Yesterday I wrote about the loss of pleasure and satisfaction that I get from my photography. It is a curious coincidence that today I came across the following passage in the book I'm currently reading(*):
"Most of us have experienced this phenomenon. The intensity of pleasure that we derive from a given activity tends to diminish over time. Much as we fear change, the deepest satisfaction comes from our willingness to expose ourselves to new challenges and engage in novel experiences."
Striking. Now that I think about it, I've experienced something similar in other domains in my life. The desire to play the guitar and create my own music has also withered over time, as I got the feeling that my creativity had dried up and I was merely repeating the same kind of things.
This is probably why great artists keep evolving and reinventing themselves, even though their fans generally would prefer them to keep doing the same thing over and over again. But if they would do so, they'd either lose the drive to continue, or become soulless machines. The best of them manage to remain true to themselves through these changes. In one of my fields of predilection, I've seen this with bands like Genesis, Yes, Marillion, Jethro Tull etc. (**)
(*) Yes, I read a lot. This one is "The Power of Full Engagement. Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal" by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarz. I'm reading this as an ebook on my Palm m515.
(**) Don't pretend you didn't guess this was one of the kinds of music I love...
Comments