In fact, if you make this a habit it would be even better.  You need to ask yourself this question every morning before you start your day.

“What can I create today that will benefit me, my family, my life, my fellow man, my earth?”

Why should you ask yourself this question?

For creators it is the most important question you can ask and it matters.

You need to get in the habit of defining what things are valuable and important in your life.

Know this:  You are a creator and can create valuable and important creations.  Once you determine what is valuable and important to you in your life you can then create it.

Ask yourself this simple question every morning.

“What is the most important thing I can create today?”

The answer does not have to be something BIG, sometimes the answer will even be something quite small, but think about it carefully, you may come to find that it is bigger than you think. 

Here are some examples:

#1 You will create a stronger relationship with your daughter today.

What you do may be quite small, like help her with her homework, or join he tea party, or play house with her.  But those seemingly small things are actually huge in the mind of child.

You are spending valuable time with your child, time that can be used to instill values in her that can last a lifetime, and creating a relationship that will weather even the strongest storm.

#2 You will begin to create your own business.

Obviously this is a “BIG” creation, but many of the steps you will take will be small.  Some of the things you will have to do may even be tedious, mundane and boring.

But this creation will change your life forever. It can bring you freedom.

To create your own business will require lots of work, planning, and strategies, but the rewards will be great. But everything you do will be well worth the effort.

#3 You will create a healthy fit body.

The creation of a healthy and fit body will require self discipline.  You will have to do things until they become habits.

Again, this creation is not the easiest, many people struggle to create a healthy and fit body, but the benefits are tremendous if you do.

Your heart rate will increase, in fact your heart will grow stronger. Your skin, brain cells and all the cells in your body will receive more oxygen due to the increased blood flow that results from working out regularly.

You will feel less depressed because your brain will be flooded with endorphins that make you feel euphoric, happy and powerful.

I always do my best work after a workout. I feel increased mental clarity and increased creativity, because I worked out.  Try it, you’ll like it.

#5 You desire to start creating a Blog.

Maybe you have never written for a Blog before.  It is much easier than you think.

Many people start Blogs every single day; why not you?

Just think of the many benefits you can receive in your life with the creation of a Blog.  You can have a journal of your life, you can make money, you can have many hours of enjoyment.

Regardless of what you decide to create today, the most important thing you can do today is simply ask the question. 

Ask the question every day.

Ask because you are a creator.

Ask because you want to create creations that are valuable and important.

Ask because the answers will surprise you.

Most important of all is that you “ASK.”

What do I want to create today?

I have had at least a million inklings, twinklings and sprinklings of inspiration throughout my life, and I have only acted on a handful of them.

That’s not a very good track record for someone who wants to be a powerful creator I know, but recognition is at least a step in the right direction.

Here are a few ideas for you when you get that little voice inside you telling you to reach, or stretch or to move in a certain direction.

1. Write it down, tape it, photograph it, draw it – record it somehow. Immediacy is sometimes required. You only have a few seconds before it is gone forever, so I suggest you get in the habit of recording your inspirations somehow.
2. Share it. Tell a friend. Announce it to the world. Letting someone else know what you are thinking solidifies it in your own mind.
3.  Teach it. Kind of like sharing it but taking it a step further. Teaching something to someone else always solidifies it in your own mind even further.
4. Do It Now! Don’t hesitate. Act now. Just get busy. The faster you act the more likely that inspiration will strike again.
5. Obey. Too often we rationalize that the inspiration was just a fluke, that it’s not that important, that it really doesn’t matter, or that it’s OK to brush it off. When you get an itch – scratch it. Don’t let it go without giving it your attention.

There are probably another 50 things that you could add to this list. We each vary in our approach to the inklings of our hearts.

Know this: powerful creators consistently obey their intuitions, inspirations, and muses. They rely on them to create amazing creations.

What do you do when your inner voice whispers to you? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Every time I talk about creation, creating, and creators inevitably someone brings up the thought that they don’t have a creative bone in their body, that they’re not creative, that they are not imaginative, they’re not artistic, they have no creativity, and that whatever I’m talking about is not interesting to them, because they just have never been very creative, and they don’t want talk about creativity. 

Believe me, I understand.  But what I’m about to say might actually clear this up for you forever.

You don’t need to be creative in order to create.

I want you to put a smile on your face.  Do it right this very second.

Good.

There, you created.  You just put a smile on your face, and that is a creation.  The definition of “create” is to bring into existence, and the definition of “creator” is someone who brings things (creations) into existence.  So by definition you are a creator.  You brought something into existence – the smile that wasn’t there before.

And you didn’t even need creativity in order to create the smile.  Creativity is not a prerequisite in order to create.  It’s not even a necessary component.  Creativity relates to the quality of your creation but it’s not necessary in order to bring a creation into existence. 

So what does all this mean to you?

You need to recognize that you have the power to create whatever you want to create.  The fact is, you are where you are today because you created what you are today.  You are sitting where you’re sitting because you made the choice to sit there; you created that experience in your life.  If you had desired to create a different experience you would be sitting somewhere else or walking somewhere else, or in a different place altogether.  But you are where you are right now because you chose to be where you are right now – you created this experience.

If you recognize that everything you do is a creation then you can start to quantify or measure your creations.  You could start to quantify and measure the creations that you create.

Then you could make your creations more valuable and important to you.

Have you sent out an e-mail today?

If you sent out an e-mail today you are a creator.  You created that e-mail.  That e-mail did not exist until you wrote it and sent it.  Recognize that you created it.

Now you can measure it, and improve it.  You can measure how fast that e-mail went out, how fast you typed it, and you can even measure the quality in which you typed it, how many words you typed, how many paragraphs, or how many sentences.  You can measure how fast you typed it.  You can measure even the quality of what you typed: did it communicate the message that you wanted it to communicate?  Did it accomplish what you wanted it to accomplish?  All those things you can measure and improve upon to make your creation more valuable and important.  And again not a single one of those requires creativity, but nevertheless, sending that e-mail was indeed a creation that you created.

Since you can measure the creations that you create you can quantify the quality and value that you give your creations.

Too many people do not consciously create creations that are valuable in their lives.  Instead they live their lives on autopilot, or they create by default; they don’t consciously create experiences that are valuable and important to them – they just live by default.

This morning did you consciously create a wonderful experience?  Did you create a wonderful creation called “getting ready for work?”  Was it a wonderful creation?  Did you have joy in it?  Did you make it a beautiful creation for the people around you to enjoy as well?  Did you make it a beautiful creation for yourself?  Did you make it a memorable beautiful creation for you?  Or did you just wake up, hop in the shower, brush your teeth; you know, do the regular rigmarole and then come in to work?

Today I challenge you to look at the creations that you create and ask yourself is this a creation that I think is important, is it valuable, or is this a creation that I created by default?

With the economy in turmoil, the government in disarray and the outlook doesn’t look like its getting better any time soon. It even appears close to impossible to experience any kind of success or happiness during such depressing times.

If you listen to the news media the only thing you’ll hear is how horrible everything is. Both sides of the isle are just as bad too. There are naysayers, doom-and-gloom prognosticators, and out and out pessimists galore. You almost can’t turn on your radio or TV without hearing the endless babble of how bad things are.

Winds are blowing one way today, and everyone is saying this is the way you should be investing your time, or money, or efforts, only to wake up tomorrow to winds that blow the opposite direction.

What’s a person to do? Is there any hope? Where are the answers? The face of our society is changing at an ever increasing pace, never to be the same again. What can be done?

I don’t know the answers to all these questions.

I’m not even going to take a stab at what I think you should do with your money, or your career, or which way you should vote – that my friend, is up to you to choose.

But one thing I can do is help you see your way through it all.

Just the other day I was standing in line at the bank, and a young mother walked in with her two boys. I could tell that the boys had been to this bank before because they b-lined directly to the big Tinker Toys in the corner.

Almost immediately they began to create. I stood there watching them in amazement. Without having to be coerced, or directed, or taught they set to creating things with those toys.

Many would call it play, but I would like to call it creation.

I would like you to open your eyes to the world around you. Have you ever noticed that every one of the ugly things I listed above is the absolute opposite of creation? They are all about reaction.

The Economy is failing – what is the government going to do? Reaction. You may lose your job – what are you going to do? Reaction. There is Global Warming – what are we going to do? Reaction. The News Media just told of a terrible event. Reaction. The Radio Talk Show Host is spitting mad at world events. Reaction. Reaction! Reaction!!!

Stop!

I am absolutely certain that reaction is not the answer.

Creators create. Creators don’t react – but they create. Do you understand?

All the greatest creations that have ever been created on this earth were created by powerful creators – even against great odds. But not a single one of them was brought into existence by reaction.

Creation and reaction are diametrically opposed forces. Here is the definition of Diametrically Opposed:

Two points directly opposite each other on a circle or sphere. More formally, two points are diametrically opposed if they are on opposite ends of a diameter.

This is what gets us all confused about creation and reaction. They are both on the same sphere. So in the sphere of things (little play on words) we tend to either create, or react – but not both.

Unfortunately, most people have been conditioned to react. I believe that we each come into this world with an innate characteristic, and that is we are each by nature of our very existence creators.

Take for example those two boys who immediately began to create when they walked into the bank. Their mother didn’t have to stand over them and tell them how to do it. They didn’t even communicate with each other – they just directly began to create.

It was pleasing. It was fun. Like I said, some people call it play. But whatever you call it – it was creation. Natural, innate, good clean creation.

But society has conditioned us to be reactors. Our parents tell us from very young, “stop that, don’t do this, don’t do that, there’s no time, it’s too hard, there’s not enough, you can’t, don’t say that, give up, give in, can’t, etc.” Which are all in some form or another reactions. But none of this barrage is creation.

So from very young we are conditioned to be reactors, and our innate ability and desire to be creators is slowly pushed away, put away, or destroyed.

But, like I pointed out earlier – absolutely every great creation that has ever graced this earth was brought into existence (created) by the act of creation – NOT by reaction.

How is the Government dealing with the woes that it is facing? Reaction. How are the Radio Talk Show Hosts dealing with all the issues? Reaction. How is the News Media dealing with all that is happening? Reaction.

So let me ask you this. How are you going to deal with your life? How are you going to make your life better? How are you going to bump yourself up to the next level?

Reaction?

I certainly hope not.

We dream big dreams and have great aspirations. Unfortunately, too often our dreams remain just that – dreams. And our aspirations easily become faint memories in the past.

It is truly a sad story – instead of experiencing exciting adventures in self actualization, we get caught up in the humdrum of living from day-to-day and just barely existing.

You know what? I used to be there.  I lived there.  And I have a feeling that you are familiar with it all too well.  Life could be so much better, if only . . .

If only we learned to aim higher.

The most common problem to achieving our dreams is the word “impossible”. Like me, most people get hung up thinking they can’t do whatever is set before them. It’s too hard. It’s too impossible. No one can do it.

However, if everyone thought that, there would be no inventions, no innovations, and no breakthroughs in human accomplishment.  But thank goodness for the creators who have created these wonderful things that have changed and blessed our lives.  Thank goodness indeed!

Remember that scientists were baffled when they took a look at the humble bumblebee. Theoretically, they said, it was impossible for the bumblebee to fly. Unfortunately for the bumble bee no one has told it so. So it flies anyways.

On the other hand, some people suffer from dreaming totally outrageous dreams and not acting on them. The result?  Broken dreams, and tattered aspirations.

If you limit yourself with self-doubt, and self-limiting assumptions, you will never be able to break past what you deem impossible. If you reach too far out into the sky without working towards your goal, you will find yourself clinging on to the impossible dream.

Those who just dream towards a goal without working hard end up disappointed and disillusioned.

On the other hand, if you told someone a hundred years ago that it was possible for man to be on the moon, they would laugh at you. If you had told them that you could send mail from here to the other side of the world in a few seconds, they would say you were out of your mind. But, through sheer desire and perseverance, these impossible dreams are now realities.

Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Nothing could be truer. For one to accomplish his or her dreams, there has to be had work and discipline. But take note that that 1% has to be a think-big dream, and not some easily accomplished one.

Ask any gym rat and he or she will tell you that there can be no gains unless you are put out of your comfort zone. Remember the saying, “No pain, no gain”? That is as true as it can be.

So dream on, friend! Don’t get caught up with your perceived limitations. Think big and work hard to attain those dreams. As you step up the ladder of progress, you will just about find out that the impossible has just become a little bit more possible.

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.”
-Theodore Hesburgh

There is a well known proverb that says, “Where there is no vision the people parish” (Proverbs 29:18) This is true. 

Start on a trip without a destination and you will never know if you arrive, because you don’t know where you are going.  There has to be a destination, some place that you are trying to get to.  Wandering aimlessly will lead to aimless discoveries and locations. 

Too often people live this way.  They never chart a course, look at a map and much less never know if they are even heading in the right direction.  They say they know where they want to go and what they want to do with their lives but they have no idea where they are headed.

Creators start at the end. They ask the vital question, “What do I want to create?”

Most of the time we go through life as if we have been given a car and told to drive down the freeway of life with no particular destination in mind. The signs let us know an exit is coming up soon, and we must make a choice, “Do I stay on the freeway or do I take the exit?” When we feel a need – hunger, pain, thirst, etc. – we turn off looking for relief. We make a choice. Once we are satisfied we usually get back on the freeway driving aimlessly in no particular direction.

Many of us stay on the freeway of life because it’s the easiest; society hands us a set of keys and tells us to go for a drive. We may not have anywhere special to go but parents and peers expect us to take our place on the freeway. So, we just keep driving until we have to make another choice out of need.

Creators start with their destination fully locking in their mind. It may be across the mountains where there are no roads. If that’s the case, they get rid of the car and get a mule or start walking. If it’s on the other side of a lake, they find a boat. The process becomes dependent upon the desired destination.
 
The destination is the creation. The true creator knows what they want to create and they set out to create it.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” -The Koran

In order to create you must have a destination, a vision of where you want to be when you finally get there.  Even though great artists’ works sometimes look like they just threw the pain on the canvas, and many times that is just what they did. 

World famous Jackson Pollock is a good example of this (Look Above).  But the absolute truth is he never did it without calculations.  It was purposeful and in a destination of his vision.  He set out to make a painting look a certain way or represent a certain feeling or emotion, or elicit a purposeful response, or was designed to generate many different responses – but that was the vision in the very first place – not aimless wandering, or aimless splattering of color on a canvas. 

If you don’t know what outcome you want, or even a slight idea, how can you possibly know what to do or how to do it to generate any outcome that would be valuable or important to you as the creator.

Creators create creations of value – remember that.  Set your course and create!

Finding the tools to put meaning and purpose in your life, developing a vision, and becoming highly motivated to keep you moving forward can lead you towards a successful and fulfilling life.

Here are 12 anti-procrastination tools that can bring you to that success:

1. Recognizing opposition and learning to overcome it can make your vision a reality. The individual who is extremely motivated and successful is that way because of a clear and precise vision.

2. Recognize your freedom to choose.  With that free will choose only those things that will bring you closer to your vision and eliminate from your life all things that deter you from it.

3. People who develop a vision control their own life and destiny. With no vision, your life and destiny are controlled by outside forces.

4. You must change your thinking habits in order to change your life, and you change your habits by keeping the desired results in sight.  FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Successful.

5. Develop a major goal, but take a specified path to get there. You’ll have many smaller goals to reach before you get to the final result.

By learning to accomplish these smaller goals, you’ll be motivated to take on the larger challenges.

6. Get into the habit of finishing what you start. An unfinished project is of no value. Leaving things unfinished is a habit that must be changed.  When you start something commit to finish it – no matter what.

7. Find support through friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. If you surround yourself with motivated visionary people you will naturally develop the attributes that helped them get that way.

Mutual interests and like-minded associations can be excellent anti-procrastination tools.  Good friends help you get moving.

8. Believe it or not, another anti-procrastination tool is failure. Failure teaches you to keep trying until you get it right. No one ever became successful without prior failures.

Failure is a by-product of imagination and creativity. It challenges you to take risks and teaches you to keep trying until you get it right.

9. The fear of failure is a common factor among those who procrastinate. If you want to succeed in reaching your goals, you must be willing to take a risk and lose.

Many people trade joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment for a job that is considered conventional and safe.

The unfulfilling job is not the failure; not pursuing your dreams is the real failure. Developing a vision requires conquering your fears and finding motivation from within.

10. The power of your dreams is the primary factor in becoming motivated. Productivity will be the result of developing habits and attitudes that keep you on the right track.

11. Overcoming and changing bad habits and replacing them with good habits of focusing on your specific goals, you will build momentum to accomplish your goals even when you wish you could quit when times get tough.

12. By identifying the behaviors that you need to change, developing a vision of what you would like to achieve, and striving to attain that goal, you will become a naturally motivated, highly efficient, productive person.

Do not let fear of failure stop you from having the freedom to choose the lifestyle and destiny you desire.

True creation is not only a learned skill; it is developed due to a need or desire to make your dreams a reality.

If you want to be a true creator, you must identify your goals and set out on an unwavering path to achieve them.

Overcoming procrastination is perhaps one of the most important steps you can take to improve your life and become the motivated, successful person you are capable of being.

You have to let go of your old personality and ways of doing things to change, quit procrastinating and get motivated!

You already know what procrastination and low motivation is costing you. And you know deep down that nothing is going to change for the better until you do.

en – in, or possessed
theos – god
en+theos = inspired, possessed by a god

Can you imagine if you were always doing things that were inspired by a god?  Think you’d ever want to do things any other way?

Take the converse:  A lack of enthusiasm can make everything seem like hard work. You will feel like your driving force has gone and you just can’t be bothered to do what you need to; so you procrastinate.

Sometimes you don’t want to do anything at all when you lack enthusiasm.  This feeling can hold you back and stop you achieving your best, which in turn lowers your enthusiasm even further.

Excuses are Like Noses

With a lack of enthusiasm it’s easy to come up with excuses for not getting done with what you need to do.  But this just increases the problem as you dig yourself deeper into a pit of lethargy.

Why do you suffer from a lack of enthusiasm?  It may be that you lack confidence so you don’t feel that you will do well at something. 

It is far easier to explain it away to yourself with the excuse that you didn’t try because had you tried you might have failed. A lack off effort is way easier to bear in oneself than a lack of ability or possibility of failure.

Ability to Make It Happen

Perhaps it is not ability you lack, or feel you lack; perhaps you don’t have enough interest in the project at hand to really put your full effort into it.

Maybe you don’t perceive the task ahead as very important; many of us would lack enthusiasm to do something which we considered to be pointless or at least that there are far more important things to do.

If there is no incentive for you to do something, then very often you will lack enthusiasm to do it. That could be as simply solved as you needing to look a little deeper into the project to understand it better.

Beyond Lazy

Many people are just plain lazy.  More likely, though, procrastination and putting things off has just become a habit for you; reinforced each time you do it – so it gets easier each time.

If you are scared about what people might say about your efforts you may lack enthusiasm to complete a task and have it open to scrutiny. If you are stressed or nervous about tackling something, that saps your enthusiasm to begin it.

Search Within

All of these reasons can lead to a lack of motivation and enthusiasm, but it is important to recognize that they are only excuses which you make to yourself to stop yourself from action.

You can learn to overcome any of these reasons for a lack of enthusiasm if you recognize them within yourself; like with all problems, you need to recognize them before you can change them. Only then can you learn to think differently and re-discover your enthusiasm.

Decide to be Enthusiastic

It is much easier to become enthusiastic and motivated again if you are able to decide what is important to you in your life. This can be little things that you enjoy doing every day or it can be long-term plans you have.

If something is important to you, it is much easier to maintain the enthusiasm needed to complete the task.

It may be that you are motivated by extrinsic rewards or by intrinsic satisfaction; you will need to think about what works for you, so that you are receiving some pleasure feel inspired and get things done. That is where your enthusiasm lies – in the inspiration from a god.

One thing though that creators don’t do is set goals.  Now before you go off thinking that I am a complete fool in saying this, please give me a chance to explain myself. 

You have no doubt searched many self development products throughout the years, and probably would agree that almost every single one of them in one way or another talks about goal setting.  Am I right?  Many of those self development products are tremendously powerful self development tools.  I’m not writing this to disagree with goal setting.  There are many great things to be said about goal setting.

Recently I read an article in the Early to Rise newsletter written by Michael Masterson which spoke of setting goals.  It spoke of a study that was done by the Harvard Business School. 

Harvard Business School did a study on the financial status of its students 10 years after graduation and found that:

• As many as 27 percent of them needed financial assistance.
• A whopping 60 percent of them were living paycheck to paycheck.
• A mere 10 percent of them were living comfortably.
• And only 3 percent of them were financially independent.

The study also looked at goal setting and found these interesting correlations:

• The 27 percent that needed financial assistance had absolutely no goal-setting processes in their lives.
• The 60 percent that were living paycheck to paycheck had basic survival goals (such as managing to live paycheck to paycheck).
• The 10 percent that were living comfortably had general goals. They thought they knew where they were going to be in the next five years.
• The 3 percent that were financially independent had written out their goals and the steps required to reach those goals.

Pretty powerful statistics in favor of goal setting wouldn’t you agree?  Like I said I am not writing this article to disagree with goal setting.  It’s just that for creators goals are too weak, too wimpy.  Goals give too much wiggle room. Goals don’t carry enough umph to propel a true creator to the completion of their creation.

Creators create – plain and simple.  It works like this:  A creator dreams of what he would love to create, and then something almost magical occurs.  The creator begins to love the creation.  There begins to be a burning desire inside the creator to see the creation live.  The creator will stop at nothing to bring the creation into existence.  The creator begins to create.  As the momentum increases the creators desire to see the creation exist increases as well.  Passion, diligence, even obsession begin to drive the creator forward.

So you see goals are simply too weak to push the creator towards the creation.  So what do creators do if they don’t set goals?  How do creators ever accomplish anything of any significance if they don’t have goals to push them along? 

I hope that I can explain the answers to those very important questions.  Creators don’t have goals to push them along; instead creators have the creation that is pulling them towards its completion.

It’s kind of like this:  Imagine a mountain climber trying to scale the side of a mountain.  Below the climber is a goal that is trying to push the climber up the rock wall.  Above however is a creation that has lowered a sturdy rope called structure (in later article I’ll describe what structure has to do with creating) that is pulling with great force.  Which do you think will have more success in fulfilling its purpose, the goal or the creation?  Which do you think is in a better position to bring the climber to its desired destiny?

As I hope you can see, goals simply aren’t powerful enough.  And they are positioned in such a way that they cannot make use of powerful tools like passion, diligence, and even obsession.  Creators create creations because they are driven towards and pulled by the creation itself. 

The power to create is immensely more powerful then goals can or ever will be.  In a further article I will explain why this is so.  Come back soon to learn just how powerful this power is.

Let me explain:  Have you ever been in love?  I mean, have you ever been truly in love with someone else?

When you love someone with great passion you don’t want to let them alone.  You don’t want to be away from them or leave them for long periods of time. No, in fact, quite the contrary, you can’t stand to be away from that person.  You do whatever you can to spend your time with that person. 

You watch what you say, what you do, and how you behave.  You do nice things, you are careful because you don’t want that person to get upset with you or to be offended by anything you say or do.  You do only what is necessary to have the romance blossom and grow. Things that would cause the relationship to be cold or distant you avoid at all costs. 

The very same thing happens between a creator and a creation.  A creator desires to bring the creation into existence.  The creator loves the creation.

There have been other words used to describe this like, buy in, or empowerment, or take responsibility for, or accountable for, but I like to use the word love the best. 

When the relationship is like being in love a creator treats the creation with careful preciseness.  The creation lives because the creator loves it.

I do not think a creator can create a creation that he does not love, or at best the creation will not reach its potential.  That is where procrastination comes into play.  But when there is a passionate love for the creation the creator will at all costs create the creation. 

A creation that is passionately loved by its creator is never left alone.  It is constantly on the mind of the creator.  Creators rise early to work on the creation and retire late, if at all.

In a recent article written by Robert Ringer he wrote about John Britten, I think he said it best:

“John Britten, was born with a serious learning disability that made reading extremely difficult. Not able to learn in conventional schools, Britten attended night school and eventually earned an engineering degree from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. His determination to earn a degree — and, more important, gain precious knowledge — was a sign of things to come.

Britten was a quiet, unassuming, totally focused individual. Some years before I met him, he began building, of all things, a futuristic motorcycle in his garage. His stated goal was to win the prestigious Battle of the Twins international cycle race in Daytona Beach, Florida.

His cutting-edge cycle involved over 6,000 parts, most of which Britten hand-made. With the notable exception of the engine, his extraordinary machine was constructed primarily of carbon fiber, a first for the motorcycle industry.

He had dedicated helpers who worked for free, mostly at night, while holding down full-time jobs during the day. Incredibly, the actual cost of Britten’s masterpiece was not more than a few hundred dollars, while many large corporate sponsors spent several million dollars on their entries.

Working while others slept was a Britten norm that was accepted by those who agreed to become involved in his projects. Toiling around the clock became his trademark. Anything short of a superhuman pace would have made it impossible for him to build his one-of-a-kind cycle from scratch in just under eleven months, barely finishing in time for the Battle of the Twins.

With just three weeks to go before the big race, Britten’s carbon-fiber cycle crashed while being tested. It was a cruel blow, a bad break that everyone agreed Britten didn’t deserve. The task of locating and correcting the problem, then repairing the bike, seemed insurmountable — but Britten and his crew again managed to overcome all obstacles, and arrived in Daytona just in time.

Then, during the qualifying run, disaster again struck. Just twelve hours before race time, a hairline crack in a cylinder sleeve — one of the few parts Britten had not built himself — threatened to end his bid for the unofficial world championship for twin-cylinder motorcycles. Britten’s reaction? After tireless but fruitless efforts to find the right spare part in the Daytona area, Britten, who had no previous experience in welding cylinder sleeves, repaired the broken part himself.

By race time, Britten had been awake forty-seven hours straight. But, as events unfolded, it looked as though the monumental effort by him and his team would finally pay off. Once again, however, like a scene out of a depressing movie, bad luck reared its ugly head. With Britten’s cycle leading the pack, rain forced an end to the race one lap from the finish, which meant the entire race had to be run over.

In the restarted race, Britten’s cycle again led the pack most of the way, until — you guessed it — yet another non-Britten-built part, a faulty rectifier, halted his bid for victory once and for all. John Britten had captured the admiration of the racing world, but had failed to come home with a trophy.

But when he returned to New Zealand, he didn’t waste time focusing on the bad breaks he had experienced in Daytona. Instead, he went right back to work, rebuilt his handcrafted motorcycle, and returned to Daytona the next year. This time, he finally won the Battle of the Twins championship, a Rocky Balboa finish if there ever was one.

The victory doesn’t end there. The first commercial version of the Britten motorcycle sold for a record $140,000. Not a bad return on the few hundred dollars he had spent on the design and construction of the original model. “

You see, John Britten loved his creation.  He was willing to fight through whatever, doing whatever it took in order for his creation to live, to exist.

True creators passionately love their creations.  And understand this also, just as a lover will not do anything to offend his partner so too a creator will only do what is necessary to bring the creation into existence.

Too many people don’t understand that principle.  Too many think that creation is about how one can use creative techniques and principles.  They expand their imagination by “creative” problem solving, or thinking outside the box, or idea generating, or mind-mapping, or other solutions to creatively “freeing the mind” and creatively  “breaking through” barriers and obstacles that stand in the way.

Even though many of these principles and schools of thought can be involved in creating they are not necessary to create. It is not about creative problem solving or how to increase your imagination to generate a myriad of never before thought of creative alternatives.  It’s about loving your creation.

Why, you will come to see that those very approaches leave out the most important and ultimately essential question of the entire creative process: “What is it that I desire to create?”  or even better, “What do I love so much I want to bring into existence?”

The originality, the artistic, the fanciful and inventiveness that spring from the creative process is not brought about by coming up with new ideas that are “outside the box”.  Nor does creativity come about by generating many new unheard of alternatives or generating new paths to solve old problems.   In fact, it is something quite different.

Through these past years I have had occasion to sit in psychologist’s offices and hear the doctors say, “Michael does things that are so original and unusual, he is so creative. If we could only encourage it, bottle it up and give it to all our patients, then all our patients would be more original and creative.”

I hope to teach you that the path to get to the creation is important, but the creative person isn’t so much worried about the path, but more intently focused on the end result:  the creation.   True creators don’t worry so much about the process but more about the results.
 
True creators love the creation so much they want to bring it into existence.  I know I keep saying that, because it is absolutely true.

Here is an example I hope will make it more clear:  What if Michelangelo worried more about the process and took this approach while painting the famous painting of “The Creation of Adam” can you imagine the result?

“Hmm, let’s see.”  He says, “How many different ways can I paint Adam’s hand? Let me try doing it with watercolor, now charcoal, now lets try different sizes, a baby’s hand, now a grown man’s. Now let me try it on different canvases, paper, parchment, a stone wall, a ceiling?” If he had taken that approach he might have never finished the painting, and if he had finished, it would have been a hodgepodge of different alternatives.  

Truly modern art, but far from the masterpiece he actually did create.  Far from the creation that he obviously poured his whole heart and soul into, the creation that he no doubt loved.

Creative people who really know the creative process might over many years of experiments and experiences use many different methods and techniques to learn and grow in their varied disciplines.   That’s called practicing their craft.

But when it comes to creating the creator asks the most important question that can be asked, “What would I love to create?” And then with an economy of means employs only those techniques and methods that will bring the creation into existence as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Each of us, individually, have the power to be creators.  Even those of you who think you are not creative.  I am going to prove to you that you do in truth have the power to create. You have the power to create anything you desire to create.

It’s not about being artistic or painting paintings, or making sculptures, or singing or dancing; it’s about creating. It’s about loving.  If you can love, you can create.