Albert Einstein | This Way Up

“Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.”

– Albert Einstein

Have holy curiosity! What a wonderful way to express it – holy curiosity to make your life worth living.

Liz Gilbert describes curiosity:

“Curiosity is a tiny tap on the shoulder — a little whisper in the ear that says, “Hey, that’s kind of interesting…” The trick is to just follow your small moments of curiosity. It doesn’t take a massive effort. Just turn your head an inch. Pause for a instant. Respond to what has caught your attention. Look into it a bit. Is there something there for you? A piece of information? For me, a lifetime devoted to creativity is nothing but a scavenger hunt — where each successive clue is another tiny little hit of curiosity. Pick each one up, unfold it, see where it leads you next. Small steps . . .”

I love that. Have holy curiosity; follow those small moments of curiosity; listen to that quiet little whisper in the ear; turn your head just a little bit to see what caught your attention out of the corner of your eye. Pay Attention!

I have been talking a lot about paying attention lately, about following that little whisper. I’ve been having to practice what I preach as I put myself out there in the world.

Last week my book, This Way Up: Seven Tools for Unleashing Your Creative Self and Transforming Your Life, became available early on Amazon! Publishing date is April 26th, but Amazon released it early. This is very exciting on the one hand, but I wasn’t quite ready, I felt cheated somehow; I went to Amazon to check on something unrelated to my publishing date, and there on the page it said: “In stock and ready to ship!” Suddenly I felt like I was on the back foot and needed to do more and move faster.

So I have been actively promoting my book and researching with holy curiosity different places for interviews and promotion. It is not for the faint of heart, I assure you.

Today I had a wonderful interview on Artist First Radio with host Tony Kay, President of the ArtistFirst Radio Network. It was such fun to be interviewed and to talk about my book for a whole hour.

I’ll close today with the interview. It is an hour, so it does take a bit of a commitment to listen to the whole thing. But if you can please do take the time to listen.

I’d love any feedback you have, and as always thanks for stopping by, I appreciate it.

“Everybody has creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.”

― Paulo Coelho

Why are so many people so afraid of the idea of creativity?

In our Creative Empowerment workshops, one of the most common things we hear from people is that they are not creative, not one of “those” creative types. And this is often said with a look of terror in their eyes. What is it about creativity that is so frightening?

Perhaps it’s the idea that to be creative is to relinquish control.

I agree with Matisse – Creativity takes courage.

As Pablo Picasso points out – The chief enemy of creativity is good sense. We are all told consistently to hold on to our good sense. To allow oneself to put aside that part of us that is in control, that is logical and rational is a scary thought. But Einstein explained:

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.”

For those of us who have worked so hard to keep everything ordered and in control, the thought of relinquishing this control is scary. But I love the image created by Lady Gaga about letting go to access one’s creative spark.

“When you make music or write or create, it’s really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you’re writing about at the time. ”

The reality is that we are ALL born creative! Yes some of us are more artistic than others, or more talented in certain areas. But all of us are creative. The sad truth is that many of us have been shamed out of even trying to access our creative spark. Some of us have even been taught out of our creativity. Sir Ken Robinson explains this beautifully in his numerous TED Talks!

One man has made it his life’s work to help others build their creative confidence. David Kelly, of IDEO, explains how people lose their creative confidence and how he and others are working to help people regain that confidence. Please take ten minutes to watch this inspiring TED Talk. It helps to reminds us that we are all creative, every one of us.