They could ruin your life… if you let them. And you would probably be surprised at what they are, because they’re so common.

Those words are: Not Yet.

The scariest thing about these words is that they let you off the hook. Because you’re not saying no, and you’re putting the commitment in the future, so it seems like you’re saying yes.

But you’re not saying yes. You’re really saying no.

• I’ll start working on doing what I love for a living, when I have enough time.
• I’ll travel when the time is right.
• I’ll spend more time with my family after I get this promotion.
• I’ll start taking that class I’ve really wanted to, once I get the courage.

What you’re really saying is: I’ll take action when the risk or effort is minimal.

And even further underlying that is: I’ll put off fulfillment, for the sake of comfort.

That’s if you want to be really honest with yourself. You could always take the safe, comfortable, seemingly innocent life of Not Yet.

But as you’ve found by now, it’s probably not just Not Yet. It’s probably never.

Comfort or fulfillment. It’s up to you.

All interferences to self-actualization can be summed up under one obstruction:

Limitation.

You are being inhibited in some way, but it’s not likely coming from somewhere “out there.” YOU are probably the one that’s holding yourself back. That’s because 99% of limitation is self-imposed.

These limiting beliefs are the enemy of the free mind.

But what’s really important to note is this:

Whatever beliefs you have, whether they define you as a person or define the core of your reality, are not true in and of themselves. They are only true in your mind. Your thinking makes them true.

When I really started to see the impact of this truth, I started becoming more and more aware of all the limitations I’ve placed on myself. Some of them were unintentional, some were created by copying others, and some were habituated by fear.

At first, these limitations were annoying to me. I knew they were holding me back, I could clearly see that. But my knowledge of that limitation didn’t stop it from continuing to limit me. Awareness of limitation is only the first step to uprooting it. It can take a lot of deliberate focus to permanently disarm it. And it can be incredibly frustrating when you desire to act out of a more empowering context, but the previous pattern keeps creeping back in.

That’s when I began devoting myself to the path of the liberation artist.

But really, all my life I’ve had:

Revolutionary tendencies

Much of my life has been spent in the pursuit of breaking down boundaries and eradicating limits. Since a young age, I’ve had a hard time accepting anything prostrated as “one true way.” I’ve always had a strong urge to question anything that is accepted as common sense. (The past two years of my life especially, have been centered around the theme of Liberation.)

When I was younger I would often question my parents, religious leaders and teachers. Basically anyone who would listen to my questions, I would probe. What I eventually came to realize is a lot of people don’t know where their answers come from, and a lot of people have the same answers as everybody else. But when you ask them why they’ve come to the conclusion that they have, they’re at a loss for words. The best you can often get from them is something like “That’s just the way it is,” or “Because this really old book says so,” or ” Because it’s just common sense.”

Well, I never really liked those answers. Other people seemed fine with it, though. It just seemed natural for them to live in a quiet subjugation, abdicating their right to actually understand the beliefs they were expected to live by.

I find it extremely unethical to tell others they need to live a certain way, when you can’t intelligently explain the logic behind your doctrine.

So, yeah, that just didn’t sit right with me. If I’m expected to live my life based on a certain idea, concept, or belief-system, I better damn well understand it.

Because when you have this kind of supercilious administration, what you get is…

Blind leading the blind

When you postulate something as unquestionable and absolute, it becomes an autocracy. And when you claim something as irrefutable, you poison it.

I think this is because when you place yourself within a fixed pattern, you automatically interfere with its usefulness. A fixed pattern is not capable of elasticity. Like a tree that has no bend, it will give way during the first hurricane.

That’s because real, unadulterated truth has no need to be explained or validated by a set of edicts or mandates. Pure truth, by it’s very nature, is true whether you believe in it or not.

What all of this has had let me to is:

The Way of the Liberation Artist

The art of liberation is not something you devote yourself to partially. You either give completely, or not at all. There is either total liberation, or none. Committing your life to the way of liberation is an act of polarization.

When you begin to liberate yourself, you will see at first that you tend to seek liberation in external forms. You search for liberation from a dead end job or boring work. You examine ways to liberate yourself from the physical limitations you’ve placed on yourself, or addictions you may have collected.

You may seek outward liberation from:

• Work that isn’t meaningful.
• Living your life on a schedule or routine (self employment helps with this).
• Being a slave to the clock.
• A partner that doesn’t fully respect you.
• A boss that takes you for granted.
• Addiction to substances: alcohol, tobacco, coffee, food, etc.
• Addiction to unmeaningful pursuits: obsessive organization, excessive email checking, etc.

But ultimately, as we seek our liberation in these things, we find that what we were looking for wasn’t freedom from things at all. What we were looking for was inner freedom.

So if you take the rabbit hole far enough, you end up following the path of internal liberation.

You seek sovereignty from:

• Self importance and the need to be right.
• Being anti-you.
• Playing the judge and the victim.
• Human domestication.
• Social conformity masked as trying to fit in.
• External validation.
• Your story.
• Taking things personally.
• Thinking you need to be liberated.

Ultimately, the pilgrimage to liberation leads you to question a lot of things. This cannot be done half-assed. If you want to experience true illumination, you must seek it as if your head is on fire.

So this naturally leads you to…

Intentionally setting your head on fire*

They say the cost of freedom is high; that you have to protect and guard it with all you’ve got. They say many corporations, religious groups, the government, and institutions have a vested interest in taking up the precious real estate of your mind. They say that if you don’t have a plan, someone else has one for you.

This may be true, but it’s all secondary.

That’s because when you devote yourself to the path of the Liberation Artist, what you realize is that you’re defending your mind against your own internal division. As they say, you are often your own worst enemy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can be your greatest ally. This is called owning your own mind.

Embracing the path of the Liberation Artist is the practical and radical pursuit of living on your own terms. It’s a way of galvanizing and defining what you and I have been pursuing all along: Freedom.

Maybe you’re reading this blog because you’re already living the life of the Liberation Artist. That’s because if you’re anything like me, you’ve found that freedom is addictive.

—-

PS: I realize that I talk a lot on this blog about living on your own terms, authenticity, and not rebelling against yourself. I know some of what I’ve said in this article I’ve repeated many times in other articles, so I hope you’ll forgive the redundancy. My purpose here was to give form and put into words a way of life I’ve been living and have been trying to define for some time. The Liberation Artist is that clarity.

It should also be noted that I didn’t make this word up, I stole it (with permission) from Carl, who writes the incredibly awesome blog, Slacker Reform. I recommend that you go subscribe to his blog now and talk to him, before he gets too famous to consort with little peons like us.

*I do not endorse literally setting your head on fire. That would just be dumb.

Cubicle-dissenters and freedom-seekers, I present you with this manifesto on the liberation revolution.

This movement happening all around us is, quite literally, the story of mental bondage to freedom. People everywhere are finding liberation through ditching the work-template and living on their own terms.

If this movement interests you, we would like you to be a part of it.

You kick so much ass, it would be a shame to see that squandered by asphyxiation, due to fluorescent lighting and pointless committee meetings.

What you’ll find in this manifesto is 5,000 free words on the characteristics of this uprising. You’ll hear the reasons of others and why they’re committed to the freedom of working for themselves and reclaiming their time and their minds.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE MANIFESTO HERE.

The reason for this:

People have long been ditching the employee model of life, but rarely has there been a collective banding together of individuals to support each other in this movement. This manifesto is an attempt to create a coherent, articulate representation of the reason we are unsatisfied with the work-template and why we are seeking a new paradigm.

What’s under the hood:

• Why we’re tired of choking back vomit because we’re going another day doing a job we hate, with people we don’t connect with, working for someone we don’t respect.
• How we’re transforming our relationship with work, through breaking down social conventions and overly politicized nonsense.
• Why we think entrepreneurship is one of the highest forms of self-actualization and self-improvement.
• How we’re in this together.
• How to cultivate the “Free-man” (or free-woman) mindset and seven things you can do right now.
• The importance of getting to Game Over.

Are you totally down with this revolution? Is this something you’ve been waiting for?

Here’s how you can help:

1. Spread the word. Send this manifesto to your friends, family, or co-worker that’s about to commit suicide (she needs to read this). Tweet about it, send it to your friends, print it out and post it on the telephone polls on your block.
2. Declare your freedom. There is no better way can you help strengthen this revolution than by declaring your own sovereignty. By reclaiming your own freedom, you give others the courage to do the same.

What the hell is this all about man?

This manifesto is something I’ve been working on for the past two weeks as part of Project Mojave, my new lovechild.

I’m a member of the faculty there where my title is Director of Ass Kicking.

No I’m not joking (I couldn’t make this stuff up). It’s basically what I was born to do.

Over the course of the next few days, you’ll get a chance to see what this crazy revolution is all about and how you can become a member. There’s a really awesome video up right now called “The Freedom Business Blueprint,” which basically defines the qualities of a massive freedom-supporting business. I highly recommend you go check it out.

Lots more awesome, free stuff is coming, so I hope you sign up for the list so you can get updates.

Anyway, that’s about it. More details will be coming soon.

Please let me know what you think of the manifesto. I can’t wait to hear your feedback.

For a long time, I’ve held the belief that if something is a good idea, it’s worth doing.

Now, I completely reject that notion.

I just can’t operate that way anymore. I know better and my brain can’t be fooled.

In 2007 Tim Ferriss coined the term “work for work’s sake.” Since then, something worse has emerged: “improving for improvement’s sake.” (Honestly, this conundrum has probably been around for centuries. I just came up with it now because I desperately want to coin a phrase of my own, so I can be cool, too.) In other words: “improving for improvement’s sake” is doing something just because it’s a “good idea.”

Yeah, I’ve been there, and what is neatly packaged as a “good idea” is often OCD and egotism in disguise.

It’s at that point where passion is ransacked and Ego reigns king of the hill.

There are many instances where passion can turn into just a good idea…

• Passions turns into obsession. When I first started learning Jeet Kune Do, I was incredibly excited. I’ve wanted to study martial arts since I first saw The Karate Kid at the ripe age of seven. So when I was presented the opportunity to learn the style of martial arts that Bruce Lee formed, I could barely contain my excitement (and, I’ll be honest, my nervousness at the thought of possibly sucking really bad). But when my ego got hold of me, it became hard not to practice just because I felt I should; just because it was a “good idea.” In other words: I forgot about my passion and started aiming to improve simply for the sake of improvement.
• Your love becomes your job. This seems like the most backward thing, right? I mean, in the beginning we complain that we don’t have enough time to do what we really care about, but when we’re presented the opportunity to make money from it, it becomes a turnoff. At first, it might seem exhilarating and thrilling for the chance to do what we love for a living. But after a while, that excitement tends to wear off and it becomes a chore. It’s a must instead of a fun option kind of thing. (A little later in this article we’ll get into why this happens and how to can get out of it.)
• You mistake avoidance for apathy. We often think that because we’re avoiding doing what we love, it must not matter enough to us. Of course it matters! That very avoidance and fear is a sign that it does matter. But it’s hard not to let that fear discourage you and lead you to believe that because you’re avoiding it, you must not want it bad enough. If you let that happen, you forfeit your passion and the worst happens… it turns into just a good idea.

What’s happening here is one of two things: A.) Your passion is getting stifled somewhere along the way, or B.) You’ve simply lost interest.

If the latter is the case and your supposed true love (with your new career pursuit, or whatever it may be), was simply infatuation, then you can safely let it go. There’s no point in clinging to goals that no longer serve you.

If you can honestly say that you truly are passionate about whatever you’re aspiring to — and your spark was simply extinguished somewhere along the way — there is hope for you yet.

It’s not too late to resuscitate, even if your love has flatlined.

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” -Helen Keller

The point here that I can’t stress enough is this:

Whether or not your passion was genuine or fleeting enchantment… When what you initially loved becomes just a “good idea,” it’s time to reevaluate.

Maybe you didn’t really love what you were doing in the first place. Perhaps you just thought that it would be cool; perhaps you just jumped in the river because everyone else was swimming. If that’s the case, that’s OK. It’s okay if studying prehistoric insects didn’t turn out to be as fascinating as you were originally convinced.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way — and if you truly are insanely passionate about your work — let’s continue. But only if you know for sure that that magnetic, uncontainable, pandemonium was real love, is there a reason to keep going. Because if it’s anything less than madness, why bother?

If thinking about doing what you love doesn’t keep you up at night, it’s probably not worth chasing. If it scares you to death that you will inevitably might fail, you know it’s real love. (If you’re not sure what your passion is and nothing keeps you up at night, that’s OK, too. My book, Reclaim Your Dreams, can help you figure that out.)

This is especially true if you’re trying to make a living out of these endeavors. If you’re heart is not completely in it, someone out there that’s fanatically in love with what they’re doing will out hustle you. Now, you don’t have to go running around as if your hair’s on fire. But what must be clear is that living less than wholeheartedly simply isn’t worth it. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved by staying in the middle.

Do you think we got a man on the moon because it was a just “good idea”?

So now we know that that passion, that thing you loved, simply became just a good idea. It’s okay, it happens to the best of us. It happens to me, too. When I first started writing this blog, I was completely ravenous. Cutting my teeth on personal development articles and books was an obsession. It was real love. But after that initial infatuation, the emotions died down and I couldn’t help but feel like my fire had been put out.

My intentions in writing this blog has always been to make a living writing about personal development and help other people live to their fullest potential. But I can’t help but become bored at times when I’m not learning anything new. I know at that point that I’ve reached a plateau. Sometimes writing articles just doesn’t seem that exciting to me, it just seems like a good idea. That’s when I know that something needs to change.

“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee

What we’re basically trying to get at is this: if you know your original passion was genuine, how do you reignite it? How much effort do you spend trying to fan dying embers?

Question everything (why?).

While the answer to that will take a little soul-searching, there are some questions I’ve found helpful to ask my own self. It’s amazing how helpful asking the right questions can be. To figure out just exactly what’s stifling our passion, ask yourself:

1. Am I doing this simply because it’s an ego driven goal? Am I placing too much importance on numbers and reaching quotas of completed tasks? If so, I need to reevaluate and remember what’s most important: enjoying my life.
2. Am I caring too much about the supposed expectations of other people? Am I trying to impress people too much? Nothing stifles creativity and spirit like rooting your choices on impressing others and trying to be cool.
3. Is there too much pressure? If I’m trying to make money from doing what I love, it’s hard not to get too wrapped up in what other people will think of my work. After all, I want to charge them something for this, and I want it to be worth it. That can often create a lot of pressure, and the only proper response is disconnecting from the end result (to exchange your work for money), and refocus on the joy of creating. Not always easy to do (incredibly difficult, is more like it), but it’s a noble effort. And if you figure out this is causing you a lot of grief, at least you know where it’s coming from. Not a panacea by any means, but it’s better than being utterly confused.
4. Are there too many distractions? I, and a lot of people I know, like to pursue many different things. I got completely infatuated with raw/living food at the beginning of this year. I immersed myself in studying and learning everything I could about it. Then a few weeks later, I started taking Jeet Kune Do classes. Then a couple of weeks later, my wife bought me a guitar. THEN I met this cool, barefoot hippy guy in Old Town Pasadena a few days ago, who plays the didgeridoo like Beethoven. He is offering lessons for free until he has enough paying students. Now, all of these things are immensely fascinating to me… but I have to choose what I’ll devote my attention to. If I slip into the abyss and allow myself to get too ADD, I’ll spread myself too thin and will never master any of these things. (Since Mastery is one of my core values, I don’t really dig on everlasting toe dipping.) The point is, you can choose to pursue many different passions, but it’s best if you have a major focus. Devote at least 70% of your free time to the most important interest, then divvy up the time leftover between the rest.
5. Has this become too much of a must? If I’m trying to make money doing what I love, do I feel like I no longer have the option any more? Does that bother me?
6. Is a temporary sacrifice of passion necessary? In order to quit my day job and write full time, I could write a lot of guest articles for other blogs that would probably be half-hearted. Hell, they might even be three-quarter-hearted. The question is, should I settle for being only kind-of, sort-of passionate about what I’m sharing, in order to reach my goals faster? Is a temporary sacrifice of “pushing” myself to do something where my heart isn’t completely “in it” an acceptable trade for reaching my goal of doing what I love full time? Is the trade-off worth it?

Whew. So those are the questions that I commonly ask myself to help realign me with what’s important. By getting a better idea of what’s blocking your passion, you can more easily determine what to do to refuel the fire.

Embracing your inner pyromaniac.

Now that we’ve figured out what’s blocking our passion, it’s time to re-oxidize and reignite.

Here are a few things that work for me. Please feel free to do whatever is most natural or inspiring to you. If dancing on a table inspires you, do that. Just make sure your boss is out to lunch.

• Regroup. When I feel like I must write, I know it’s a sure sign that I need to take a break. I don’t like writing just because it’s a good idea. I don’t like trying to pump out articles to fuel the info porn internet complex. When I take a break it helps the really good ideas I have germinate and grow naturally on their own. When they’ve reached their potential, I know it’s time to write because I feel like I’m hemorrhaging ideas. I feel like it would be harder not to write than to write. I find that sometimes the best way to reignite is to hold back.
• Reconnect. This is the best thing to do when you feel your passion has been stifled by musts and obligations. If your passion is your job, you may need to reconnect as often as necessary. Reconnecting is all about getting back in touch with the reason you were inspired to pursue your passion in the first place. Make it about playing again, before it became a necessity. Google your passion and just read about it for a little bit to take off the pressure. Let yourself reconnect with the inner curiosity that got you excited in the beginning.
• Reunite. The power of a group behind you is an amazing thing. Simply going to a class or meet-up, and being able to share your obsession with other people can be instantly rejuvenating. When passion is shared it magnetizes and multiplies. Check out Meetup.com for a list of meet-ups in your area. It’s how I started practicing Jeet Kune Do.
• Reignite. We often lose passion on our quest because we’ve reached a plateau. What was once sizzling has become lifeless, and we can’t remember how this happened. This is when exploring new avenues becomes vital to revitalizing what we love. Try to find a different approach; take things to the next level. Diversify and see what happens. Experimentation and allowing yourself to just explore is the key.

What I want to make clear is that these aren’t just a bunch of hacks. These aren’t ways to trick yourself into being more passionate. The reason that I put a “Re” before each point is because it’s about Reclaiming something. You can’t reclaim something that was never there.

If you feel like you have to fool yourself into excitement, it’s not worth it. I’m sure you’ve tried that before, as I have. You can’t fake passion and you can’t fool your soul.

These things are highly intimate, highly personal ways of remembering the love you lost. I’m sure you’ll find that your passion was never really lost in the first place. It was just waiting for you to rekindle and reconnect with your inner fire starter.

So if you think the fire’s out, you’re wrong. And if you think it will erupt without you giving yourself to it, you’re also wrong. It’s up to you to reclaim your dreams and set your own path on fire.

Just remember… If it’s a good idea, don’t do it.

People spend vast amounts of time (and sometimes their whole life) wrestling with their minds, trying to figure out if their dreams are practical or ridiculous. Eventually most people give up, because they simply couldn’t make a decision.

The single biggest reason for unaccomplished goals and unfulfilled dreams, is the lack of ability to make a serious commitment. How many times in your life have you not done what you wanted to do, simply because you couldn’t make up your mind?

Putting yourself on auto-response (which I will explain in a minute) is about finding the means to silence your practical mind’s constant decision weighing and follow your heart, no matter how terrifying it may seem.

Most people know what their ideal life would look like. Most people know what they want and how the life of their dreams would look, feel and taste.

So if everyone knows what they want, what stops people from achieving their dreams? What could possibly stop them from leaving a dead end job and dropping unwanted commitments? It’s not that they don’t know what they want, they just don’t know how to get there.

The Myth That Broken Dreams Are Caused by a Lack of Belief in Yourself

Their is a common myth pervading the lifestyle design space that says: “The number one reason people don’t accomplish their dreams is because of a lack of courage and a shortage of self-confidence.” In short, the myth claims that people would follow their dreams, but they just don’t have the guts and self-trust to do so.

I, personally, think this is wrong. People don’t need more courage, confidence, or trust in their ideas. They know, deep down, that they can do it. They just don’t know how.

The problem is that your heart says, “Go for it, follow your dreams,” while your mind says, “How the hell do you think you’re actually going to make that happen?”

Despite your best intentions to listen your heart and follow your dreams, it’s not that easy to silence that big booming voice of practicality in your mind. All of this is even more daunting when you’re at project liberation: Ground Zero. (It’s hard to ignore the 7,000 feet you have yet to climb.)

I know what you’re thinking and it’s the same thing I’ve been contemplating since I started chasing the crazy idea of personal freedom: How do you overcome the voice of “reason” while trying to follow your dreams? How do you get pasts that intimidating feeling when you’re staring up from sea level at the summit? Let’s be honest, too: it wouldn’t be so bad either if you’ve actually climbed before, but you’ve barely learned to crawl.

So the way we overcome the screaming voice of practicality is:

Putting Yourself on Auto-Response

Putting yourself on auto-response means silencing your practical mind, in the face of the seemingly unpractical and ridiculous ideas. Faced with liberating your life, instead of thinking “I don’t know where to start,” your auto-response becomes “I’ll figure it out.”

This is especially useful when:

• You want to start your own business and you’re terrified of failure.
• You are tired of living your life based on a pre-assigned template.
• You want to quit your dead end job, but you don’t have a leg to stand on.
• You are ready to denounce your membership with the Cult of Productivity.
• You want to disengage from the cubicle machine (somethings wrong with your cog), but you don’t want to be homeless.
• You want to end the rat race and stop climbing the corporate ladder (and sacrificing your happiness).
• You’ve barely broken ground to start laying the foundation for your dreams.
• [insert your objective here]

Putting yourself on auto-response means you stop thinking about it and you start doing. You stop saying I don’t know. (Because we have all found ourselves saying “I’ve been thinking about starting my own business” or “I’ve been thinking about pursuing [insert what you love here].”) You correct things later and make it up as you go along. You act like you know what you’re doing, when in reality, you have no idea. You stop caring about not knowing.

You also stop caring about:

• Having an acceptable answer to the question “What do you do?“
• Being defined by the work you do and start caring more about the purpose of your work.
• Sufficing the idea that you need to complete prerequisites A and B before you can move on to C. You don’t necessarily need a degree in business to start one. You don’t necessarily need to have been a wilderness ranger before you decide to live off the grid.
• Failing and falling on your face. Eventually, though, you’ll probably learn how to create controlled falls and take calculated risks.
• Spending years (or a lifetime) in drudgery for future-promised happiness (ie. retirement).

Putting yourself on auto-response gives you the daily grit to keep plugging away when you’re tired and wondering if all this struggle is really worth it. It allows you to keep in perspective the reason for your constant pursuit of freedom from unwanted commitments. Most importantly it helps me remember that I’m doing this to serve my own goals (my own purpose) and not someone else’s.

Most of all, it allows your heart to have a say when confronted with the deafening voice of shoulds and social norms. It helps you keep things in perspective, when you have a long path to travel before your dreams are realized.

The End of The Internal Tug of War

There is a major conflict in our society between our mind and our heart. We struggle between what we love doing (our heart) and what we know is practical (our mind). Your practical mind is so loud that your heart –despite it’s screaming and flailing — can’t drown it out. But the goal isn’t to shut one of the two up. The goal is to harmonize them.

I have been reflecting a lot about what liberation means, whether it’s something you find out there, or if it’s something that comes from within. It hasn’t been an easy road for me trying to find balance between my heart and my mind. What has helped me more than anything is not finding more confidence, but having an unshakable commitment to pursuing only authentic endeavors.

True liberation to me is a labor of impeccability with myself and constant realignment when I wander off the course of authenticity. It’s the liberation from a culture that always puts happiness in the future. It’s short-cutting bliss and going directly to the source… not at some future date that never seems to arrive.

Right now I’m currently working towards someone else’s goals to pay the bills. It’s damn hard to keep the daily resolution to keep working toward owning my own business and achieving a goal that, quite frankly, I may never realize. The truth is, though, I would rather be striving toward that ideal my entire life and never see it realized, then surrender to live searching for some false sense of security (and to merely survive).

So what’s the point of all this?

The pursuit of liberation is the pursuit of a completely authentic life. It’s being fully in control of your life and your time. It’s freedom from the expectations of society, of the people around you. It’s freedom from your mind.

Liberation and lifestyle design means different things to different people. There is no “one size fits all” answer. The whole point of lifestyle design is: you are the architect of your life

Note: Liberation means something different to everyone. I would to hear your thoughts on what liberation means to you and what you’re doing to liberate your life.

For more myth-busting advice on liberation your life subscribe to Illuminated Mind.

photo by mark sebastian

[Note: Creativity is something very personal to me. Without creativity, there is nothing but a vacuum. The adventure of creating something new, the anticipation of discovering what lies around the next corner is something I live for.]

There is a lot of advice out there on how to be more creative and remove the blocks that might hinder your creativity. I think, however, that the greatest way to be more creative is often overlooked; thinking inside the circle and embracing Creative ADD (want to ride bikes?).

It’s a common misconception that being creative means being more focused. That somehow if you were able to just hone in on your task with laser sharp focus, you would find the creative insight you were desperately searching for. While focus is important, trying to force a creative act stifles creativity. Because the whole point of being creative is to have fun, right? If you feel as though must create, you may as well burn Creativity at the stake.

There is a different approach available to cure this potential mishap, that I feel is unfortunately neglected. Adopting this innovative process has had an extraordinary impact on all of my ideas.

A lot of people talk about “thinking outside the box” when it comes to creative genius. I hear things like this all the time: “Oh he really thinks outside the box,” “She is so far outside the box, the box doesn’t even exist!” All of these nonsensical references to thinking inside and outside and on top of boxes hasn’t really helped me much. The more I tried to think outside the box, the bigger the box seemed to get. I was so obsessed with thinking outside the box, it began to follow me around.

What did help me was “thinking inside the circle” and planting the creative seed. While I was shamelessly bashing on keeping super-focused, I must admit it does have one powerful benefit: identifying the core. If you can’t identify the core of the problem you’re trying to fix, no amount of creative sidestepping is going to save you. Form without function is nothing. So all that focusing does one valuable thing; it helps you plant the creative seed. Identify your core issue, as close to the center of the circle as possible, and plant your seed there.

• It starts to take root and grow in my subconscious. Gradually, new associations and connections are formed, and some very interesting things start to happen. This is a sign that the idea is worth pursuing.
• If the idea is worthless, however, it will hold on for dear life and then, eventually, it will whither and die. This is not a bad thing.

Sometimes our greatest ideas lie on the fringes of our creativity. They are much like an exceptionally colored leaf on the edge of the tallest branch; one that could have been easily missed if we weren’t paying close attention.

When engaging in idea generation, embracing creative ADD is the best tool you can use to spawn creative connections. The whole point is to let go of judgment and to simply accept whatever comes to be. If you’re not coming up with any interesting ideas, you’re either trying to hard or it needs more time to develop. Or you might need to heighten your ADD level.

1. What is the core issue? Get as close to the center of the circle as possible.
2. Plant the creative seed firmly (but gently) into your subconscious.
3. If you’re not getting feedback from your subconscious, the idea is probably not worth pursuing. Either wait it out, or simply drop it and move on.
4. Embrace Creative ADD. Suspend judgment and free-associate. Test the limits and see how far the spiral takes you.
5. Look for the ideas on the fringes of your mind; ponder unexpected angles. These are the ideas that will bring freshness to all of the work that you do.

Creativity is like uncovering a gigantic fossil buried beneath the earth’s soil. Most people want to uncover the entire ancient artifact in one sitting. Our society of instant gratification hasn’t helped this very much.

The majority of great ideas aren’t uncovered all at once, though. They are uncovered with great care over time. Setting up the intention to uncover the fossil is the first step, but allowing time to properly dig it up is essential. You don’t want a disintegrated, barely recognizable artifact when you’re done. Taking your time ensures that you will reveal something more beautiful than you could have ever possibly conceived. I’d rather have one amazing idea than 200 muddled & broken ones.

I hope you get something out of this article. I’ve tried to display as much creativity as possible when writing this (after all, this is an article on creativity). What do you to get the creative juices flowing?

This is part 1 of a series I’ll be doing on creativity. Later this week I’ll be writing about my step by step creative process. Stay tuned (want to ride bikes?).

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• Learn to walk/speak, be a good boy/good girl
• Go to school, get good grades
• Go to college, graduate. Try to find something you love, but eventually sacrifice your passion and settle for a career choice that’s practical.
• Get a job (find security)
• Get married (security)
• Have kids (security)
• Die
• Repeat

This is the most common life pattern. Most of us think that this is just normal; it’s just the way it is damnit. Living for security alone though, is a meaningless existence. If our only motive to live, is to survive, to keep the hamster wheel spinning, then I’m done. I just can’t imagine a life where security is the highest value. That’s like saying blue is the most important color, or the stomach is more important than the brain. Obviously all the other colors are just as important in making up the field of vision, and the all of the organs are necessary for a healthy organism.

Security is definitely an important part of life, our survival depends on it. But excitement, adventure, pain, turbulence, drama, passion, mystery and pleasure are equally important. I think we forget this because security is the basis for us being able to experience all those other wonderful things. Yet security is a means, it’s not the reason for living itself. Just as we don’t live to eat, we eat to live; we don’t find happiness to seek security, we seek security to facilitate happiness.

When you think about what you truly live for, your answer probably won’t be security. At least mine’s not. I think it’s important that we re-evaluate how much our feelings are really aligned with our actions. Do we really value comfort more than freedom?

Not only do we have templates that we’re expected to follow, but we also have roles we’re expected to fill.

If you’re a man you’re expected to behave a certain way. Anger and jealousy are the only acceptable emotions. You want to cry? Suck it up. Be a man, damnit. You have a feeling about something? Right…

If you’re a woman you’re expected to be feminine and nurturing. Have a strong opinion? You’re a bitch. You want to lead? You’re joking right?

These social roles may have worked for cave dwellers (woman not behave, hit with club). They also worked for primitive societies based on hunting and territorial rivalry. Men had to be tough. If they broke down and cried, it might have meant a spear to the head. But despite how much social revolution and civil rights movements we’ve had, we haven’t had much of an internal empowerment movement.

The Anti-Role Collateral

The truth is, most of us know what we want. We know what makes us feel alive and what makes us feel dead. The answer then isn’t looking for yourself, but having the courage to live unabashedly, to do what truly brings you bliss. The collateral of claiming your personal freedom and rejecting the cubicle mind mentality, might mean getting some strange looks and being completely rejected once in a while. People might question your choice to not go for so-called security. People might think you’re a total nut-case. But that’s okay. You’d probably look at the same people living fearlessly and wonder what the hell they’re doing. That’s the beauty of diversity. Homogeneity is the bane of life.

The Anti-Role collateral is:

• It’s the stares you might get for being a man and not being afraid to cry in a movie.
• It’s being a woman and not being afraid to take charge, even if the same people that saw a man do that and applaud them, think you’re a bitch.
• It’s the shock from voicing your opinion to the vice president of your company even though you have no degree and started two weeks ago.
• It’s the whispers of people on the street that see man in a suit having a real conversation with a homeless person.

The price we pay for consciously living our lives and forging our own path is the anti-role collateral. Sometimes that means embarrassment, humiliation and flat out rejection. But I can’t think of any bigger embarrassment to me than not being true to myself. A sovereign mind to me is more valuable than any fictional social approval.

Free-Styling Life

Just over a hundred years ago, everyone thought it was impossible to fly. A very small group of people chose not to believe that. They chose to believe that it was possible and decided they were going to prove it. No one would doubt it now, seeing a plane or a helicopter is an everyday experience.

Living a life that’s not based on a template and being true to yourself may not mean paving a road in the sky like the Wright Brothers. However, if you tell everyone you want to start your own business, you will be doubted. They’ll tell you everything that’s wrong with your idea and why it won’t work: You have no experience. You’ve never run a business before, what do you know about sales? It takes money to make money. The truth is:

• Almost no one starting their first business had any idea what they were doing.
• Those that broke barriers in civil rights, oppression, policy reform and questioning authority were scared as hell, but they knew what was right in their heart. They couldn’t live with themselves if they didn’t do something.
• Not only is it impossible to plan everything out in advance, it’s extremely boring that way.
• Most successful people became that way by embracing their unique talents and capitalizing on them, not by overcoming weaknesses.
• Integrity and authenticity are vastly more important than productivity and fictional social acceptance.

The domestication of humans places a lot of shoulds and shouldn’ts on us, but we also have a lot of arbitrary self-imposed rules we place on ourselves:

• I’m not good enough because I don’t have enough experience.
• I made a mistake so it’s necessary to punish myself over and over again and not let go at any cost.
• I’m not worthy or not good enough because I don’t have x amount of money or x title.
• I’ll never understand the mysteries of life because I just don’t have a philosophical mind.
• I don’t have time for creative or passionate pursuits, I have to be practical.

I’ve realized that just as much as social restraints and pressures are real, they are only real within you. Our deepest beliefs about reality and ourselves are not true in themselves, but our thinking makes them true in our experience.

So maybe you’re already on the anti-role, free-style side of the street. You just haven’t bought a house there yet. What price are your willing to pay for your sovereignty?

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How can I make the best use of my time, what systems can I use to get things done faster, better, more efficiently? What can I do to stop procrastinating and start taking action? All of these are very valid questions and each of them has some merit to them.

But how often do we over-think things, over-analyze, and over-everything. Evaluation can be a great tool, it can help us figure out where our time is going and what things we need to change to make better use of our time. But I’d like to suggest a different approach.

Instead of looking at things from an outside-in approach. Instead of trying to tool and engineer our lives to yield a greater benefit, I think we can yield a much greater benefit by using an inside-out approach.

If we use our heart as our compass, and our conscience as our guide (jiminy cricket anyone?) we will naturally become motivated. If we find out what our passions are and strive to work towards a more heart-centered and emotionally fulfilling goal, the outer system will take care of itself. We won’t need productivity systems and widgets to accomplish our goals, because we will be internally driven.

How else can we apply this inside-out approach to accomplishing our goals?

Well the outside-in approach would tell you to gain more resources, more money, connections, assets, etc. This is a backward approach.

If we are constantly working on gaining more outer resources before we move to take action, we are neglecting the very source from which these resources will be gained. That source of course is our inner resources. These are our knowledge, our skills, principles, values, emotional balance, creativity, and social skills.

When we shift our focus to developing our inner resources there may be some downtime before we see the pay-off in acquisition of outer resources. It may take some time to develop greater skills and competencies. But now we’re working toward long-term secure gains instead of short high-risk payoffs.

Not only does shifting our focus from an outside-in to an inside-out approach yield us greater long term resources and security, it also has some bonus side effects. When we develop our inner resources we become more confident, self-aware, and gain inner security. We know that no matter what happens to our external circumstances, we can always fall back on our internal resources. We also realize that what is inside is more important then what is on the outside. Because of this we become more centered.

Take a look at your life, in what areas are do you have an imbalance? Are you waiting for all the right circumstances and resources before you take action?
Or do you rely on your internal resources, your personal competencies and strengths to create the circumstances that you desire? Perhaps the real lesson is that the more we take action in our lives, the more we stretch and build those internal strengths, the more power we gain in our lives.

The more we take control of our lives instead of surrendering to whatever happens to us, the more power we gain over our lives and the more freedom we find.

We realize that the freedom was with us all along, not to be found somewhere outside of us, but within.

Further reading: Goalless living? What would it be like to live without goals?

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photo by karlequin

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and have a conversation with one of the greatest minds in history? Well, you can’t sorry, they’re dead. Unless of course you’re clairaudient, be my guest. But for the rest of us, we can still refer to the words they left behind.

Even though these great teachers have passed on, their words still live, and in them their wisdom. I’ve made a list of seven what I believe are some of the greatest teachings by the world’s greatest minds.

1. Realizing Your Dreams

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
- Lawrence J. Peter

In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must have a vision of our goals. Writing down our dreams and creating a list of actions helps us stick to our plan. As it’s said “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. When we turn our goals into measurable actions, we gain clarity and are able to see the necessary steps we must take in order to achieve them.

Action: Visualize a life of your wildest dreams. What did you dream of doing when you were a child? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Create a vision for your goals and start breaking them down into small actions that you can take on a day by day basis.

2. Overcoming Fear

“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best way to learn something is to dive right in to it. When we overcome our fear of failure, we learn that only those who are asleep make no mistakes. Fear is the only thing keeping us from experiencing a life of love and fulfillment. If we make a commitment to an uncompromisable quest for truth, we will realize that as we grow more into the truth, our fears start to disappear.

Action: You must define your fears in order to conquer them. Create a list of everything you’re afraid of and start facing them one at a time. Make a commitment to yourself now to not let fear rule your life.

3. Intention and Desire

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”- Guatama Buddha

Our thoughts determine our reality. When we stop thinking about what we don’t and begin thinking about what we do want, our lives begin to transform. Instead of working against our desires and intentions, we move into alignment with them.

Action: Create a list of your intentions and desires. Wherever you go, take this list with you. Read it when you wake up and before you go to sleep.

4. Happiness

“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
- Benjamin Franklin

Happiness comes from an inner peace, understanding and acceptance of life; a perspective of truth that opens your eyes to the beauty of life all around us. Happiness cannot be achieved by external status, it must be an internal state that we realize when we see our innate perfection.

Action: Realize that happiness is a choice. In every decision you make ask yourself “how can I respond to make myself happy and fulfilled?”

5. Self Acceptance

“If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” – Jesus

When we stop trying to be what we are not, we realize our authenticity. Before we had knowledge, we were completely authentic. We learn to use knowledge to measure and judge, which is a powerful tool we have as humans. However we create an image of perfection in our mind of what we should be, but are not. We confuse knowledge for nature. We believe in the lie of our imperfection. When we realize this we can reclaim the truth of our perfection and live in love and acceptance.

Action: Make a commitment to never go against yourself. Practice non-judgment and realize that the same part of your mind that condemns you is the same voice that caused you to take the action in the first place. We don’t even have to believe what we say to ourselves.

6. Appreciation and Gratitude

“So much has been given to me, I have not time to ponder over that which has been denied.”
- Helen Keller

How many times do we count our misfortunes rather than our blessings? When we take time to open our eyes to the miracle of life we can see the many gifts that have been given to us. Remembering all the beautiful aspects of life and all the reasons you are blessed can immediately shift our mood. We can move from sorrow and despair to appreciation and hope.

Action: Each time you find yourself complaining about something, re-direct your focus to something you are grateful for. Make a habit of transforming your awareness of troubles into an awareness of abundance.

7. The Art of Simplicity

“I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.”
- Blaise Pascal

Perfection is not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing more to take away. As Bruce Lee once said “the height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” True mastery of our lives is realizing the simple joys of life, removing distractions and clutter from our lives.

Action: The art of simplicity is knowing what to take away. Practice recognizing when you’re spending your time on unimportant tasks and re-focus on the important.

This list is by no means exhaustive. There are other many great teachings that I did not include here because I felt like they were already expounded on thoroughly elsewhere, such as Einstein and Gandhi’s timeless classics. There are also great teachings to be found from our parents or friends.

If you have any lessons to add, I encourage you to share them with us in the comments below. Also, I want to give a special thanks to Manu from LifeTweak for inspiring me with his “10 Golden Lessons from Albert Einstein”.

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We’re very good at preparing to live, but when it comes to actually living, we tend to struggle. We’re willing to sacrifice years in school to get a degree, or 12 hour days in position we’re not happy with to get a promotion. What is really important is realizing the abundance of happiness and joy we have available to us right now, within ourselves.

For a long time I’ve struggled with what it means to be fulfilled. I often associated how much I got done, or how much I accomplished with my personal fulfillment. However, no matter how much I got done, no matter how much external success I achieved, I was left feeling empty. That’s how I realized no matter how much external success I achieved, it was never going to bring me fulfillment. I also realized, the more I did things that were important to me, the more I nurtured my soul and took time to do the things I truly desired, the happier I became. Not only did I become happier, but I also had more energy and more motivation to get things done and make achievements. I started to learn how I could incorporate these two as well and instead of compartmentalizing my life, I began developing congruency. Here are some simple ways you can create more time for the important things in your life.

1. Realize the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is being able to do things really well, in a timely manner, with as little resources as possible. Or with only the necessary means, it’s clean, and speedy. But you can be clean, fast and always on time while going nowhere. That is, if you’re really efficient at creating a 100 folders and rules for all your email and having them all sorted properly and compiled into a nice spreadsheet, that’s great. But is that moving you closer to your goals? Just because you do something efficiently, doesn’t make it important. Effectiveness however has to do with results. How capable your are of achieving a desired result. Realize the difference between being effective and being efficient and you will start to realize what matters and what doesn’t.
2. Eliminate as much as possible. Take an inventory of everything that you do in a given day. Anything that isn’t necessary to achieve your goals, eliminate it. A good rule to go by when eliminating is the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% (or less) or your efforts. If you don’t believe me, test it out for yourself. Take a look and see where most of your results are coming from. It’s likely that they’re coming from a relatively small amount of your actions. After you’ve identified where the most results are coming from, focus on and multiply your efforts in those areas and eliminate any effort in the others.
3. Limit your time. Parkinson’s law states the longer amount of time we’re given to complete a task, the bigger we’ll make it out to be. If we have 3 months, we need 3 months. If we have 2 weeks, we need every day in that 2 weeks. However, if we need it done the next day, somehow we miraculously are able to accomplish what we wouldn’t have thought possible had we been given more time. This is because no matter how much time we have to do something, we’ll always find a way to fill that time up, mostly with doing things that aren’t important. Give yourself time limits to tasks your results will improve dramatically.
4. Establish limits to repeated tasks. They’re a lot of things we do that need to be repeated on some basis. Checking and responding to email is a great example. Email should take up only a small portion of your day, maybe 30 minutes at most. But we get so absorbed in this “need to know” mindset that we develop a mammoth time wasting habit. The same goes for filing, checking voice mail, updating our calendars, checking our calendars, checking stats on stocks or web traffic, all of these tasks can and should be batched. We waste a lot of time simply switching from the mindset of one task to another, so it’s useful to set times for when we’ll do certain tasks. Now we can stop worrying about what our email status or shipping status is and focus on what is really important to us.
5. Fix the cause of the problem, don’t just put a band-aid on it. If there’s a problem that keeps coming up in your life, take the time to find out the root of the problem. This might require journaling about it, meditating, or talking to a close friend. It might take some research online or reading a book. Whatever it is, find the source of the problem and fix it, instead of just treating the symptom. A good example for this could be that you have a problem keeping sustained levels of energy throughout the day. So what do you do? Have another cup of coffee, maybe a rockstar, or redbull. But what’s really causing your lack of energy, is it not getting enough sleep at night? Is your diet out of balance? Whatever the cause is, treat it from the source. This might require some maintenance, but when we find permanent answers to our problems instead of quick fixes, we spend less time worrying about them and free up a lot of wasted energy.

Tools for staying focused on the important and enriching your life.

1. Be mindful, this will enable you to be aware of when you are spinning your wheels, when you are spending too much time on unimportant things. Create a mantra that you will repeat at the beginning of each day, “what is important to me today?”.
2. Always do your best. Remember, to always do your best. Your best will also vary depending on your circumstances. In the morning when you are fully rested your best will be better than after you have worked a full day. Always doing your best is about taking action, and when you put these steps into action you will get results.
3. Stop trying to be a perfectionist. Perfection is an illusion. We strive for perfection because we have an image in our minds of what we should be, but what we are not. Realize that perfection and imperfection are a result of a conflict in your mind, they don’t exist in reality. You have to make mistakes in order to grow, don’t let perfectionism paralyze you. If you’re not failing, chances are you’re not trying hard enough.
4. Get organized. Write your goals and your aspirations down. Write your to-do list, project lists down somewhere you can see them often. Then write a desire and intention list. Cross-reference these lists and see if your to-do actions line up with your desires and intention, the things that are important to you. Ask yourself if there is anything that you need to do that isn’t truly important, that doesn’t align with your desires, if so delete it. Often we know where we want to go in our hearts, but the ambiguity of what actions need to be taken is what stifles and keeps us frustrated the most. Once our desires and dreams are defined, they can be achieved.
5. Ask yourself questions. How often do we talk to ourselves, yet we are not really listening. We go on and on conversing in our own minds aka thinking. But in order to really communicate with ourselves we need to ask questions. Asking ourselves questions helps us to define our intentions and desires and realize the actions needed to make them a reality. Here are a few questions to get your started:

• If I could be the best at anything what would it be?
• If I knew I could do anything without failing, what would I do?
• What strengths do I have that could be best used to make a meaningful contribution to the world?
• If today were the last day of day of my life, would I want to be doing what I’m doing today?

Remember what you created more time for. We didn’t eliminate all those unnecessary tasks and wheel spinning so we could sit idly and do nothing (unless of course you want to become a monk). We did it so we could have more time to follow our passions, to realize our dreams, to fulfill our deepest desires and longings. What we are really seeking is the experience of being alive. Not the fulfillment of to-do lists and completion of projects. When we realize this, that’s when we wake up and start living.

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.
-Thich Nhat Hanh

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