The Giveit100 Movement
The idea of the Giveit100 movement developed by Karen X Cheng and Finbarr Taylor, was to upload a short film of yourself doing something new for 100 days. (Giveit100.com shut down on August 31st 2015 and moved to Instagram. Where people can still upload videos with the hashtag #giveit100. You can also post videos on their Face-book page.)
On the Giveit100 website they explain the reasoning behind the movement...
"When you watch someone perform or score the winning point - you're only seeing a brief moment of glory. What you don't see is thousands of hours of preparation. You don't see the self doubt, lost sleep, the lonely nights working. You don't see the moment they started. The moment they were just like you, wondering how they could ever be good.
We made Giveit100 for you to see that moment. Everyone starts a beginner. A child doesn't notice when she's growing taller. It's the same way when you're learning something. It happens so gradually, you hardly notice you're getting better.
We made Giveit100 for you to capture the moment you start out, and every moment after that. One day you may look back and cringe. But that will be the same moment you realize: Woah. I've come a long way."
On the Giveit100 website they explain the reasoning behind the movement...
"When you watch someone perform or score the winning point - you're only seeing a brief moment of glory. What you don't see is thousands of hours of preparation. You don't see the self doubt, lost sleep, the lonely nights working. You don't see the moment they started. The moment they were just like you, wondering how they could ever be good.
We made Giveit100 for you to see that moment. Everyone starts a beginner. A child doesn't notice when she's growing taller. It's the same way when you're learning something. It happens so gradually, you hardly notice you're getting better.
We made Giveit100 for you to capture the moment you start out, and every moment after that. One day you may look back and cringe. But that will be the same moment you realize: Woah. I've come a long way."
Practice v's Perfect
I think it's a beautiful sentiment. I also like the idea of practicing something every day for 100 days as being one way to shift the focus away from the outcome and placing it on the process of creativity. I believe that society today is overly fixated on results or what psychiatrists call "extrinsic" goals. Extrinsic goals have to do with material rewards and other peoples judgements. Psychiatrists tell us that this shift towards extrinsic goals has lead to increased anxiety, depression and lack of resilience in today's young people. (1)
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay. Extract from the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
It would seem that the students who were asked to produce only one "perfect" pot become consumed with the idea of the out-come. While the students who were asked for "quantity" were more focused on the process of the work. On the surface the idea of producing a lot of work sounds far more difficult and daunting than simply producing one perfect piece of work. However being given the opportunity to practice and learn from mistakes
whilst taking away much of the fear that comes when the focus in on the out-come of perfection meant that these students were able to improve their work and increase their competence in ways that the other students were not.
Shortly after starting my 100 day photo challenge on this site, I started to have some concerns that I was trying to walk more dogs than I could handle. But then I reminded myself that what I am doing is part of a process, I am learning and growing every day and I am in this for the long term. When ever I reach out to someone and tell them about the project and ask if they would like to show their cre8tivity by participating special things are happening. Of course I am excited about seeing 100 photos on my site but if doesn't happen I'm OK with that too.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay. Extract from the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
It would seem that the students who were asked to produce only one "perfect" pot become consumed with the idea of the out-come. While the students who were asked for "quantity" were more focused on the process of the work. On the surface the idea of producing a lot of work sounds far more difficult and daunting than simply producing one perfect piece of work. However being given the opportunity to practice and learn from mistakes
whilst taking away much of the fear that comes when the focus in on the out-come of perfection meant that these students were able to improve their work and increase their competence in ways that the other students were not.
Shortly after starting my 100 day photo challenge on this site, I started to have some concerns that I was trying to walk more dogs than I could handle. But then I reminded myself that what I am doing is part of a process, I am learning and growing every day and I am in this for the long term. When ever I reach out to someone and tell them about the project and ask if they would like to show their cre8tivity by participating special things are happening. Of course I am excited about seeing 100 photos on my site but if doesn't happen I'm OK with that too.
Useful Links
(1) Twenge, J. et al. (2004). Its beyond my control: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of increasing externality in locus of control, 1960-2002. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 308-319.