Dear Artist,
A few years ago while working, Scott Adams felt a spasm in the pinky finger of his drawing hand. He was diagnosed with focal dystonia — a neurological disorder where misfiring neurons in the brain cause unwelcome contractions in task-specific muscles. Musicians call it “musician’s dystonia”; archers “target panic”; and, in other sports, it’s called the “yips.” While the causes aren’t well understood, it’s thought to come from excessive overuse of fine motor muscles, and doctors say it’s incurable.
Back in 1979, Adams was a young, hapless office worker aspiring to be an artist and hatching a plan to improve his odds of cubicle escape. He would picture in his mind what he wanted, then write it down on a piece of paper several times a day. He also cartooned nightly and, through repetition, practice and incremental portfolio building, he cured himself of his day job.
For his dystonia, Adams sat at his drawing table holding pencil to paper for a few minutes, noticing that it took a several seconds for the spasm to begin. He repeated the motion hundreds of times — pencil to paper, then lifting it away before the spasm could kick in. Over time, he found he could keep the position without getting the spasm. Eventually, he said, the dystonia disappeared. “I found a way to essentially hack my brain to convince it that putting my pen on paper wasn’t some kind of a problem that it needed to respond to.”
“Goals are for losers,” says Adams. Life can be structured for consistent creativity and personal systems that, in time, will improve your odds of success. Steady development, refining of ideas and technique and a habit of working at it daily beat wondering if you have enough raw passion to make it. A ritual, a routine, a desire to understand how to connect with your collectors and a tried and tested system for transcending obstacles will increase your chances of overriding the yips. “You don’t need passion, you don’t need goals. You need systems that improve your odds.” (Scott Adams)
Sincerely,
Sara
PS: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” (Gustave Flaubert)
Esoterica: At 22, Scott Adams was a manager-in-training at the Crocker National Bank in San Francisco. He also worked as a computer programmer, then budget analyst, lender, manager and, eventually, supervisor. By the time he was 29 he’d earned an MBA and, on the side, created a Silicon Valley-based, socially challenged cartoon engineer named Dilbert and his megalomaniacal dog, Dogbert. After several failed pitches, the first Dilbert comic strip was published by United Media on April 16, 1989, while Adams still worked in IT for Pacific Bell. Today, Dilbert appears in over 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries, in 25 languages and on the Web. Scott Adams has drawn over 9,000 daily Dilbert cartoons in 27 years and credits its early success to putting his email address in the margin of the strip, encouraging readers to write to him with their ideas. How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams’ 2013 tribute to serial failure, is here.
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“There’s nothing that’s really impossible. Lots of things seem impossible, but sometimes they’re not if you just keep plugging away.” (Scott Adams)
7 Comments
I find I get the yips but mine are more of a mental yip.
Amen to the mental yips!
Could it be that through doodles and wanderings that we can stumble upon something that can be called genius? Truly, looking out my window right now at the magnificence of creation that is our world, insects, birds, flowers and the sunlit trees, my heart wells up in praise of all of this incredible genius that makes up this creation we call home. Hidden just beyond our view are “the ones” who through a mandate are heaven-bent on helping and encouraging us. In spite of perceived afflictions, we only have to pause for a moment, look up, listen carefully, and imagine hearing their resounding chorus. We are their only reason for being here. They know our true genius, and can help if we but ask.
Actually, somewhat the revere, I have found in my activity with pen and ink drawing, simply the more I do, the better my fine motor control issues seem to have improved. I probably am not talking about the “yips” in the discussion but either way, a steadier hand can’t help but help.
just so you know, I have noted my typo, it should read “somewhat the reverse”
During WWII, in the Navy flight school manuals, there was a guy named Dilbert. He was the one who always screwed up on his tasks, did everything wrong. I remember reading of him in my big brother’s training booklets after the war. Wish I had kept them. Donna Veeder.
Love this