Wise Ways to Resist

Taking a cue again from the physical realm where resistance training strengthens muscles, I want to talk today about another type of muscle building that's good for us -- the muscles of creative perception and curiosity.

Do you think of yourself as creative? No?  Why not?

If you're like I used to be, you might be too narrowly defining what "creativity" is.  Maybe you think it's the ability to paint like Parrish, or hold movie-goers spellbound like Spielberg, or write like Rowling.  

These individuals are blessed with talent, yes.  But they also have worked at developing creative perception by exercising a curiosity-based approach to their work.

In some way, consciously or unconsciously, they ask:  What would happen if.......

Asking what would happen if...... is a wise way to begin to resist the mental ruts and emotional traps of assumptions, preconceived expectations, and the other ways we talk ourselves out of seeing the abundance of possibilities in front of us, and the options we have for changing our viewpoint and our life.

Resisting mindless habits, resisting boring or dysfunctional sameness, is good for keeping your mind sharp and your emotions in balance.  Creative alternatives open up when we shift perspective, and begin to see things differently, and try new things.  Creativity itself is all about playing with difference.

Asking what would happen if.... is also a respectfully assertive way to challenge someone else's opinion that things must be a certain way, that their rules or beliefs must be followed without question.  When done with positive curiosity (as opposed to judgmental criticism), it can make good changes in stale relationships, and open the possibility of shifting an imbalance of power.

What I hope you're seeing here is that creativity is as much or more about process as it is about end product. And the magic of the creative process is in how you perceive and where you stand to perceive and how you explore curiosity in interpreting your perceptions.

And all of that is a big exercise in resistance to stuckness.

So, my coaching question for you today is what would happen to your assumption that you aren't creative, if you acted as if you are?  What mental habit or emotional reactivity can you resist today by applying a little creative curiosity?

While you think about that question, here's a little Streisand to provoke new possibilities.