Life comes in with a bang, makes a mess, and leaves us with the building blocks of the future. What we do with them is up to us. When the pyrotechnic power of the Exploration quarter explodes into Chaos, the seeds of the new thing are scattered on the waters. It’s time in the Wheel of Creativity to downshift from full-steam-ahead to all’s-quiet-within. Time to let Life in. If Chaos is the turning point of the creative process, what lies around the corner? On my 2001...
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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...
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Today I continue my tour around the Wheel in 12 Days of Creativity. Day 5, and Station 5, is Isolation. Have you ever launched a project, gotten it off the ground with great enthusiasm, only to have the wind knocked out of you a short time later? This is the point in the journey where the voices of doubt begin screaming: What were you thinking? Who did you think you were? How could you possibly have thought you could…? You should never have left… [your day job]! This is the...
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Station 4 in The Wheel of Creativity is Launch. You have only to type the word launch into your Internet browser to see the range of its influence today. You can find thousands of success tips to: Launch a business Launch a new product Launch an ebook Launch a new brand Launch a website Launch a hedge fund … and many more. The commercial world has co-opted the word from its first meaning. The word Launch originated around 1300 with the Latin lanceare (to wield a lance); it...
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Station 3 of the Wheel of Creativity is what I call Anorexia. Anorexia made a name for itself in the world of eating disorders, where it describes a person’s compulsion to starve herself. For me, it describes our compulsion to say No to whatever nourishes us. In the face of the Appetite we have identified in the first two stations, Anorexia leaves us paralyzed. And it is a hurdle we must all clear in order to fully live. You could say the voice of Anorexia is, “Don’t you...
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