I have spent a long time being more than a little envious of people who could add drawings to their notes. One of the masters of this craft, Mike Rohde, has coined the term “sketchnotes” to describe this art. The main source of this envy was that I assumed that some people were simply born to be able to think visually, had a natural artistic talent, or somehow were blessed with the right genetic combination to express this skill. In other words, I never thought I would be able to do so well even if I was to try to learn.

Furthermore, I had built up such high expectations for the quality of my work, my skill level, and how others would view it. I set a high enough barrier to entry to ensure that I never would. This did not stop me from always being on the search for ways to improve my notetaking. As a matter of fact, the initial seed idea for work.life.creativity was generated by my looking for a good forum to ask people such questions.

About a month ago, Mike Rohde announced his involvement with a company called VizThink and their Visual Note-taking 101 webinar. I was immediately interested and signed up as soon as I could. Boy am I glad I did. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. Here is what I learned:

• I learned that everyone can draw, myself included – “I’m not a visual person” is what I, and a lot of people say, when approached with such things. There is a great quote from the book The Back of The Napkin by Dan Roam. “If you were able to walk into this room without falling down…” you are enough of a visual person to get this stuff.
• I learned a lot about the false barriers we (perhaps intentionally) put up for ourselves. – By setting the bar so high (“I want to be able to draw just like Mike Rohde.”), I ensured I would never even try to start. The fact is, I’m not that good and it is just fine, because I like and understand it. The sketchnotes are for me to draw greater recall from the meeting or presentation. Who cares if they are any good.
• I learned about the freedom we give up as we grow older. – There was a great quote by Pablo Picasso early on in the webinar: “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” If you think back to your childhood, you drew stuff all the time. Crayons on coloring books way outside the lines. You didn’t care about how it looked, the selection of colors, or what other people thought. You just drew.

Most importantly, I learned the single most exiting thing I have in a long time: Look at the picture above. I can draw! I just had to learn how to give myself the permission to do so.