Overcoming our “Silly Ideas”

It takes 21 days to form a habit. This common belief comes from a book published in the 1960’s by the plastic surgeon, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who noticed that amputees took, on average, 21 days to adjust to the loss of a limb. I find this hard to believe as I lost partial muscle control in my left index finger (the result of a brick accident) and I am reminded daily, often with frustration, of what my finger can no longer do. Like play a perfect F sharp on the mandolin but that is another post.

Maltz argued that since people take 21 days to adjust to the loss of a limb it would take them 21 days to adjust to any major life changes, and presumably any goals. However, if we stop to consider how many of our yearly and creative goals and resolutions fall by the wayside, often shortly before or after the 21-day period, it is safe to assume that there must be something else that  is keeping us from success, and that something is commitment.

How we approach creativity is similar to how we approach love except in this case, we can’t commit to ourselves. We are talented, more often than not hardworking, we aspire to do great work but somehow it never seems to happen. The idea we start tomorrow is often forgotten or shelved by the next day, or it is dredged up seasonally only to slip through our fingers over time. We might even call our friends for a pep talk only to lose the excitement of our new beginning after we hang up.

Social psychologists believe that most of us will commit to a goal when we believe our chances of success are high. But is that the only reason we fail? If so, why are we not encouraging one another to “lose 5 pounds in two months,” or “write one blog post every week?” Why am I not seeing more small paintings, more container gardens, more whole wheat bread in your shopping carts?

Maybe we can’t commit because we lack the imagination to imagine our changed selves. Maybe we are so ingrained in seeing ourselves one way, in one job, living this life that we can’t imagine who we would be if we wrote that poem, cooked that dish, or built that installation piece. We lack the ability to fantasize about a future self with a reading, viewing, buying public etc. so we let our fear of those unknown people and their unknown reactions bully us into sticking with what we know, our uncreative selves.

Which brings me back to Dr. Maltz. It seems that Dr. Maltz decided later in life, much later in fact (try 61), that he should treat not only outer scars but the inner ones as well. So he wrote a book called, “New Faces, New Futures” in which he suggested that people see themselves inaccurately and are often challenged by the erroneous beliefs embedded in their subconscious. He developed a technique called ‘Psycho-Cybernetics,” which is the idea that you can change yourself and your life through a series of success conditioning techniques.

Now I am not suggesting, we all go out and buy this book and try Dr. Maltz’ theories. But what if we could:

1. Take one “Silly Idea”
2. Re-imagine and revise it till it is something  possible and doable (Ex. lose five pounds instead of 25)
3. Break the goal down into manageable steps (Ex. cut one teaspoon of sugar out of your coffee)
4. For each step, imagine what success looks like (ounces over time lead to pounds lost and better fitting clothes)
5. Try step one
6. Result? Did you succeed? If not, why? (Go back to # 5, possibly 2)
7. Success? Take on step two, repeat until goal is completed.
8. Repeat with your next “Silly Idea”