“Creative expression involves physical, mental, and emotional contributions,” my friend Herbert Lui writes in his book Creative Doing. “I like to represent these as the hands, the head, and the heart.”
The hands—the doing—is where it all begins, Herbert says. “With your hands, you focus on quantity over quality, creating many average successes and total failures, learning what works and what doesn’t. By making many things, we let our expectations of each one melt away. We accept the truth that in order to make something great, we must start with the courage to make and release many ordinary things.”
Eventually, the head gets involved. You start seeking feedback. You actively want to improve your work. You study what others are doing, which tactics you can copy, and where you might want to go long-term with your art. But the hands are still there. Always working. Always offering a chance to ground yourself when your head wants to carry you away.
As you become more seasoned in your craft, your heart adds purpose. You start pouring more of yourself into your work. You connect more deeply with it, and in your “best” pieces, it’s this connection we, the audience, can feel. Yet, the hands are still there. Always working. Always reminding you that “this one might not work.” But maybe the next one might.
There’s great peace in knowing you can always return to your hands. It’s never too late to make another thing! To reset the counter and start from scratch.
“The hands don’t have an ego,” Herbert writes. “The hands don’t compare. The hands don’t wonder what they don’t know. They learn by doing, they test and experiment and try. And by putting our trust in our hands, whatever unworthiness or intimidation we feel in our heads and hearts is quieted, and our creative confidence grows.”
Your hands do the work. Trust them.
