In coaching, I am challenged with helping Clients widen the range of their perspectives and to shift self-limiting or negative points of view towards positive, empowering perspectives.

This TED Talk illustrates beautifully the power of a new perspective to spark creativity and open up previously unimagined options.  When Phil Hansen was an art student he suffered a major setback in his ambition. He was deeply committed to pointillism as his mode of artistic expression. When he developed a tremor, he was no longer able to control the pen with the precision required for this art form. The more he tried to control the pen the worse it got and the end result was permanent nerve damage.

The turning point came when he visited a neurologist who suggested that he “Embrace The Shake”. In so doing, Hansen discovered that by embracing a limitation he could drive creativity and he challenged himself to approach his art in new and unconventional ways, using unusual materials. By reframing his disability as an opportunity to grow in other, as yet unexplored ways:

• He learned to embrace impermanence in his art.
• He let go of outcomes.
• He embraced failure and imperfections.
• He became unencumbered by results.

Phil Hansen suggests that instead of “seizing the day”, we should be “seizing our limitations”. He posits that our limitations may seem like an unlikely source for new inspiration and creativity but as he discovered, it can be an interesting and challenging way to get ourselves out of a rut and challenge accepted norms.

I suspect that there may be a lesson in this for all of us!

Link: Phil Hansen TedTalk – Embrace The Shake

Link: Phil Hansen – Burger Grease Mona Lisa