There’s something so powerful in imagining the future as though it’s already happened.

The twelve of us were walking along the Seine after a morning at the Musee D’Orsay. We were talking about which work of art inspired us and what we loved the most. Mary said it was the aliveness of the Seurat. For Ani it was the intricate beauty of the Rodin’s The Gates of Hell and Carol was moved most by Camille Claudel’s L'âge mûr. Theo made the observation that throughout history, art has always been way ahead of science in the search for truth. I was overcome by a moment of brilliance, feeling for a fleeting moment that we were worthy of being in the artistic company of these masters, that we shared the same source of creativity and spirit. That moment made the whole trip complete.

Want to create memories like this?

We have a few spots still open for our Seduce Your Muse trip to Paris and Provence this June. If you’re a creative adventurer, maybe one of those spots is yours.

Visit http://www.robinjones.biz/france/seduce_your_muse.htm

I’ve noticed an interesting trend with some of my clients’ mindsets lately – see if you can pick it out from these examples.

1. “Should I leave my safe, boring corporate job and follow my dream of starting my own business?”
   
   
2. “It’s my dream in life to be an “A-list actor in Hollywood. What should I do?”
   
   
3. “How do I find my life’s purpose?

Here are my answers, respectively:

1. “Yes.”
   
   
2. “Audition a lot.”
   
   
3. “Try anything and everything until something lights you up; then sink your teeth in.”

I’m being a bit glib, but essentially the mindset is this:

“There’s a right way to do things, and if I could just find what that is, all my problems and challenges would vanish.”

Take a moment and notice if you ever see this way of thinking in your own life. Maybe it shows up in these other attitudes:

“I don’t want to do it (or be) wrong.”
“There’s an expert out there who knows a lot more than I do.”
“Life would be a whole lot better if I knew the secret.”

And notice the way the media exploit it so well with their messages:

• Eat our yogurt and you’ll be as thin (and happy!) as the models in our commercial.
• Attend our seminar and you’ll solve all your money worries overnight.
• Use our shampoo and life will be one orgasmic experience after another.
• There’s something dangerous in the water you drink – tune into our newscast at 10:00 to find out how it affects you.

These really tap into our culture’s tendency toward black and white thinking. We want to simplify things as either right or wrong, good or bad, true or false.

You’ve probably heard all this before, so you won’t be surprised if I talk about life as lots of shades of grey between the extremes, rather than being black and white.

Well, I’m not going to, because I don’t believe it’s shades of grey either. Otherwise, questions such as “how do I become an A-list actor?” and “should I leave my job to pursue my dream?” and “what’s my life’s purpose?” get reduced to problems that are solvable by rational thought.

Treat life as a series of problems and that’s what it’ll be.

Allow me to offer another approach: Creative Authenticity.

Of course, I could write volumes on this, and many already have been. I can’t do it justice in one brief newsletter, but I’ll give you some bottom line elements of it.

1. Understand Your Values: those things at your core that point you toward what’s most important in your life. You didn’t choose them and you can’t consciously change them; they are what they are.
   
   
2. Take a step back and look at your whole life through the lens of your values. It’s part of knowing who you are.
   
   
3. Simply notice your deeper desires. When I say “simply notice,” that’s what I mean. Don’t try to figure them out or create them – it’s more like watching a ballgame from the stands. And when I say “deeper desires, that’s also what I mean. Jonesing for an ice cream is great, and there’s something more substantial about honoring “the change you wish to see in the world.”
   
   
4. Decide who you want to be and how you want to be as you live your life. Let go of what to do and how to do it.
   
   
5. Tap into your creative imagination – that’s where anything is possible.
   
   
6. Practice living in the moment. Cliché? Maybe, but if you want to live your life fully, you have to be there for it. Allow life to be a creative moment-to-moment experience.

Don’t get me wrong, there are always decisions and choices to be made (and they’re how you get where you’re going) and you want your rational mind engaged in the process.

But once you’ve matched your desires with your values, you’ll quit the hard work of “doing it right” and solving all of life’s problems. Instead, the actions to take will be obvious, even inevitable. You’ll stand for what you believe with strength and you’ll quit apologizing for your immense power. Best of all, life will be rich and fulfilling.

And what could be better than that?

Until next month, my friends, here’s wishing you an open and present mind,

RJ

© 2006 - 2007 The Actor's Success & Robin Jones. All rights reserved.

Robin Jones works with entrepreneurs and actors who struggle to balance building a thriving career with a satisfying personal life. Visit www.RobinJones.biz to get more business, work fewer hours, and make it all happen easily.

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