“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ― Pablo Picasso

7 tips from Pablo Picasso which you can use to improve your practical skills!

1. You have to believe to be able to do.
“He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law. If you think you’ll fail you are likely to hold you self back or even trip yourself up (sometimes unconsciously). If you on the other hand think you can do something your mind will start to find solutions and focus on fixing things instead of whining about them. From all of the stimuli around you things, solutions and opportunities will just start to pop up.

2. Push your limits.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Pushing yourself and stretching is necessary to grow. And the more you push yourself the quicker you can grow.
But it can be scary. My best tip so far: stay present as much as you can while doing something you cannot yet do.

3. Don’t wait for inspiration or the right moment.
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.” Inspiration can show up on its own, waltzing in through a door or a window. But doing things that way makes work inconsistent – both in quality and quantity – and you spend a lot of time waiting. But after a while inspiration seems to catch up with you. Things start to flow easier and your work is of a higher quality. If you feel inspired one day that’s great. Use your inspiration.

4. Act.
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” “Action is the foundational key to all success.” Without taking action any information – no matter how useful – will be pretty useless.

5. Ask the right questions.
“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.” It’s easy to ask yourself the wrong questions. To ask yourself questions that just will give you answers that confirm that you are incompetent, foolish, wrong and tell you that your future is limited. Questions that will sink you instead of help to lift you up.

6. See the hidden beauty by not judging.
“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.” One of big advantages of becoming more present in your everyday life is that you decrease the amount of analysing and labelling you do to the things/people in your surroundings. You don’t judge as much.

7. It’s not too late.
“Youth has no age.” Don’t let social conditioning tell you what you can or cannot do just because you are of one age or another. Age is most of the time just in your head anyway. Take tip #1 into consideration and choose for yourself what you can do. And use tip # 6 and ask yourself the right questions instead of ones that limit you. And, remember, the present moment s all there ever is anyway. So don’t get caught up in the past too much. Most of the time you really don’t have to act consistently with what you have done before. If you do, then that’s your choice. And you can decide to do something different too. Right now.

Food for thought, over the weekend, served to us by a great artist.