Unlimited Creativity and Happiness — the Secret We All Forget…

By Dan Goodwin

A friend of mine has over recent months lost a significant amount of weight, after having tried various diets and programs over a number of years. Let’s call her Annie.

Annie, having lost the physical weight, has at the same time regained her appetite for socialising and parties, singing and dancing, and has bumped into many old friends. Without exception, they’ve been full of complimentary comments at Annie’s new figure. More importantly though, they’ve been most impressed at her rediscovered enthusiasm for life, for having fun and a great time.

I haven’t known Annie all that long, and after she’d recounted some of her past efforts and experiences about trying to get fitter and lose weight, I was curious about how she’d achieved what she wanted this time.

“What’s been the difference this time?” I asked. “What have you done that you hadn’t done before, that’s allowed you to become as fit and active as you wanted to be?”

Her answer was simple and immediate —

“Because this time I was doing it because I wanted to, not because someone else told me I SHOULD.”

This example demonstrates a universal truth, the secret we all forget. That is, that ultimately we only get done what we allow ourselves to get done. We only achieve what we give ourselves permission to achieve.

Whether it be creativity, wealth, happiness, or anything else, without giving ourselves this permission, and believing that we genuinely deserve to have what we have, we will time and time again revert to our former status.

How does this relate to your creative life?

How may times do you tell yourself things like — “I SHOULD be more creative.”

Now consider this. Is it really YOU saying the should? Or have you absorbed it from someone else around you? A partner, a relative, a work colleague, the media? Who is it really that’s giving you this message?

Who would you be without this message? If you were no longer able to think “I should be more creative”, how would you be different?

Maybe you have similar thoughts about your creativity but that are more specific.

Maybe you think “I should write a love story” when in fact what you really want to write is a horror novel?

Do you say to yourself “I should join the local choir” when you really would love to form your own rock band? Or vice versa?

Maybe you think “I should paint pretty landscapes” when really you long to throw paint in wild abandon at huge canvases?

Make a list of all the thoughts you have that could be put into this type of sentence —

“I SHOULD _____________ BECAUSE _____________”

Then look at how many of them are based around what other people want or expect, rather than what YOU truly want.

Remember Annie and her secret to success? She did it because SHE wanted to, not because someone else told her she should. And once she discovered that, once we all discover and accept that the fundamental key to achieving anything is to give ourselves permission to find and then follow what we truly believe in, the progress becomes so much more swift and effortless. •

© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.

07/07/06