, so no one wants to work.”

"That you have to go to college to get a job. As if you can't work without a college degree..."

Ulyana, 12 years old:

"When people tell me, 'If you cook something, you have to clean up all the time. If you don't clean up, then you don't have to cook.' I just don't really like washing dishes, but I love cooking. But when they tell me that, I just give up and don't want to do anything."

Polina, 19 years old:

"That work and a proper career are only serious things, where you sit and do something with an insanely smart and self-important air. And definitely not creativity. Because creativity and hobbies are just a pastime, a diversion, clearly not a calling or a lifelong career."

Vika, mother and creative teacher:

"That you can only achieve a certain position through pulled strings. Even my grandparents always told me, 'They're rich and well-connected, they can afford it.' A creative career, for example: singer, model - it all comes down to networking."

"To earn a lot of money, you need to work hard and for a long time. I had this in mind even with some physical labor."

“That work is some kind of reluctance, constant survival, it cannot be chosen according to your interests, hobbies.”

"That money is bad. Such a typical Soviet stereotype."

"You need to choose a profession that's currently trending and relevant. Those who earn a lot of money today should go to school there. In my time, it was cool to work as an accountant or manager and choose that specialty. For example, a friend of mine studied international relations at a very prestigious university and had a lot of English tutors. And how things turned out for her: she ended up opening her own optical shop. And she loves her business. And yet, she's never worked in her specialty.”

"That a minimum foundation in every subject is absolutely necessary. So, you've chosen your list, you've figured out what you need and what interests you, so why bother cluttering your head with other subjects? For example, I don't know biology and I'm doing just fine, and if I need something, I'll find it and study it. Why waste energy and effort that you could be focusing on your passion, your interests, and, at the same time, passing exams? I'll tell you a story about a group of 100-point students in literature who are currently studying journalism at Moscow State University. A professor gathered them together and asked, "Well, you've all read War and Peace, haven't you?" They were like, "No." Professor: "Then how did you pass the test?" The students replied, "Well, you see, to get a 100% on the Unified State Exam, you don't need to read War and Peace..."

Author's note:

In our age, when you can find any information you need, motivation and interest matter more. The ability to analyze, find what you need, try things for yourself, and gain experience - rather than simply copying memorized phrases and endlessly re-reading theory and rules. In any lecture, when knowledge is being shared, the most important thing isn't what the teacher says, but the state of mind, the experience, and the energy they bring. Think about how much you actually remember from lectures and lessons - and what exactly stays with you?

Let me give you an example: I'm approaching my forties, and I graduated from school long ago, but I still remember a biology lesson when my teacher demonstrated the structure and shape of DNA using a chalkboard wiper. She simply twisted the wiper into a spiral.

This is precisely why many educators today are radically rethinking their approaches to education and the way information is delivered - which is causing a storm of public dissonance among those who are used to the old ways.

The Faces of Creativity

“In the beginning God created heaven and the earth.” (Bible).

We perceive creativity in a one-dimensional way. I propose a broader perspective.

From books and stories of others, we learn that creativity encompasses artistic works, music, art, and even crafts. In kindergarten and school, everyone created countless crafts from autumn fruits, origami, and other creative projects, including macrame. We remember signing up for clubs and sections on knitting, drawing, dancing, clay firing, embroidery, and so on. Some loved these activities, while others pretended to or wasted their time because their parents were forced to send them to the club.

Gradually, creativity came to mean only all of these activities. But this is one of the limitations our minds have created, and in response, we limit ourselves, for example:

– I’m definitely not a creative person, it’s not available to me.

– I don’t have any obvious talent like others.

– I can’t draw/dance/sing and so on, which means my place is somewhere shuffling papers or at the checkout.