Book Review: Keep Going by Austin Kleon

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad
By Austin Kleon

There’s an elusive link between art and medicine. It’s difficult to practice, and even harder to put into words, which is why I value Austin Kleon’s perspective as a writer who draws. He connects things that are seemingly unconnected.

Not that everything needs to relate to health, but that’s the lens I read through, and I was pleasantly surprised with Kleon’s thoughts on living well. Take this nugget, for example:

“Life is an art, not a science.”

It’s funny how hard we try to ignore this simple reality in medicine. As a doctor, it sure would be convenient to have a formula where I plug in your age and get the maintenance schedule from your owner’s manual. Like how I know I’m supposed to flush my truck’s radiator at 100,000 miles. Looks like John turned 40 it’s time for him to start taking phosphatidylserine to keep his neurons functioning properly!

It would also be nice if an antidepressant would eliminate all depression, or if the Mediterranean diet is a guaranteed way to prevent cancer. But those are examples of the unrealistic expectations we place on science. Plus, and maybe you’ve noticed, the human body doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

While reading Keep Going I was reminded how this imperfection in medicine (and being human) is actually a good thing, though, because it leaves room for creativity. And creativity leads to art, which is how life stays interesting and beautiful. Also, who wants to live in a vacuum?

What’s true for art can also be true for health

As Kleon writes, “In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.”

We have the choice to add more produce to our dinner tonight in the same way a realist landscape painter chooses to add a tree to the foreground of their painting, while leaving out the overhead power lines. We have artistic freedom and our choices add up to create a whole picture.

After finishing this book, I was inspired to ask myself How can I incorporate creativity into my medical practice? And I mean this beyond painting the office walls blue. (In room color psychology, blue is considered the color of calm, which might lower blood pressure and slow your breath rate. There goes the science part of my brain again.)

For me and my practice, creativity lies in a treatment plan that's as unique as the person in front of me. Two people with anxiety, for example, will go home with two different recommendations for herbs, nutrients, lifestyle changes, or medications based on their preferences and my experience.

What about you, how can you add some creativity to the work you’re sharing with the world?

A few more things I learned from Keep Going:

• An artist, like all humans, benefits from a routine they stick to most days.
• Creativity is contagious.
• Artists need time to connect with themselves in order to create.
• Developing mental fitness requires curiosity.

My favorite quote from the book:

“If you want to change your life, change what you pay attention to.”