ISSUE 025. WHOLESOME DESIGN (4)
‘To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream not only plan but also believe’
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
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Welcome to today’s Issue, We’re doing the Fourth (4.) and last Issue of the Wholesome Design series.
WHOLESOME DESIGN:
One Per Cent Better.
One percent Better
“If you don't know where you are going,
you'll end up someplace else.”
―Yogi Berra
To become One Percent Better, requires a commitment to continuous growth plus a stack of healthy habits one to do after the other; done regularly. In an era where every knowledge worker is a creative officer, it becomes necessary to audit every task to be done. It’s a check to ensure we’re replenishing the not only our minds but souls too.
Any sustainable, long-term ambition will seek to serve the whole as opposed to working against it. This desire and determination to achieve success should drive good decision making which is a core value of Wholesome Design. All to be done takes vitality to do and depends not only on income but also on access to knowledge on how to do it well. Not only in our professional lives, but personal and otherwise; it takes Healthy Habits to live well.
To accomplish One Percent better on a regular basis, consider the idea of catching a butterfly, no one can catch, tame or cage a butterfly; but anyone can create an atmosphere that invites it to rest for as long as it does. Healthy habits are structures that support living moment to moment, which when summed up should lead to emotional health, which means we might not feel our best selves all the time but we also don’t give up at first glance of resistance.
Creative Confidence
The Butterfly analogy can be extended to describe Creative Confidence because we won’t keep feeling good all the time but do well enough to feel satisfaction at the end of the day. It’s nothing more than being fulfilled with whatever we have doing in the moment.
Confidence is especially tricky because no one is an island, we need those around us to complete the whole, and this naturally requires us to show up the best version of ourselves to support ourselves and community. Also it requires making sustainable progress to accomplish a timeline of To Dos.
The Creative Professional understand that it’s not what you know but how you do it. This individual knows that the work starts behind closed doors, because it takes time to prepare therefore we must be patient, stacking to dos in a way that’s enough to manage given given deadlines.
The Creative Pro. goes after Joy not just productivity, they understand it’s more about fulfilment and satisfaction at the end of the day; that you did your best given what you had on your plate.
The alternative to having Healthy Habits is endlessly scrolling through Social Media seeking the next climb. When you lead with compassion you keep making decisions that not only serve the whole, but queue up what’s next. It’s at the very core of leading with compassion.
In 2018 I blogged on Medium about Finding Creative Confidence, quite frankly it worried me that they might come a time when I don’t enjoy being a designer as much as I did in that year and I tried to capture some sort of formula to reuse, but no two days are exactly the same. Not only do you not do the same tasks, hopefully but you manage to move the needle somehow in aspiring to your goals.
Instead of worry, Healthy Habits lead us to the sunshine side of doing Hard Things.
It inspires us to reach for what’s on the top shelf, attempting to make progress given the opportunity. You need to not just dream but be prepared to take risks every now and then. Put in the work to accomplish what’s uniquely yours to do.
You see, no one can do for you what you put on your to do plate, it’s that niche, and because you can do what you said you’ll do then it builds the muscle to take on even harder jtbd.
Mary Slessor’s the missionary to Nigeria who stopped the killing of twins, adopted Okoyong as her home, the community gave her the nickname of "Obongawan Okoyong" (Queen of Okoyong) which is a title only reserved for a select few. She is known through her work with the rescue of countless abandoned and twin children, who were often considered evil and left to die. She cared for them, providing shelter, food, and love, challenging the superstitious beliefs surrounding twins at that moment.
She saw a need in her society and spent a large part of her life. No one else can be Mary Slessor, no one else can be you, so why not be the one to do what you really want to do? Mrs. Slessor was clear about her mission to live in a sustainable world and spent her life doing it. Her legacy as a Christian missionary, peacemaker, and advocate for the marginalised continues to inspire and educate people around the world till date.
Creative Confidence rests when you commit to not letting failure throw you off, but through, and also that what you do is who you are.
Healthy Habits.
Healthy Habits serve a life rich in purpose, fulfilment, and success. In approaching stacking your habits, there’s four (4S.) ideas to consider ie. Self-education, Sociality, Self-actualization and Self-care. In becoming One Per cent Better. The 4S. covers all you need to keep the fire burning through the night.
Self-care for one could be as simple as camping out in the woods, to get away from city life and immerse in Nature; for another it could be brunch, dinner out with best mates, partying, going to church, etc. the list is endless. I don’t do it enough but every time we’ve gone camping, it aways seems to refresh and for me; I come out feeling revitalised, and ready to go.
Where most people fail is not listening to the feedback we all receive from the body, telling us how we feel which is important to do in seeking satisfaction. What happens behind closed doors is reflected in the feedback you get from what’s happening inside and how those around you and mirroring you.
Grattitude is one universally approved self-care activity that is definitely going to put all anxieties to bed. Going back to the blank sheet and acknowledging what you could fulfil and hoping for more, not only does that allow you to see what’s happening inside but you get added benefits of seeing clearly why you feel the way you do.
Only then might those butterflies come bringing Productivity & Emotional health but they’d only rest in a garden tended with Healthy Habits; releasing the tension from all the push and pull on going at your work, in your personal and around you in the community life.
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PS. The Story of the Praying Hands - Truthbook
Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen!
In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the elder children, Albrecht and Albert, had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines.
They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg.
Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.
When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.”
All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No… no… no… no.”
Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look… Look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother… for me it is too late.”
More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, water colors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”