THE WHEEL OF CREATIVITY®

Today begin the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Every Olympiad I am inspired by the spiritual strength, mental discipline and physical excellence of the Olympic athletes. After all the controversy, when athletes from all over the world make their ceremonial tour of the Olympic stadium, when the flame is lit and the games begin, inspiration starts to flow freely.

Each time, as they make it look so effortless, I feel the longing:  to commit to a sport, work hard at it and produce some extraordinary result with my own body. Perhaps I even get started during the course of the games. But more often than not, by the closing ceremony, I’ve abandoned the dream.

What does it take to go the distance?

Anja Bolbjerg is a two-time Olympic skier (and my personal fitness trainer). So, in honor of today’s big event, I am turning the Wheel of Creativity Q&A around, and asking a few questions of her.

WOC: What does it take to be an Olympic level athlete?

AB: I think that the most important thing is you’ve got to be in love with the process. It’s not just that you want to go to the Olympics one day; you’ve gotta love the project itself.

The passion has got to be there. It’s not as glamorous as people might think. In many sports, it’s a hassle to get the funding and if you don’t have the passion forget it. It can also be a lonely project. If you’re in an individual sport, there’s a lot of stuff you have to do alone. You have to be comfortable on your own.

It’s never a straight line. There are always going to be obstacles, setbacks; and you have to go beyond that. Even if you have a setback, you’ve got to learn to love all the little steps of progress along the way.

WOC: What kind of structure do you put in place to help you?

AB: It depends on the sport, but you have to be able to ask for help. In some sports, everything’s set up for you; but in others, you have to be able to pick the people you want to work with, and put together a team to support you. For the rest of the preparation to be effective, it’s really important to have a good team around you.

WOC: How do you use scheduling to keep yourself on track?

AB: You have the vision of the Olympics guiding you of course; and then you have a weekly schedule, and you try to stick to it. As in life in general, things don’t always go as planned, so you have to revise your plan. But you have a pretty set schedule; you’re not just improvising to get to the Olympics.

WOC: What role does a coach play in the process?

AB: The coach is the person who pushes you when you need pushing and holds you back when you need holding back. They hold the view from a distance, which can be really hard. The coach doesn’t get caught up in the little things but steps back to see the big picture. She stirs up the feelings that you want to stir up and calms down the feelings you want to calm down. It’s a really important role for balance and for confidence.

WOC: How do you approach rewards or breaks?

AB: I think that’s the role of the coach too. It can be really hard as an athlete to give yourself those breaks. Of course there are athletes who need to be coached to do more and break less; but in general, if you really burn for your project you always want to do a little more. You’ve got to have that view from a distance to help you take time out when needed.

WOC:  If there is one most important thing, what would it be?

AB: Really the most important thing is that you realize that this is not just about the Olympics; it’s about the whole process, years and years and years of preparation. If the only thing you want to do is go to the Olympics, it’s not worth it. There are too many sacrifices. But if you’re doing what you love, you don’t see the sacrifices as sacrifices.

Your Own Olympic Torch

The early Olympic Games expressed the highest values of ancient Greece – physical fitness and mental discipline. The first recorded Games in 776 BC had only one event – a 192-meter race – won by a humble baker from Elis named Coroebus. But they were such a peaceful influence that city-states such as Sparta put battles on pause for them. Still today, they stand as a symbol that even the lowliest among us can pursue their personal best, achieve excellence and create a peaceful influence on the world.

Though I imagine the majority of you reading this post are not competing this year in London, each of you has a dream. Olympic or not, each of you carries a torch for your life. You are inspired, you are called, you are committed. So how do you apply the inspiration of today’s Olympic Games in your daily life?

Anja’s Secrets of Success

1. Choose something you love to do.
2. Create a structure for making progress.
3. Hire a coach to support you.
4. Schedule breaks and enjoy them.
5. Value the journey as much as the destination.

In other words, live your own life as well as you can. In Anja’s beautiful words:

“It’s a privilege to be working with yourself. You get to know yourself like not many people have a chance to do – what blocks you, how can you change those patterns, and how can you get to be the best you can be. And that’s something you can use that for the rest of your life.”

Wherever you seek personal excellence in your life, make a plan to make it happen. If you think I might I help, just ask me.

Live CREATIVE!

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In the last 24 hours, I have listened to otherwise successful people talk about:

• Being so busy that they can’t meet a friend for lunch… all month
• Being so stressed out that they are feeling dizzy on their feet
• Developing sciatica because they are sitting at the computer too much
• Setting timers to remember to breathe or move their bodies

When I hear stories like this, which I hear a lot now, I have to ask, “Is this really how we want to live?”

Is this what it takes to be productive?

Today’s post is the third in a four-step series on enjoying productivity. Step 1 was to take time out, stepping back from the urgent to make space for the important. Step 2 was to reconnect with your vision, while leaving space for things to work out differently. Today’s post is:

Step 3. Accept the distractions, and learn to set boundaries.

Life is distracting, today more than ever. Never have there been more means to your ideal end, more possibilities for solutions, more opportunities to seize. But one person’s opportunity is another person’s distraction. And if you try to do everything, you will soon succeed at nothing.

As Stephen Covey so wisely advised, “Before you climb the ladder of success, make sure it’s leaning against the right wall.” So, that begs the question…

What is a distraction?

Macmillan Dictionary defines a distraction as:

1. something that gets your attention and prevents you from concentrating on something else
2. an activity that you can do for fun or entertainment.

A highly efficient society assumes that every distraction deserves to have the word evil before it. I love this definition, because it doesn’t demonize the thing; it even accentuates its positive, fun and entertaining side. Distractions are neutral. It’s your responses that give them their positive or negative charge.

Structure your pleasure!

Limits give you freedom to enjoy life’s pleasures without fearing they will overrun you. Structuring distractions allows what you love to inspire your work. So, just for today…

• Name your biggest distraction.
• Determine how much time you need to give it for balance in your life.
• Commit to someone that you will do it.
• Do it.
• When you go back to work, observe how the quality of your work has changed.

I invite you to share your observations here or on the Wheel of Creativity Facebook page.

And join me here next Monday for the final step, and insights and actions you can take to put the pleasure back in productivity.

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I call Station 6 in the Wheel of Creativity Crisis, because it brings you to the turning point of the Wheel. The new world you’ve been seeking sits on the horizon like a sparkling jewel… or an elusive promised land. “Catch me if you can!” it beckons. You can see it, but you cannot set foot there until you have crossed the distance and the met the challenges that separate you.

T.S. Eliot charmed me the first time I read his Four Quartets, with the following verse:

“In order to arrive at what you are not, you must go through the way in which you are not.”

The Wheel of Creativity offers a paraphrase:

“In order to create something new, you must first go through the dissolution of the old.”

You know you’re in Station 6 when your primary experience is P – A – N – I – C!

The unexplained terror I felt on the morning of September 10, 2001 eased as I left the hotel, and Athens, on my way to Florence. But it intensified again when I changed planes at Rome Fiumicino and continued to fail, battling with the Italian payphone, to find one hotel room for my three nights in Florence. The city was heaving. I was in tears. Finally, a kindly hotelier took pity and offered me a tiny room with no bathroom and no window for one night. That was all there was. I surrendered. I took it.

The creative process is fraught with setbacks and storms. They are frightening; but they are not the enemy. Survival instincts – Fight or Flight – kick in; but it is only when we stop fighting and come to stillness that we see clearly. Welcome the storm, for it clears the way before you. Only in its wake does the path to the new world come into focus.

How do you welcome the storm?

1. Recognize the limits of your control; know what you can and can’t change.
2. Detach from the storm around you. Remember to locate yourself in it.
3. Get simple. Jettison everything that’s not essential to the moment.

Station 6 is an intense place in the creative process, and coming through it lands you on the far side of the Wheel of Creativity. It is the point called Chaos, and it is as far away from Home as you can get:

• If Home is familiar… Chaos is unfamiliar.
• If Home is known… Chaos is unknown.
• If Home is stable… Chaos is unstable.
• If Home is order… Chaos is disorder.

I like to picture Chaos as a house with the roof wide open and the stars falling in. When we finally stop trying to patch up all the leaking places in our lives, when we finally surrender to the purpose of the storms, the stars simply begin to grace us with their light. Dissolution – the first half of the creative process – is complete; and Creation – the second half – can begin.

Are you ready for that?

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Several weeks ago, when I was doing my grocery shopping at Carrefour (the WalMart of France), I saw this egg in the tray. I picked it up and held it in my hand; and instantly we drew a small crowd of people who found the egg equally disturbing. “C’est bizarre” was their assessment. Well, that cinched it. I had to have it.

I have always been attracted to the fringe:

• The broken lemon drops
• The forgotten fruit
• The questions without answers
• The mystery schools
• The contrarians
• The cutting edges

This egg would find good company there.

Over the past few weeks, I have often thought about the hen who laid this egg. What did she think of her egg? What did she feel? Did she love it or reject it? Did it hurt her? Did she ever even see it or was it snatched from her beforehand?

If I were in the United States, I seriously doubt whether my egg would have even made it to the supermarket. Eggs are supposed to look a certain way, you know. And this is not it. But not seeing the egg in the tray that day would have been a loss indeed.

Over the past few weeks, I have come to love this egg. It is not a golden egg. It is not a normal egg. It is an original egg. Every time I see this egg, it speaks to me as one who is willing to be different from the rest, stand out in the crowd, catalyze the reactions of others, speak with a voice all its own. And I will treasure it forever.

My friend Peter Fox, solar physicist and computer scientist, describes creativity in science as having “an original thought.” In other words, you have to be willing to see things differently. He observes, “As a scientist, you have to have some element of confidence in yourself, because otherwise you don’t open yourself up to the creative thought. There’s the point where you have to trust that at some level your intuition is right.”

We are drawn to the original like a car accident, as long as it’s happening to someone else; but we are reluctant to own it in ourselves. We live in a world of plastic surgery, social networks, and “irresistible content.” Marketing gurus tell us to write our books based on keyword searches:  find the words others are using, title your chapters with those words, and sell more books. I can’t help wondering where Michelangelo would fit into all this.

Where, along the way, did we decide that things have to look a certain way in life? Uniform, predictable, safe. Where is the imagination in that? Where is the diversity? Where is Life? What kinds of possibilities might appear through us if we did not reject the unusual, the bizarre and the original out of hand?

What hope do we have for creativity and innovation if we reject the original in and around us? If we continue to create from the outside in, what role can originality possibly play in our lives? What solutions would never appear in the world?

Am I alone in my concerns?

Do you have an original egg to share?

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“Life is a sacred process.  What is yours asking from you now?”

In just two weeks, I will begin a new coaching group based on the principles of The Wheel of Creativity. The first Wheel of Creativity Creative Process Group of 2011 will take place in Nice, France, every Wednesday night, March 16-June 15, 2011*, from 19:00 to 21:30.

The Wheel of Creativity Creative Process Group will help you:

• Produce the outcomes in life that flow from your innermost essence
• Increase your capacity to live in the power of the creative process
• Strengthen your connection with the life force that flows through you all the time
• Come to know yourself more intimately than ever before
• Take your place in the adventure of life’s great unfolding

The Wheel of Creativity is a map of the creative journey, developed by Katherine Robertson-Pilling. This group is the guided tour, using your own life as the landscape. Ultimately, the journey is always made alone. But here you will find a community of fellow travelers and the guidance of one who knows the way.

Each of you comes to this group with your own destination. You may or may not know the next step. The Wheel of Creativity is a practical framework for creating what is next for you in life. It could be a new creative project, a new business, a new career, a new way of life. Or it could be something you’ve been working on without success. The Wheel of Creativity enables you to engage with the natural creative cycles of Life, not only to create something new in the world, but also to transform yourself through the process.

“For more than 10 years, I have been researching and developing a methodology to use the creative process as a means to personal transformation. The result is The Wheel of Creativity.This group offers a select group of people the opportunity to put these principles to work in their day-to-day lives to create the projects and the lives they dream of.”

What other clients say:

• “The Wheel of Creativity and your presentation of it is a deep and integrative experience. I appreciate you as a contemplative and loving person. As a coach you are dynamic, centered and inspiring. Thank you for the gifts you share with the world.” (Lane Lasater, Ph.D., Psychologist, Author, Consultant)

• “I find your work extremely useful in contemporary life. I have to say that I find myself lucky to have met you. Your life and work serve as an inspiration to a young and naive college student who is just beginning to discover life and the creative process. Thank you!” (Nadia Florez, University student)

• “I want to underline your ability to listen and draw out with love. I always feel that your quality of attention enables me to not only know where I am but to go to a deeper level.” (Alison Prideaux, massage therapist)

There are a limited number of spaces for this group.

For a free consultation to learn more, contact: katherine@katherinerobertson.com

* Excluding school holidays (April 20 & 27)

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“If you don’t design your life, someone else will design it for you.” (Nigel Marsh)

What ever gave us the idea we could delegate this to anyone else? No company, no government, no spouse, no circumstance is responsible for the fact that I don’t (or do) have the life I want. In this 10-minute video of his May 2010 TED talk in Sydney, Nigel Marsh describes his way home to the center of his life.

Nigel Marsh at TED Sydney

Nigel Marsh is one, like me, who had to leave the grid for a while to discover that there is a different way to live. This begins the cycle of the creative process.

Surf’s up! Enjoy the ride!

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Today I began my 60^th journal. I have been keeping a journal since January 4, 1976, my 20^th birthday. So today I decided to pick up that first book and read a few pages. Such a tender young thing I was:  so much promise, so little experience of life, and such a burning desire that my life would count for something.

The road from there to here has been long, though it has passed in the blink of an eye. Sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, it has been anything but straight. The road of Life rises up to meet me, day after day, from the darkness of the unknown into the headlights of discovery, showing me just enough of the road ahead to keep me from crashing. Sometimes I still do.

This morning, in my yoga practice, it came to me that we cannot bring forth anything that counts in life unless we let Life penetrate us. And yet, we live with so much resistance, so much fear of allowing that. This morning, in my yoga-softened body, I could feel the gifts of these years. I felt my receptivity, my openness, my desire, my longing. I have longed for Life itself, and the feeling of taking it in like a really deep breath. I have allowed Life to penetrate me and to awaken the seed of The New Thing in my heart, time and time again.

To me, at this moment, this is the story of Christmas. It is the story of a young Hebrew girl chosen by Life to receive, to be fertilized, to give birth. Her baby, called Jesus, would grow from humble beginnings to shine a light in the darkness of the world, which still shines today.

Let’s, for a moment, take this out of the context of religion. What I want to share here does not require that you believe anything. I invite you, just for these few minutes, to explore the possibility that this is the story of us all. Read more…

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I am writing in haste this morning, as we are preparing to get on a plane for Sri Lanka, the small island country south of India, once called Ceylon. I am going to Sri Lanka at the invitation of my husband, who was there a decade ago and has always wanted me to see it.

Usually, when I make a trip like this, I have done a great deal of research, and have an idea of the culture and history, with someone else’s guidance about what is worth seeing there. This time I have done very little research (have not even looked at the site in the link above). I am actually happy about that.

What I do know is that there are things there I have never seen: baby elephants, tea plantations, spotted leopards, lemur monkeys, Buddhist temples, and ritual dances, to name a few. I look forward to experiencing all these things, and to discovering all the things I do not know there. I like surprises when I travel. In truth, I like surprises in life.

I grew up in a culture where it was very important to know… important to be right… important to have the answers. Somehow it often feels safer to rest within the boundaries of what we know and understand. But this safety is an illusion, and will eventually be shattered when what we don’t know pierces our safety net. It always does. That day usually comes as a shock… and a blessing.

When I travel, I often think of Lawrence Kasdan’s film, “The Accidental Tourist,” in which travel writer Macon Leary always attempts to travel without leaving home, eating at McDonald’s and minimizing his contact with the unfamiliar. It seems ridiculous to us, but this is how many of us live. I did.

As we set off today on our 10-hour flight from Heathrow to Colombo, I have completed the basics. I have had shots for tetanus, typhoid and Hep-A. I have my daily pills for malaria and tropical zone mosquito lotion. We have booked our hotel and transport for a week. We know it is risky to travel north, for security reasons. We have taken precautions.

But today I am delighted to be leaving the world I know for a world I have never experienced, knowing there will be ecstasies and agonies along the way. I will see things, eat things, hear languages, meet people for the first time. There is so much diversity of life out there to discover and be enriched by, but only if we are willing to leave home.

The Wheel of Creativity describes the experience of life as a creative journey. The first step in that journey, from my experience and others’, is to listen to what you long for, to follow what attracts you, and then to let go. Getting on a plane is not required. The journey begins within your mind and heart. Whatever you’re doing today, this day can be an adventure or the same-ol’-same’ol’.  You can travel through your life accidentally or deliberately. Which would you prefer?

More from me in Sri Lanka in a week or so, whenever I can get online…

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