Most creatives I know and work with have some variation of this conundrum: how to get optimal doses of solitude and of social interaction. Today’s writing invitation – the final one of the Be Possible Writing Project – takes us into this conundrum.
Most creative success comes from something kind of un-sexy and quiet –relevant rhythms. Rhythms of creative action.
When challenged, the Dexterous Creative knows when and how to use both (or all six!) hands and the best tool at her disposal. When blocked, the Dexterous Creative is adept at finagling a way under, around, or between a rock and a hard place. And she also knows when to step back and let the challenge resolve itself or the block to remove itself. This writing prompt actually works to help you achieve your creative goals this year.
Today’s prompt revolves around Symphonic Activity. Symphonic Activity is an activity that brings together your mind, body, and aspirations like players in a symphony. The activity might challenge your wits in an optimal way, but all facets of your self move harmoniously. Examples include conducting your daily business and enterprise with elegance, giving a dynamic talk, orchestrating a party or social gathering, facilitating an event, writing a book or story, designing a project.
You can craft vision boards, find a year-long intention word or three words or phrase, perform a New Year’s Eve I Ching reading (that would be my wife and me), plan and plan and plan, and tell yourself 108 times each morning for a month that you’re a good person who deserves a fulfilling life.
And still, 12 months later, little beneficial change happens. Little gratification ensues. In fact, some of the above might be counter-productive.
So, what gives?
Is there a science or an art to manifesting our dreams and goal completion?
The economy’s in flux. Lightning-speed changes in technology dizzy you. And yet your mind teems with ideas. And yet you want, want, want to sustain your creative productivity. But you and I know the problems.
You lose your focus.
Your time slips away.
Your vision fades into a packed scheduler. Your confidence dissolves into a pool of “I’m a fraud and a fool!”-ness.
How can you keep up with let alone innovate in your field?
Imagine your creative momentum like an arrow. What keeps it suspended in air and on-target? What makes the shooting and executing feel effortless?
ou want to change your creative mind. More focus. More fire. More flexibility and creative thinking. More time. More creativity and less reactivity. But every time you try to change, you revert back to old habits? So how do you change? How do you get “to the bottom of things”?
A Freudian lens might say, “Go within to figure out why you can’t change. Plunge into your psyche’s depths to find the root cause and story.” A New Age lens might say, “Just imagine yourself changed, and soon you’ll attract everything to change you.” Or another soft lens might simply say, “You’re good enough. Stop trying to change yourself.” All three fall short. Scientists and sages alike show it so.
Maybe the way to change is more physical and less mystical than we care to hear.
The training I’ve developed for a select group gets to the core – without the Freudian stories or mystical wishful thinking.
As a creative, sometimes you forget your purpose and you “to-do” more than “ta-da!” One of my clients recently lost his way and it nearly derailed his creative project. He works as a consultant for a high-pressure corporation (redundant?) organizing…
When I was a tow-headed boy, The Box in the Woods down the road kept my secrets. In the middle of The Woods towered a maple, an “X” carved with a butter knife in its bark. With no other kids…
The iWonder Tracker’s footprints The Mac ii – In 1985, my first one changed my college life and my writing life forever.
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