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SECRET TWO

CREATIVITY IS ABOUT FINDING WHAT YOU LOVE….AND DOING MORE OF IT.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?  Well it may sound obvious, but actually many of us have forgotten the very things that really light us up.  The things that make us feel alive, fun and excite us.

Tapping into our own innate creativity is about finding what you love to do, and doing more of it.  This sounds so simple and obvious, yet for many of us we struggle to know what we love to do; we have lost touch with our inner essence, of who we really are.

It is not surprising as life can be pretty relentless.

We grow up, we listen to other people, we try to fit in and conform.  We do what other people and society expects of us.  Maybe we received little or no support or encouragement as we were growing up from our parents and teachers?

We begin to think that perhaps our childhood hopes and dreams were nothing more that fantasy, not based on anything real or substantial.  We are torn and pulled with the everyday pressure and responsibilities of living.  Hectic lives, busy responsible jobs, families and children to care for and support.  Pulled and tugged in many directions, our needs and desires can become secondary and slip down the priority list.

We may have had a longing to learn an instrument, to write a book,  make creative crafts or art, but we just don’t think that what we do will be good enough, so we then we think, what’s the point?  Why bother anyway? We convince ourselves that it’s a total waste of time.  WE GIVE UP.

What have you given up on?

Months and years go by, and before we know it we have convinced ourselves that it is too late now anyway.

If this sounds familiar, think back to what you thought first of all, when I asked you if you believed that in each and every one of us there is the potential to be so much more?  I’m hoping that you did think, and believe deep down that in each and every person there is the potential to be more than what they currently are.

Surely now is the time for you to tap into your potential? If you don’t do it now, when will you.  Life is short.  If you do have a deep-seated longing to do something shouldn’t you do your utmost to honour that need?

Okay, it might not be easy.  There are doubts, fears and anxieties that we all have to contend with.  The big one FEAR.

People, who will just not get it, just not get you.

It might be scary and overwhelming; you may not know where to start.  You may feel stupid.  Your inner voice will probably rear its angry loud voice and tell you time and time again,

“Who do you, think you are?  What are you doing? What’s the point?  You will never be good enough?”

At times we listen.  You will need courage to ignore, to keep going regardless.

You may have a struggle on your hands.  It will not happen overnight, it may take some time and effort.  You may have to accept that you are not going to be an over-night success, or be brilliant at whatever it is you want to create or do from day one.

The fact is, you will have to face the fact that at first you will be a beginner.  Being a beginner means accepting that you will not always get it right.   In fact more than likely you will get it wrong far more times than you will get right.  Can you cope with that?   You will make mistakes.  What you do will be far from perfect.  You may look at what you do and think that it is not very good.  You may find yourself comparing yourself to others and the comparisons will be unfavourable.  All these things are likely, but what is the other option?

The other alternative being that you wake-up one day, when you are very old, with little or no time left, and look back on what could have been.

I do not want to wake-up one day with these serious regrets.  Do you?  I do not want to wake-up knowing deep down that I could done more, that I didn’t even really try.

That I gave in, that I took the easiest path, the path of least resistance.

I don’t want to wake-up with the knowing that I didn’t even have the fight, drive or courage to give my dreams at least a fighting chance.

 

How will you feel if that is you?

I know I can’t bare that possibility.

 

You can push your creative dreams aside for as long as you want, like I have tried to do, but when it comes to the end of your life will you look back and think I did enough, or will you have serious regrets.  If there is the remotest chance that you will regret that you didn’t give it your best shot, you need to ACT NOW.

We have to make a start, start today, start exactly where you are right now.  Where you are right now is exactly where you should be.

Start where you are – Lots of people worry that everyone else will be so far ahead.  These people?  They started somewhere.

“Do not die with your music still inside you.”

 

Perhaps you are one of the lucky ones?

Maybe you already know what you love to do, what you love to create.  Fantastic, you’re off to a head start.  You know what you love to do.  You just need to find the time, space, and energies to pursue it.  Or maybe you need to work on some blocks and obstacles that are stopping you from really going for it and getting out there and making it happen.

 

The reason doing what you love is one of the secrets to creativity is that we simply tend to want to do more of the things that we find enjoyable.  We want to do the things that give up pleasure.  Not only do we tend to do more of these things, but we tend to put more energies, efforts and soul into them.  We don’t just go through the motions; we do them with spark and love.

 

That is what you need if you are serious about tapping into your most inner creative-self, you need to tap into that joy, passion and excitement.  I can remember my very first earliest memory, of when I truly felt totally caught up in the moment feeling of creating.

I was six years old and I had been told to write a story.  It was about a group of animals who go on an adventure balloon ride.  I may have only been six but I tapped into something that I knew, even then was very special.  All the other children had gone out to play but I remained in the classroom writing frantically, letting the story pour out of me.   It was important.  The experience that has always stayed with me, that I never forgot how at that moment I was totally in flow.  In fact I guess that experience stayed with me so much that it what I have been trying to recapture for much of my life!

It was effortless.  It was creativity at its most powerful.

I was lost in the moment.

I was in flow.

That is when we are at one with ourselves, when we are at one with our most creative and powerful selves.

 

They key to harnessing this creative energy is to first of all find what you love to do.

Let’s face it, if you try and do things that you think you think you “should” do or “must” do, you will soon get bored, fed-up and certainly not do it with any creative flow.  How do you expect to feel inspired, passionate or excited if it’s not something that even floats your boat!?

 

Here is a creative task:  Remember how I said at the beginning of the book, if you really want to get something out of this book than you are going to have to get stuck and give the tasks ago.  I know how easy it is not to bother.  You just want to read without to much effort or thought, & juts let the words wash over you.  This is all well and good but you can’t expect any significant changes to occur if you aren’t prepared to do a little bit of digging deeper.

 

WHO ARE YOU ~ CREATIVE TASKS

 

Spend 10 minutes on this next question.

• WHO ARE YOU?
• Why am I here?  I know that seems like such a massive, existential question but I think you will be surprised by what will come out of spending a bit of time just writing a stream of consciousness and attempting to answer this question.  Be as honest as you can be with yourself.  What ever comes from this is okay.

Write down the first things that come into your head.

 

Who are you really!?  We are always so much more than we think we are.

I know last year I had real difficulty answering that one very simple question.  I was at a NLP Practitioner training course and the workshop began with the usual getting to know you introductions & icebreakers.  We had to walk around the room, meeting and greeting people, introducing ourselves and telling them who we were, what we did and why we were here.

I felt like running away.

I did not want to talk about what I did or tell people who I was.  At that current moment in time I did not have a clue.  I felt really lost.  I was going through a serious transition stage; I had quit my teaching job, moved in with my then boyfriend, who just happened to be the course facilitator.  My head was in a mess.  I was definitely lost and the simple question, “What do you do?” sent my head into orbit.

 

For the record it is okay to be lost.  Accept.

We all feel lost from time to time.  Accept wherever you are right now as being the right place for you.

 

• Without stopping to think write, doodle or draw list 20 things that you love to do or enjoy.

Do not stop to think, just write the first things that come into your head.  There are no wrongs or rights.  No pressure.   Just let go.   The aim here is not to think too hard or deeply.

So come on, without stopping make a list of twenty things you enjoy and like to do.  It doesn’t matter what they are, and you can include food and sex!

Interestingly, we probably had more of an idea of who we were, and what we wanted to do when we were very young.  A good starting point is to think back to when you were a child.  Think back to a time in your life when the everyday was more about play, having fun, been spontaneous, and doing what made you happy in the moment.

The older you get the more likely you are to over-thinking and over-analyze things.   I have a tendency to over think everything.  Unfortunately over-thinking  is a big killer of creativity!  Your aim is to get back in touch with your inner creative-child.

 

• Now, take 5 minutes to think back to when you were a younger.
• What did you love to do as a child?
• What did you love to do as a child?  What about when you were a teenager?

 

• If there was a fire in your house, what would be the four things you would save?   If you were to save one photograph, one book, one object and one idea what would it be?  What four things are at the core of your being?

 

• Imagine you are a human cat.  If you had nine lives to devote to nine very different careers, what would they be?

 

Now look at what you have written.  Can you see any links patterns or themes?  Are there any connections?  Show a close friend, your partner or someone you trust what you have written.  Ask them if they can see any patterns or ideas emerging.  Only do this with someone who you know will be positive and have your best interests at heart.  You do not need any Doubting Thomas’s or negative comments at this stage in the proceedings!

 

• Lastly, close your eyes.  Take the pen in your least dominant hand.  Write down 1 – 3 things you would love to create or do if time, money and ability were no object.