Your Creative Life

Beyond My Wildest Dreams

Somebody asked me the other day if I'd played any golf recently. I responded that I hadn't played any this year because romance had gotten in the way. . . And I have the picture to prove it.

Phyllis and I were married on November 6 aboard the Carnival Elation before it set sail for the Bahamas. In attendance were Phyllis's two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter and my two daughters, two sons-in-law and granddaughter. I think there is something wonderful and remarkable about our two granddaughters being able to see their grandparents getting married.

So, maybe there is something to be said about being in this generation that is experiencing living longer than previous generations.

I've Been Away

   I've been away the past couple of days at a meditation center learning more about how to meditate. I learned a little more about creativity - that there seems to be a process starting with arising, then form, then dissolving.

   What I'm really trying to do here is to find something to write about. I have been reviewing my books on creativity. As I review a book to see if it's worth keeping, I decide whether to add it to the list of books I'm selling on Amazon.com. One book I've decided to keep for a while longer is Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer's Craft by Natalie Goldberg. She says, "Here is a good exercise: imagine a scene as a photograph . . . and describe what you see." Seems to make sense.

   I'm reminded of a paragraph by Robert Fritz in Creating, where he says, "It is possible for creativity to exist without having the creative process. It is also possible to have the creative process without having creativity." I think what this means to me is that in order to write, I must write a lot. It also means that if I don't want to write I can read. It means as well that in order to bring something in to fruition, I have to work at it.

Time to Review

It's time for me to take a look at what I've learned so far.

• Begin with a question that may turn out to be based on a falsehood.
• Examine core beliefs that don't work.
• Develop a meditation practice.
• Relate everything I do to a higher goal or purpose.
• Acquire the belief that I am connected to a higher power, others and myself.
• Discard the beliefs that I'm not connected, that I'm alone, that I'm not worthy.
• Acquire the belief that I'm creative because I must be/am and that I cannot not be creative.

These compare favorably with Julia Cameron's Basic Principles in The Artist's Way.

Become a Generative Leader

   Become a generative leader. Prof. Ray says that generative leaders pass along their experience of the highest goal and ignite creativity in others. They share the fruits of their quest for the highest goal with others and spread its effect in a beneficial spiral.

  He says further that the ultimate challenge of sharing our gifts is bringing our inner resources, our highest Self out into the world for others. Unless we can find a way to do this at some level, we haven't really achieved the highest goal.

   As we find a way to do this, we begin to receive from others and the universe. As we give and receive, we get into a larger flow than just the flow of absorption in the moment. Our inner resources connect with the systems around us and at the same time these systems nurture us.

   Our quest for the highest goal is fed in a natural way because being in this flow is the highest goal itself. To be of service and make the contribution only we can make to the universe, we must become a generative leader no matter what our role in life.

   We can be a leader to ourselves, to one other person or to the world. But if we start right now with an intention of being generative, of letting our creativity create creativity around us, of giving and receiving, we see remarkable things happen.

Find True Properity

   Find True Prosperity. The more we express and experience our highest qualities, the more we are filled with a rich feeling of self-worth, and the wealthier we will become in the truest sense. Find the prosperity that will sustain us through the ups and downs of life and keep increasing, even through difficulties.

   The heart of the challenge is to find true prosperity: In our culture , we look for prosperity outside ourselves, and all the while it waits for us internally. True prosperity is being happy and continuously  experiencing the variety and infinity of qualities that make up our Self. That is the way we can touch the experience of the highest goal. You achieve true prosperity by having a full rich feeling of self-worth.

   Prof. Ray suggests writing a statement of our highest purpose.  Mine is as follows: To be a warrior on the path of service.

   Then respond to the following:

   1. Do only what I love. Now that I'm retired, I can devote my time to a spiritual path.

   2. Love everything I do. If I don't love it, I don't do it. How do I feel inside?

   3. Be conscious of my experience. I can only do this through the practice of meditation.

   4. Get in to the flow of faith, purpose and prosperity. Life has taken on a completely different meaning for me. It's no longer based on the material as a measure of self-Worth. I am worthy, valuable.

Live with the Highest Goal

   Live with the Highest Goal. Prof. Ray says that because everything in the world is a connected system, we can't beat it. We can only join it. The best way is to live with heuristics - generalizations or rules of thumb for learning and discovery. Some of the more common examples of heuristics are Pay Attention, Ask Dumb Questions, and See with Your Heart.

   For this section it's important to select a pressing issue. For me the most pressing issue has been to find work in the form of helping others and to be able to earn a living from it. It's important for me to be of service, to participate, and to earn a living. This has caused me to exercise persistence. Two heuristics that come to mind and that have been useful are Just do What's in Front of Me and Have no Attachment to Outcome.

   I have found that if I practice these two, I don't consider the past or the future. I just do whatever is next and then test to see if it feels right or not. If it doesn't feel right, then I do something else. What is important is that I do something rather than remain inert. I notice too that I've been living with heuristics all along and didn't know it.

Most Meaningful Thing Exercise

   The first question of Prof. Ray's Most Meaningful Thing exercise is: What was the most important, meaningful thing that happened to me this week? I got engaged.

   The second question is: Why was this so important, meaningful to me? I've not been married for almost 30 years and I never thought it would happen.

   Continuing to ask why was this so important? I was able to recognize that it's time for me to do this with this particular person.

   Again, why? Because I'm in love. Why? At 62, time is short.

   Why? Defenses are down. Why? Because I'm able to feel tenderness, an opening heart.

   So, the highest goal for me now is to experience life with an opening heart.

   In future posts I'll look at the 8 steps Prof. Ray presents in his book when we are committed to living with the highest goal in mind. He assures us that if we practice any or all of the steps our lives will be changed for the better forever.

Highest Goal Defined

   What does Michael Ray consider to be the Highest Goal? He says that it is simply to be in this experience of connection or truth all the time. That remains elusive but our commitment to it motivates, inspires and guides our journey and gives us more time in this state of connection.

   He says further that if we live for the highest goal we are living a life of the spirit. We must consciously notice the larger aspects of life and consider whether what we are doing coincides with these aspects.

   By remembering to think about, contemplate and even relive a situation in which we experienced resonance with the highest goal, we realize that it has been there for us a number of times in our lives.

   We begin to see its enormity. We begin to comprehend that we are operating in a world in which we can draw on grace. We see that possibly we can begin to act with intention relative to the highest goal and better align our efforts with this generative process.

The Highest Goal

   When I was researching more on creativity, the book by Michael Ray, The Highest Goal caught my eye on my bookshelf. Professor Ray has been teaching the Creativity Course in the Stanford MBA program for some 25 years.

   After interviewing previous students he says something remarkable arose. He found that the impact of the course went beyond just its structure, procedures and exercises. The course had touched something very deep.

   It seems the students had made discoveries about themselves that informed their actions and transformed their lives. Unintentionally, is seems, they discovered their highest goal - the secret that would sustain them, come what may.

   Prof. Ray says that he came to recognize this same essential resource at work in other people who live creatively.  They have a secret that centers them and makes their lives accomplished and fulfilling.

  He says that they seem to recognize the transforming power of  the highest goal. They have learned to maintain a connection to something higher; and, if they live for this connection, they keep growing closer to what is right for them.

   In future posts I will take a look at the meaning and usefulness of the higher goal.

False Belief: Others' Needs Have Primacy

   Others needs have primacy: McKay and Fanning provide that this belief requires that the needs of others should always come first. The impulse is to give in and defer to others. While sometimes associated with unworthiness, this core belief has a vector of it own. It's not so much that we are unimportant, it's just that others needs are more important. We empathize with them. We understand their pain, their desires. And it eclipses any sense of our own. When we endorse this core belief, problem solving is difficult because we can't seek solutions that would conflict in any way with the needs of people we care about. This predicts the other person will suffer uncontrollably because of us, the other person won't be able to take adequate care of themselves without our help; the other person will see us as wrong and selfish and reject us; we will end up despising ourselves for being selfish and bad. The belief that our needs are less important than others and the expectation that we'll feel guilty and afraid if we do something for ourselves, pushes us to use compensating behavior. Compensating behavior never solves the problem, it only gives temporary relief from feeling stuck and helpless. We're so afraid of guilt and rejection that problem solving efforts seem very dangerous. The thought that people would be disappointed or upset feels too disturbing, too big a risk to take.  But nothing changes and nothing improves. We need to stop, observe our behavior, ask: Is this belief true all the time?, and replace the old belief with one that works for us.