For the past 22 weeks, you have been learning to work with the four key elements of the Creative Genius equation – imagination x intuition + desire x drive.
Here is the most surprising part. To see results greater than you could ever imagine you must continuously and consciously use all of yourself, find stillness long enough to listen to the quiet voice of your Creative Genius, and marry that inner guidance with small consistent action. Mike Pohrley’s dream of making his own movie included getting multiple awards at different film festivals. But he had no idea that one of those festivals would be the Cannes film festival.
Early on I wanted to be a successful performance artist, but who knew that I would land a role on Broadway?
The results that you and I can envision are often only based upon what our brains have seen, heard or previously experienced. To truly tap your potential though, you have to move beyond what the brain knows. You and I have no idea what the outcome to the infinite power will be. This part of our life’s experience is mysterious and beautiful, but it is determined by our openness to walk down the path that our Creative Genius is guiding us towards.
Where we sometimes get tripped up is in our attachment to the exact image of what we imagine our life will be like, or we get trapped by our outdated beliefs. The active use of the Creative Genius equation allows you to stay in tune with what IS actually happening. At the same time, it helps you continue to actively shift your perception of yourself to become what you need to become in order to accept the infinite possibilities in your new reality.
If you have grown up in an environment where you were told, “You’re not smart enough,” “You’re not cute enough,” or “You’re too lazy, you never finish anything,” then your job is to replace those outdated beliefs. They are an impediment to your ability to become the person you have dreamed about. Doing that one thing may be the biggest action you need to take in order to realize the sum of the equation – outcome to infinite power.
The brain is a machine that loves routine because, to your amygdala, routine will keep you safe and keep you from embarrassing yourself. Routine however, will not get you to the breakthroughs that you need to make in order to achieve outcomes greater than what you know. By becoming familiar with how the equation works, you build your agility in areas where you are subconsciously acting as an automaton. Each part of the equation, each one of the four parts, will bring you to the best possible outcome.
Imagination – the ability to form new images and sensations in the mind that are not perceived through senses such as sight, hearing or other senses. This is you imagining the best possible outcome for any situation and then shifting your perspective to see and integrate alternatives.
Intuition – your ability to understand something immediately without conscious reasoning. This is your inner sense of what will bring you a better outcome and which of the action steps you imagine will be the best one to do right now.
Desire – that strong feeling of wanting something new to happen. This is your passion for a project, thing, experience, that will sustain you during the rough patches. When you complete an action towards your goal, desire will trigger your chemistry to believe you can make it through to the end.
Drive – to cause or guide your movement and to carry you rigorously through. Fueled by desire, it is the motivation, the internal condition that aligns behavior and gives it direction. This is the muscle you build when you stay late, work harder, keep at your dream and iterate the things you are doing to move the ball down the field.
Outcome to the infinite power
All equations have a solution at the end, but the creative genius equation’s solution or outcome is limitless. How your experience will turn out – the consequence, result, end product – will be better than you ever could have imagined (outcome to the x power, x = infinity). It’s the magical part of change. It’s how a moment in time can expand to fit you and your dream into its history.
The creative genius equation is an essential part of you. It’s the magnetic equation that taps the reticular activating system to mirror back to you, the life you were meant to live. The equation helps you find a way through any obstacle and allows you to feel fulfilled while serving the universe doing the work that you are passionate about.
When you and I dedicate time to creating the life we want, the more we automatically use the creative genius equation. When life challenges you, and you begin to use it consciously, you are then able to create a roadmap of what’s missing or which lever needs to be pushed in order to generate movement forward . If you wonder, “What is my purpose?”, the equation can help reset the dial to the Creative Genius inside of you who links you to the unique service that only you can provide.
The Creative Genius will help you remember that inner dream that you have long forgotten about. In an email Jorge wrote, “I wanted to do voice-over work my whole life and when it didn’t happen the first time because initially, I wasn’t that good at it, I listened to my mother and went back to school to learn to teach English as a second language. But it wasn’t my passion. When I drew my picture of my desired new reality – that future, I knew that I had to do something else. It was there in the picture – me doing voice over. I have to go back to that part of me that I discarded when it got too scary, or I needed instant success.”
When you first embark on your dream to shift an element of your life or your work and perhaps don’t immediately have success, you get caught by your brain’s monitor that is dialed to a certain timeframe. Rather than letting yourself get caught in the old tapes that accompanied any similar feelings of failure in the past, you can choose between giving up, OR positively re-appraising what you are experiencing to know that this “failure” is an opportunity to learn more about where you need to shift and grow your skills. Your flexibility allows you to push through the obstacle and take your focused actions to the next level where you will find success.
Jon Acuff writes in his book Do Over,
“Changing a dream always requires learning new skills – even if they are simply new coping skills. I didn’t get to be a public speaker by not public speaking.”
Most of us are not naturally brilliant at something the first time out of the gate, so trying something new helps you know if you will love doing it. But you cannot expect to know that unless you are willing to approach it with discipline and commitment. When we watch competitions like the Voice, the backstory is important, in that backstory you hear how they practiced countless hours to be able to step onto that stage. While being seen by millions is that opportunity, not all get a chair to turn. But those who do have built up their stamina with discipline and practice, physically, mentally and spiritually.
While you practice and learn to hone your skill, you gain clarity on what you love. You also build the strength needed to keep working through the parts that you don’t love as much, so that in the end you can still achieve your dream. No doubt you’ll find the road leads you through a trail of tears at times, but temporary failure sweetens the thrill of every big and small success.
What can lift you through every moment, is a consistent meditation or mindfulness practice. In my story about meditating, I talked about how at first nothing really happened. I was distracted, my toe itched, I thought about the clients I was dealing with, or the gardening that needed to be done. Each day I sat back down in my chair though and tried again to meditate.
I thought, ‘Other people are able to sit still, why can’t I?’ Sometimes I would only last five minutes, other times I would look at the clock and be astonished that twenty minutes had passed. I yearned for an inner experience.
It took two months into this discipline of sitting down, closing my eyes, and imagining myself looking down on myself from up above, before my body burst into a million pieces in the experience I shared with everyone in an earlier post. To this day that wild, outrageous experience, and the consistent outcome to the infinite power that my Creative Genius helps me discover, are the two things that bring me back to that chair, to that practice, to that inner space of exploration.
You’re you, and your experience is uniquely yours. It’s your opportunity to discover your own otherworldly experience to keep fueling your enthusiasm and persistence, and to build the knowledge that an outcome to the infinite power is your innate birthright.
Because it is.
Sustaining enthusiasm so you can appreciate and allow for outcome to the infinite power is about programming your mind to remember the thrill of the stage or the moment of pure joy when you dove perfectly into the pool of the new you. By working through the equation, you evolve and rewire your neural pathways towards your success.
Yep, at times it might be scary. A famous comic once called out an apology from beside me in the bathroom stall before both of us were about to go onstage.
“You gotta push out the peanut butter and then comes the miracle.”
Today that comic plays a key role in Orange is the New Black. You are the center of your own miracle, up there baring your soul and putting your best Creative Genius self out there for all the world to see. It’s you showing the doubters, inside and out, your biggest badass self – the one that’s willing to leap into the fire. At times you’ll be an amazing beautiful firework, other times you might get smoked. Both things will move you towards the life you want.
This week, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to reflect on how well you understand and utilize each element of the Creative Genius equation to identify which of these essential tools you can expand your use of:
Imagination:
How well do you use this part of you?
How could you literally draw it out – through journal or visual, through image or music?
Intution
How often do you listen to this subtle whisperer?
What could you do today to harness its power better?
Desire
Which elements of what you are doing are you the most passionate about? Which projects need a refresh or positive reappraisal to reboot your enthusiasm?
Drive
Where do you need to work smarter, what flexible structure can you put in place to ensure you are focused on things that matter?
Map these elements out for yourself, so you can see how you are doing right now and identify just a few simple things you can tweak to see if you can feel greater alignment with your purpose and your destiny.
I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you. Send me a note, post something in FB group, or tag me in your Linkedin feed #creativegeniusyou
Big love,
Patti
