The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women. Gail McMeekin
believe will serve others and reflect our professional or personal mission.
Sometimes our favorite idea is ahead of its time or it's a very long-term project. So we have to decide: do we want to spend a few months working on one or two projects that we can complete and put out into the world right away, or do we respond to our “calling” to do idea or project number one?
Now is the time to gather up the top projects and put them in a circle, if possible, and sit in the middle. Find a quiet time where you can meditate and talk to your muse about your decision. When you are ready, sit in the circle and notice where your attention is drawn most. Sit comfortably with your palms facing up, close your eyes, and ask your inner guide this question: “Which idea or project will best serve me and others in the world at this time?” Listen to whatever answer you get. Go pick up that idea or project and hold it in your hand or your lap. See if it feels “right” to you. If not, look around and see which one idea or project you really want to work on and bring that into the circle as well. If there is still a third idea or project that is calling to you, bring that third one in close to you as well.
Now, close your eyes and invite your muse into the circle to join you. When he or she arrives, open your eyes and describe in detail each idea or project and how you feel about it. Tell your muse who would use it and how it would help them in their lives. Be as complete as possible. If your muse asks you questions, answer them. Then close your eyes and ask your muse for guidance—and listen to what he or she tells you. Do you feel like you have the information you need to decide? If so, write out your commitment to your one to three projects, putting a realistic timeframe on each. You may decide to focus on number one exclusively for now, and that is fine.
JJ Virgin, celebrity nutritionist and costar of the new reality TV show Freaky Eaters on TLC, had Baeth Davis do a hand analysis on her. One of her life lessons is “overwhelm.” Finding her focus is a challenge for her, as it is for me. As JJ says, “I download so many things from my brain, I wonder where the dimmer switch is. So then I think: Stop! If you look at those who are truly successful, they are focused; they don't have fifty thousand different things they're doing. One of the things I'm working on is focusing, and not working on ten thousand things at once. If I have a thought, but if three or four days later I'm not still thinking about it, because if you're going to build a business you have to live it and breathe it, then I let it go. It has to be ‘Oh, I have to do this’ before I embrace an idea. It's really matching that idea with your passion and what the marketplace wants, in a format that's going to work. All those things have to work. There has to be return on investment; the margins have to be there. You have to be able to market it, you have to want it and stay excited about it, and if it doesn't meet all of those tests, don't do it.”
Congrats if you have found your focus! If nothing feels right yet, try doing this Creativity Catalysts Exercise and start over. This is a great exercise to stimulate new ideas or check the decision you just made.
Exercise: Creativity Catalysts Exercise
We know we are creative beings. Yet we are also very aware that sometimes our creativity stalls, plays tricks on us, or appears to have vanished completely. It is at those moments that we need to reconnect with the vitality around our creative process or project and leverage our inspirational powers to stimulate our ability to make new connections.
The following tips are meant to arouse your natural creative gifts so that you can surmount the obstacles in your journey and achieve maximum potential. Have fun with them, and enjoy the wonder of discovery as you expand your imagination and allow yourself to be a conduit for excellent work!
Keep a daily excitement list about why you are passionate and committed to your exploration or creative project or hypothesis.
Visualize your end result and make a collage of images that support that vision and post it where you can see it regularly.
Take a field trip relating to your project to explore a particular facet of it.
Experience your project using the three learning styles of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experiences.
Draw a picture of it, make a mind-map of it, or take a photo of it and play with it on Photoshop.
Talk about your project on a tape or video recorder or teach a real or pretend class on the topic to an audience or to your friends.
Act it out with props and maybe even other characters.
Record and follow your intuitive clues relating to your project.
Go to a toy store and select a toy that reminds you of your project and let your inner child play with it.
Set up a series of experiments related to your project with hypotheses to test out.
Exercise regularly to clear your head.
Find someone who is an opposite thinker (a devil's advocate) from you, tell them about your project, and let them challenge or stimulate your thinking.
Select inspiring music that resonates with your project and play it at the beginning of your work time.
Create a water experience—sit in a hot tub, go swimming, take a shower, or visit a spa to increase your flow of ideas.
Take your project away with you as a companion and see how it changes in a new setting.
Meditate or pray about your topic.
Find a symbol of your creative process and keep it close by when you are working or contemplating.
Initiate creative rituals, such as lighting a candle or reading before you begin, to invite your muse into the project.
Look at visual representations relating to your project, like paintings, special destinations, or actual products related to your story.
Send your inner critic to a foreign land so you feel free to make mistakes and cast about for new connections.
Change your location—work on your project in bed, outside in nature, in a museum, or simply change rooms.
Take a day or two off so you can take a fresh look at your project when you return.
Keep a file card packet in your office, car, etc. to jot down all related ideas and thoughts, even if their meaning is a mystery.
Read related books and articles and take notes to jog your inspiration.
Look for the metaphors—how is your proposal like an artichoke or a trolley car?
Keep a separate journal or computer file for each project and keep track of new impressions.
At the right time, share your project with trusted others and gather new insights.
Take creative risks using your fascinations as a guide to unique explorations.
GETTING HEART-FOCUSED
The word “passion” is often thought to be an overused word these days, however it does help you to get heart centered on what you want your work and your life to be about. The messages that you get from your heart chakra are a guide, and those messages emanate from your life purpose and your fascinations. Dr. Gayle Madeleine Randall, MD, is a physician, scientist, medical professor, cross-cultural practitioner, and a writer. Madeleine says, “One of the secrets to my success is always following my passion, and listening to what my heart tells me to do. Whether or not it conforms to what other people think I should do or other people think they should do. Early in my cross cultural exploration at UCLA, I helped set up a series of conferences on what we then called ‘alternative medicine.’ It was considered pretty out there. However, surprisingly, it was so well received that it just grew and grew. I think that one of the secrets is to follow your passion, because it's trying to tell you something. Yes, of course, you should use your mind, logic, and knowledge that you can't run after everything. Because