Nikola Tesla – a creator and true genius

Most of us are convinced that until we believe we can have or manifest the object of our desire, then we ain’t never gonna get it. We’re quite sure that unless we have a positive self-image, we simply can’t have what we’d love.

Recognising that most of us have worth, trust, control, capacity, powerless and not allowed to be capable beliefs, which amplify our “it’s impossible” inner editor, it can often seem an impossibility to manifest our hearts’ desires. No wonder NLP is so popular. Any modality that helps to alter state or model behaviour gives our identities a life raft of significant proportions.

And therein lies our essential conundrum as human beings: we have completely forgotten that we have an innate ability to create – at will. Whether we think we’re a stupid dumbo or we’re God’s gift to the universe. We can create despite our beliefs about ourselves. We are co-creators here on this beautiful planet. In addition to the beliefs we’ve made up about ourselves, parents and schools have also colluded in the drama. We’re told that creating involves ‘sacrifice’, that it’s ‘terribly hard work’, that it takes gargantuan talent, and it usually depends on the largesse of some unforgiving God or unseen forces. Or even worse – we have to go into a peak state and run barefoot across hot coals. Yikes! Not true, my friend.

To add insult to injury, the entire self-development industry has drummed into us that we have to have positive thoughts in order to create what we’d love. Or we just need to make a wish list or simply order in our creative desires. For some, it’s merely a case of channeling entities – a la Shirley MacLaine – who will then guide us to our land of plenty.

We’ve been held hostage by the construct that believing in our (in)ability to create what we’d love is actually more important than the creation itself. How nuts is that?

So where is your focus? On creating or on believing?

The difference between a believer and a creator
All creators have self doubts, but what sets them apart from the believers is sheer will power. A will that they recognise and exert – in spades – to help them in the creative process, despite their inner critic telling them they can’t do x, y, or z.

Do you imagine the world’s greatest inventor and creators experienced a complete lack of self-doubt? Hardly! They probably suffered more than most and were probably rejected more than most. Everyone knows the story about Edison’s gadzillion attempts to create the first incandescent light. And let’s not forget the incandescent inventor Nikola Tesla – the forgotten genius without whom the 21st century would scrabbling about in the dark on all fours (for information on this incredible man check out this link to his life and work).

Creators tend to eschew society’s paradigms on what is and isn’t possible. And what they believe about themselves or the world around them is, as Robert Fritz so eloquently puts it “irrelevant to their creative process”. Madonna, Walt Disney, JK Rowling – just a few household names who certainly weren’t full of self-confidence and charisma when they began their creative journeys.

Steve Jobs is a wonderful example of a man who inspired his team to create what was considered ‘impossible’. And his world view is what he used to motivate those around him:

Watch this Steve Jobs video: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you”

Creative Tension
When we delve deeply into the creative process many synchronicities happen; we find the right website or book, we bump into the right people. Not because of our beliefs but due to some unseen higher force at work. God knows what that is (maybe just that…) but it just happens. And do we really need to know that is is?

In his magnificent book, The Path of Least Resistance, Robert Fritz who has written extensively about creativity using structural tension as key and guide. With the premise that tension always seeks resolution, his view is that:

Creating is taking action to bring into being that which does not yet exist: the desired outcome. To do this successfully doesn’t depend on beliefs or reciting endless affirmations, rather it is structural. “Clarity about the desired outcome and the actual situation establishes a structural tendency that moves the structure toward tension resolution; and strongly motivates the best actions to achieve the desired outcome.”

So where is your focus? On your desired end results, or on your made-up beliefs?

At the beginning you feel like you’ve thought everything through and you’re really motivated to get going. Everything seems to be going great! Your plans have paid off and your journey towards your goal couldn’t seem easier.

So… why do you begin to slip?

Unless something happens to get you back on track, your goals seem to fade into obscurity.

You find yourself missing the odd gym session, and not being quite as organised. Whatever it is, you can feel yourself slipping back into your old ways. Unless something happens to get you back on track, your goals seem to fade into obscurity and before you know it, weeks have passed since you did anything you initially planned so hard for.

Often you can come up with a whole host of reasons why things faded away. But it always boils down to one thing:

Being accountable for your own actions gets harder

More important than what happens, is how and why it happens. There can be a whole host of reasons:

• You don’t feel you are progressing fast enough, so things get boring
• You find the going gets tough and other things seem to keep getting in the way, so you start to let them
• You aren’t sure you even want this goal anymore. You find it hard to remember why you thought this was a good idea!

I’m sure you can think of lots of other reasons, but the great news is that the solution is always the same.

GET ACCOUNTABLE!

If any of the above sounds familiar to you, then now is the moment to change it. Get someone else to hold you accountable to your own goals. Share with them your reasons for wanting them in the first place. Other people seem to have an amazing memory for repeating your own words back at you! If you feel things start to get tough, tell someone, ask for help, advise, tips, tricks, anything to help you get over your current hurdle. Finally, give them permission to check in on you once in a while to see how things are going.

You can even ask me to personally help you with this. Just drop me an email with what it is you are trying to achieve. I’ll help you keep that motivation bubbling along. An even more effective method, is for you to post your goal, plan and any expected hurdles here in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.

So there you have it, Email / Comment  or Facebook. Choose whichever one feels it will be the most effective for you. Let us, help you.

Gina and Paul talk about how we all can find ourself in a situation where we find we just aren’t being honest with ourselves or the people around us. Maybe we started to tell little white lies at first as it just didn’t seem important, but now it’s become unbearable.

At the start of a relationship it’s all to easy to adapt yourself to fit into the image that you think your potential partner is really looking for, only to find further down the line, you end up resenting them for “making” you act in a different way.

Find out how being honest from the “get go” can really make your life and relationships a lot less troublesome in the future. Learn to be loved for who you really are.

If you have downloaded the podcast from iTunes remember to post a review and visit our website at ActionPodcast.com to leave a comment or contact one of the presenters directly. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the podcast directly to your inbox, plus an additional weekly blog post!

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Thanks you so much in advance – we look forward to reading your reviews soon!

Paul, Sam, Gina and Chris
The Action Podcast Team

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