Why You Need to Stay on the Bus
I stumbled upon The Helsinki Bus Station Theory last week. It made me realize a few things-
I am incredibly impatient.
I judge projects after a few months and give up.
This is an awful approach to any creative endeavor. Creativity is a long journey of slow progress with consistent and intentional practice. Let me TL;DR this theory.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen gave a speech to a bunch of graduating photography students. He says there is a bus station in the middle of the city. There are a bunch of platforms with their corresponding bus route numbers. Each bus follows the same route for the first kilometer. From there, each bus goes its own way and makes its stops. Each bus stop along the route represents one year of your life. Bus stop #3 = year 3 on your creative endeavor.
So, you hop on your bus at the bus station and get to work. You decide to get off at the third bus stop and see if a fancy museum will display the work you have produced so far. You are asked to check out (insert inspiration or creative genius in your field here). You realize that the work you are doing has been made already.
You grow frustrated and catch a cab back to the bus station! Try out another route. Just to repeat your last trip. You were hoping that a different creative approach would lead to quicker and better results. NEWSFLASH- it doesn’t. The cycle continues and you never get anywhere.
The lesson in one sentence- stay on the bus. STAY ON THE BUS. We all have to start somewhere and that is usually when our work is heavily inspired by a few other creators. Of course it isn’t going to be magically unique. That is where practicing comes in! You keep working to make your work stand out and make people think of you.
Think of an artist you love. When you happen to see piece of theirs, do you know its theirs without it saying so? It’s probably because they are passing the 12th bus stop on their route. The further you take the bus, the further your work gets from others taking a similar bus route.
Here is the first life lesson on this blog for you. Don’t make the mistakes I did and keep hopping off the bus. STAY ON THE BUS! Stay focused on what you want to work on. Don’t get distracted by what others think, or if you are making enough progress, or if this is going anywhere.
As long as you are enjoying the journey (I know, cliche, but it’s true), and working at your craft, you’ll do just fine. There is no end to creativity…it’s a lifelong contract. Very similar to the mafia. You can try and leave, but creativity always drags you right back in. Some of us just need to use that creative muscle.
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