What art do you create?

If you talk about mastery you quickly end up in art. Art is well known to be connected to mastery. When I developed the School for Mastery I wanted to learn everything about mastery, so I went to the Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum to learn and be inspired. What struck me was the immense diversity there is simply in painting. In essence it is sticking paint to canvas. But the ways in which this can be done are infinite. A painter can play with the types of paint, the colors, the painting techniques, the different ways in which paint can be applied on the canvas and so on.  
What makes it a piece of art is the way the painter himself does this. In a piece of art you see someones vision, skill, experience, commitment, emotion and style. You see the result of all these combined in one clear visible product.
Another thing that struck me is the fact that a painter experiments with different techniques and styles. The artist also dares to choose a style in which he or she distinguishes oneself by continuously applying and developing this style, while learning every day to become better.
Painting is one way of creating art as we know it and there are many more ways to create art. But is it possible to transfer the principles of art to other fields of expertise than the ones that are common? What is the art that you are creating in your work? In order to really explore and understand this I had to start wondering what kind of art I am creating myself.

My first conclusion was that I don’t create art. I realized that I was too busy in my work to say that I create art. I was answering E-mails, doing phone calls, dealing with lots of short term demands and trying to finish a never-ending to-do list. I noticed that I was letting the quality of my work depend on the result of all the elements above and my ability to deal with all of them. That’s not art, that is chaos and mediocrity. That was a shocking and confronting experience.
When I started to look deeper I was able to find some hints that do reveal a certain signature and style. There were results I had achieved that make me proud and which make me stand out. There were lots of moments in which I had an impact on people and there were tokens of appreciation that I had received from people because of the way I had helped or inspired them. All of these came out of moments in which I was training or coaching people and in which I showed myself as Jordy.

I then decided that I wanted to create art myself to learn more about this. And a clear product in which that could become visible is a “simple” workshop. So what would happen if I start creating workshops with the mindset of creating art?
Upfront I decided that I wanted to create the workshop as being a creative activity. I want to enjoy the process of creating. This meant that I did not give myself any time limits and I only work on it when I want to. As if I feel like painting and go to my studio to paint and make something beautiful.
It is about creating something that is part of me and in which I develop my skills and knowledge at the same time. An activity that I look forward to and enjoy while doing it.
Then I started to think about the topic and conditions of the workshop. I made a list of all kind of topics that are relevant for mastery. The one I decided to start with was “Focus”. I am so much intrigued by the fact that technology is said to make our life much easier, but at the same time people seem to make it more and more difficult. People are always “busy” and are led by their inbox or telephone, while at the same time wishing to have a purpose or passion. Why is it so difficult to set your own course and keep it? I also realized that by choosing focus as the topic, it will help me build and keep my own focus in order to set up the School for Mastery. I also decided that the workshop should not last longer than 1.5 hours. So with a clear topic and strict conditions upfront I could start.

I first started to read lot about focus in books and articles. Some books I read over and over, I made summaries and notes and made summaries of the summaries. Until I felt that I knew enough about focus to start building.
I developed a story line about the main things of focus I want to integrate in the workshop. When I had built the set up I put it aside to let it rest. After a while I picked it back up, looked at it and made adjustments or read some more. Once the story line was clear I wanted to build a presentation that told the story in clear pictures. Just finding the right pictures took me many, many hours of searching. This was possibly the phase that took the longest, but I fully enjoyed it to sit on the couch browsing pictures for hours and hours. I completely lost track of time while doing this.
In order to make it a real workshop and not a lecture I then had to work out all kinds of activities and assignments that could best help people really learn about focus. Once this was done I could start adding the details and the design and this is the phase that I am currently in.
This also means that the workshop is about to be put to practice! I start to feel the energy to start making the workshop work in real life. But still with the mindset of creating it even further. It is definitely not finished yet, but it is almost ready to offer it to people and learn more while putting it to practice.
I started building this workshop now more than a year ago. In that time I have learnt a lot about focus, but more importantly I have learnt a lot about developing mastery and creating art in its essence. And I can tell you it is very energizing and fulfilling because I am making something unique that is part of who I am and where I stand in my development. Hopefully this inspires you think about the art you want to create.
Since you have read this blog until the end I assume this is a topic that intrigues you. Therefore I want to offer you the opportunity to participate in one of the try outs of the workshop Focus. If you want to help me develop the workshop even further towards a masterpiece and you want to learn more about focus you can send me an E-mail or post a reply to the blog below and I will let you know when the try outs will be organized.

Thanks for your focus and attention.

Jordy

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