Success = Passion x Persistence

Motivation Gets You Started. Persistence and External Recognition Are What Keep You Going

Source: Article by Amelia Glean on Oct 18, 2015 |

A good idea can kick start a creative project. But rewards and external validation are essential to keep it going. Early stage start-up founder Rebecca Evans shares her thoughts on motivation and success in the creative sphere.

Practice – a lot

We all know that practice makes perfect and research backs this up. K Anders Ericsson spent his career studying experts across a range of creative and sporting disciplines. Ericsson concluded that experts are always made, not born. This is heartening news – we all have a shot to excel at something if we work hard enough.

Success comes down to deliberate practice – high levels of repeated activity that stretch skills. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to develop genuine expertise, around 10,000 hours or ten years. So how on earth do you keep motivated through the long years, the rubbish first drafts, the poorly executed drawings, the inaudible piano scales and – in my case – bootstrapping an early stage start-up?

Intrinsic motivation—the light inside you

The folks over at 99U provide a useful definition of motivation:

Provides the inspiration to take action.
An inducement to get your ass in gear.

Many creatives feel a rush of motivation when they embark on a new project. The drive comes from the enjoyment of working, the reward of the task itself. That enthusiasm can get us out of bed in the morning and keep us working long into the night.

Continue reading this article by Amelia Glean on CREATE HUB

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