What Box?^®

Why should you attempt to be a creative person since there are so many potential risks that may be experienced as a result?

There is an increased risk that you might fail at something you attempt. You may be required to persuade others who are not utilizing their creative skills that your idea is viable, or you may be required to have some level of political skills to navigate through treacherous waters. To be creative you will need to muster the internal strength to be flexible along with the willingness to stretch yourself to new levels. And that’s where the rub lies.

Let’s face it. Being creative takes courage. It’s just easier to sit there quietly and do what everyone believes you are supposed to do including yourself.

“Don’t live down to expectations.  Go out there and do something remarkable.”
Wendy Wasserstein

It takes courage be creative. Do you have the courage to be creative and live the life you were meant to live?

What do you need to do to be more creative in your life?

Confidence is one of the major factors that differentiates those who are highly creative and those that are not. Those who have succeeded in generating creative ideas and seeing those creative ideas come to life are more willing to continue making the effort to be creative than those who have not been able to see their creativity realized. Being creative takes practice and patience. We all have creative ideas and have the ability to make those ideas real. The difference lies in a person’s confidence and determination to generate those ideas and then turn them into reality.

When you generate creative ideas it takes confidence, practice, and tremendous patience.

“Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong.”  Peter T. McIntyre

We have to dig deep to find our creativity. The traditional education system does not encourage creativity and the workplace does not expect it. So where do you find it?

Most people are just coasting through life doing what they think is expected of them, or worse yet they are doing just the bare minimum to get by. There are those rebellious few who are not just coasting through life and this is why they are considered “rebellious in nature”, “crazy”, “on the edge”, “over-the-top”, or “out there”. It really doesn’t have to be this way. If you are called any of these things, in all reality you are on the creative path and it is a good thing. Let me be the first to let you know that these labels are really good ones and badges of honor.

“The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”
Frank Barron, Think, November-December 1962

To expand your creativity let go of your inhibitions and be willing to be a little outrageous. Make yourself do something outrageous every day. Take time to generate creative ideas. Write them down, dream about them, work them, and grow them. Nothing impossible will happen unless you start believing in the impossible.

At your workplace take time every day to focus your energy on creative ideas with your associates. Explore new ideas to solve challenges that exist in your company. Develop a creativity “Hit List” that is posted in the break room for people to think about. Encourage everyone to add his or her creative ideas to the list. 

Make creativity an “expectation” not the exception.

When creativity becomes the expectation, then you will be more likely to make the effort to be more creative and let go of your inhibitions. Enroll other people into your creative energy and encourage them to have the courage to be creative.

I would like to let you in on a little secret that is not so secret. You were born a creative person. You have tremendous natural creativity already inside of you. You can do anything you want to do. 

“Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if…”  And then do it.”
Duane Michals

The challenge is to let it loose! Years of being suppressed and fearful of what people might think if you step outside the box have put a cap on your creativity. Pop it today!

It takes courage to be creative. How are you unleashing your creativity?

Let me know what you think.

Dear Sean
Creating balance in my life is a challenge. I don’t have any trouble doing nothing at all and taking time for myself. The trouble that I have is getting motivated to do things that are expected of me and that I should be doing. What can I do to create more balance in my life?
Desperate in Catoosa

Dear Desperate,
If your goal is to remain a couch potato then keep doing what you’re doing. But, if you want to make some significant changes in your life you are the only one who can do so. Get off your butt and get moving! Life is too short to spend it doing nothing. Start with baby-steps and set a small goal and work towards achieving this. Once you get the hang of accomplishment and achievement you may find you are exceeding your expectations.

You can do it!
Keep on keeping on,
Sean

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

What Box?

Food for Thought

by Sean Griffin

Living a life of purpose reflects who you are deep inside; your beliefs, your values, and your passion for living. It is all about following your heart and doing what you love to do with passion and purpose.

Creating balance in one’s life takes tremendous effort. You can take steps to create a more balanced life by setting aside time each and every day to do nothing and just “be.” When I am able to incorporate “being” time into my day and life, I am better prepared to take on the challenges of life and feel more complete.

Fear suppresses our inner abilities leading us to continue to avoid taking risks in life. If we spent half as much time learning how to take risks as we spent avoiding them, we would eliminate many of the fears that we have in our lives.

Living a life with purpose takes constant practice, evaluation, and patience. Living a life with purpose does not mean that you have to be involved in some great discovery or tremendous idea. Instead, it often rises from a commitment to be faithful to even the most undervalued of tasks.

Living in the present moment means being totally aware of what is happening around you; what you are doing, how you are feeling, and what you are thinking.

Continual improvement is a must to meet the ever-changing array of challenges and fears that are uncovered along the journey. Every slip and every fall is a lesson learned, an experience gained, from which golden grains of wisdom are the reward.

Anything is possible, and when we believe it and live it, this thinking will manifest itself in everything that we do. Take a risk. The biggest risk in accomplishing what you want in life is to not take a risk at all.

Thomas A. Edison, Michelangelo, and Abraham Lincoln marched to their own beat believing in the possibility of the impossible. They showcased for us the power of change we have hidden deep inside ourselves. They demonstrated what is possible.

When you live a life that takes in each and every moment, appreciating the positives and working towards fulfilling the dreams you have, then you are truly living.

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create for yourself.

Have you ever noticed how much the weather impacts not just your daily activities but your mental state?

The past month it has been feeling a lot more like Seattle around here than Grand Lake. We have had more rainy and overcast days than sunny days and as a result I have started feeling a little funked up.

I first noticed it last Thursday when I woke up and was not quite feeling myself. I had little to no motivation, I felt a bit brain dead, and I had very little creative energy. It only got worse as the day went on.

My interactions with people were less than stellar. I even noticed that other people were feeling and not acting like themselves. At one meeting a person at table actually said, “I feel depressed and not myself.” In my studio space I started thinking, ”What is going on her? What cycle of life have I entered to be feeling so low and so funked up, and why are other people in a similar state?”

As I sat there in my chair looking out the window at the rain falling and the clouds overhead I realized that the continued barrage of overcast skies and rainy weather was affecting my mental state, along with other people, and not for the better.

It is fascinating that the weather can play such a critical role in the health of my mental state. I have never quite experienced the weather’s negative influence on my attitude or energy level in this way before.

Have you been feeling a little lethargic, gloomy, funked up?

It turns out that there is actually a medical term for this seasonal malaise, which the doctors have labeled Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. How appropriate that it is called SAD, because that is what I was feeling, but I was calling it funked up. It looks like we need the sun light to energize us much like the plants need the sunlight to grow.

So how do you get out of this funked up state of mind when the skies are overcast and the sun refuses to shine?

“A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods.” Rachel Carson

Here is what I did. I sat on my boat dock in my swinging chair and watched the world go by. I fed the ducks and other birds around our property. Then I made a list of all the things I have to be grateful for in my life.

“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” Author Unknown

As the list started to grow I started to feel better and so did the ducks and birds all around me. It made me smile and my funked up state of mind started to slip away. Just about that time the sun started to peak through the clouds. I walked out from under the cover of our boat dock into the sunlight streaming down around me and soaked it in just in time before the next round of rain gave me a good soaking.

If you are not near the lake, take a look out your window at the shapes of the clouds, the shades of whites and greys in the skies, the rain drops as they come falling to the ground. Then when the sun peeks through the cloud see if you can find a rainbow to brighten up your day.

Perhaps overcast and rainy days are designed to give us an opportunity to slow our lives down a bit. Many of us have very busy lives and slowing down means that we aren’t able to accomplish everything we have on our agendas. The challenge is to take the time to realize that we are not quite feeling ourselves and that we need to look for ways to increase our energy and positive attitude.

This Forth of July if the skies are overcast and you are unable to see the fireworks going off in the distance and you only hear the loud booming noise that they are creating, look for those things you can be grateful for. Look around you at the place you live and the people who are in your lives and remember why we celebrate the Fourth of July, the meaning behind the celebration. We have much to be grateful for.

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”  Erma Bombeck

It’s no fun being Funked up. We have a choice. What will you choose?

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create for yourself.

Have you ever noticed that one of the most interesting things about life is that at a certain point along the journey much of it starts repeating itself?

What is it that you want to create in your life? Is it getting along with people, being in a state of love, supporting people and their efforts, being known as an honest and truthful person? All of these are powerful virtues and ideals to strive for. Yet, despite our most valiant efforts, we can continually find ourselves challenged and in situations that may confuse us about ourselves as people and circumstances become a part of our lives.

We will continue to repeat the same challenges and problems until we are able to reflect upon our lives and transform ourselves into who we truly are. We cannot change that which we don’t know. To better understand who we are and our true nature, we need to ask ourselves some very important questions. What attracted me to this person? What is there about him or her that makes me feel uncomfortable? What do I need to learn from them that will help me to better understand myself?

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Carl G. Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections

If I were honest with myself I would notice that the same kinds of people keep showing up in my life, whether it be a boss, a client, a co-worker, and friends, even if I have decided to leave a relationship and distance myself from that type of person. This has gone on for a long time. I can leave one relationship only to discover that I have attracted another of the same type. I can choose to leave a gig whenever I like, or even distance myself from a family member whom I have decided is causing me pain. I can choose to continue to blame others for my negative experiences, or I can muster the courage to take a long hard look at my Shadow side.

My Shadow knows why I continue to repeat the same patterns in life.

We all have a Shadow. Our Shadow is everything that is deep inside of us that is unconscious, repressed, underdeveloped, and denied. This is the dark side of our selves, and like all things in life, it also has the potential to become the light inside of us. When we pay attention to the Shadow side of ourselves, we have an opportunity to see and accept who we really are, enabling us to positively develop the person that we were meant to be.

If I am going to stop repeating the negative patterns of my life I am going to have to take a hard look at my Shadow so that I can learn more about myself. I cannot fully understand who I am without taking the effort to learn about my Shadow, even if it hurts and causes me to be uncomfortable. As long as I avoid learning about and transforming my Shadow side, I am going to continue to attract people who mirror that for me. Life will always present me with opportunities for growth and learning to occur, whether I ask for it or not. We all have the choice to learn from these opportunities or to ignore them. In any case, they will not go away until they are dealt with.

You know what? This is hard work no matter how you cut the mustard. Like so many things written in What Box? it is just not easy. Learning about and transforming our Shadow side is quite possibly some of the most important work we can do during our lifetime.

Take George Lucas for instance, one of the greatest film Directors of all time. Throughout his career he desired, and even demanded, total independence from the traditional big picture studios. He was hell bent on not being like the major motion picture studios. With the success of Star Wars, which he independently created and owned, he was able to leverage the financial rewards and continue his journey as an independent filmmaker.

His list of Blockbusters is a testament to his determination. Sounds good doesn’t it? Guess what. His fear and determination to not be like the major film studios only created that which he did not want to be. He is now the owner and operator of one of the largest film studios in the world. George was not aware of his Shadow because he could not change that which he did not know. His Shadow knew, but not George.

We all have a Shadow just like George.

So how do you start to learn more about your Shadow? I get glimpses of my Shadow when I over-react emotionally to people who irritate me. I am seeing a part of my Shadow when someone pushes my button and I feel a level of repulsion towards him/her. My reaction may be distaste for the characteristics or attitudes of this person. What I have is the opportunity to learn that which I hate or dislike in others is a part of me. That is to say, I am that which I am upset about, only it is just outside my awareness, in my unconscious, and is usually just the opposite of what I believe to be true about myself.

“One can only face in others what one can face in oneself.” James Baldwin

We will usually feel uncomfortable and will dislike people who come into our lives and reflect our Shadow side. What we need to be aware of, is that these people carry a key to helping us in unlocking a door to better understand our Shadow side. Pay close attention to those who come into your life and irritate you, who push your buttons. This irritation is usually connected to something that is unconscious within yourself, which it is impossible for you to see. If this irritation is truly is a reflection of your Shadow, you will begin to be able to identify the repeating patterns in your life.

Remember that whatever you think is negative, what ever goes against your ideals, will be projected and materialized in your life. Your thoughts are a magnet for what you create in your life. Think good thoughts and good things happen. Think bad thoughts and bad things happen. Your unconscious thoughts are powerful, very powerful. What you think about is what you will create in your life.

In the end we can’t change other people, so we are left with the reality that we have to change ourselves. And we can’t change that which we don’t know. To “know thyself” is one of the most important things we can do. It is impossible to become a balanced person and reach our full potential without understanding and embracing our Shadow side.

I know one thing for sure. This will be a lifelong process. This kind of transformation does not happen overnight. Like so many things of great meaning it takes tremendous patience and continually reminding myself that this is important and necessary work.

“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.” Thomas Szasz

What do you want to create in your life? What do you need to do to accomplish that? Your Shadow knows.

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create for yourself.