I was having a bit of a struggle drawing this lion. I couldn't seem to convey the emotion I had hoped to express on his face.
I thought scribbling my lions on a pad at a coffee shop would keep me from taking it too seriously and enable me to accomplish my goal: an energetic drawing of an expressive lion. I'd have all the fun without the pressure. But it didn't work. I was getting frustrated. The more I kept trying to get it right the worse it got.
Over hearing me sigh, my friend Edward Biagiotti, author of the blog Tapping Into Genius, casually said, "Smile when you draw that." Sounds silly but I knew he was right. So I did it. As soon as the corners of my mouth turned up I could immediately feel my mood rise with the flood of endorphins a smile releases. I lightened up, loosened up and my drawing improved. Best of all it made me feel great since you can't be frustrated and smile at the same time.
I wrote this down as a constant reminder to myself that determination leads only to frustration and gritted teeth. Thank God the remedy is so simple. BTW there really is something scientific to this, in Forbes Magazine, Ron Gutman confirms "The Untapped Power of Smiling." In this article Ron gives scientific examples of how smiling improves our test scores, performance in athletics and even prolongs life.
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