The Creative Life - No Contest!
September 14th, 2009 by Gary Hipworth

“Start every day with a smile and get it over with”. W.C. Fields

In our society today, most people have been ‘conditioned’ to believe that getting a job and working more than forty hours per week at something they don’t really like, but pays the bills, is as good as it gets.

But it is also true, that most of us want our lives to be meaningful; we want to know where we are headed and we demand something deeper than ‘just a job’.

When it comes time to ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ we will have done something worthwhile, and not felt that we had squandered our precious time here on this weird and wonderful planet.

But are you not lucky to have a job, any job? Well, no, I think this is a furphy. You will be dead one day, so why not go for the biggest dream that turns you on? Why waste all those 9 to 5 hours doing stuff that turns you into a negative, whining, boring victim? Better off dead!

Is it a vain pursuit to think that you can have the life of your dreams? It depends what ‘music’ you’ve been listening to. Who is making up this game of life? Your parents? Your friends? Your teachers? Your history books? Life is there for the taking…provided that you are willing to pay the price. No risk, no adventure, no failure, no success. You decide what you want your life to become – if you dare.

So why is it so hard to change one’s life for the better?

Here are seven major fears and obstacles that stop people going after their dream life:

1. You don’t know what you want because you thought it was not an important question or you have accepted other people’s directions without any thought. When we are young, our sense of self and our level of self-esteem are dependent on our parents and teachers who decide for us what is good and bad behaviour and what rewards and punishments go with this behaviour. So we learnt how to please our authority figures by becoming the kind of person that they liked. We became ‘outside-in’ people, not our own person. We reach a critical point in our late teenage years when we can decide to take control of our own destiny. But for many people it is already too late. The rare minority go for the road less travelled and relish new opportunities and new challenges.

2. So the majority of people are followers or reactors. People who stand out from the herd have to be courageous and risk being ostracized, or face emotional and financial ruin. This is too much ‘perceived pain’ for too little ‘perceived gain’. Note the word ‘perceived’. The actuality may be very different but our minds can imagine the worst even though it may never eventuate.

3. We live in a highly specialised workforce and once you get on the job -mortgage-buy stuff-pay debts-watch TV (no energy for anything else) – mow the lawn – do the housework – you know the rest – treadmill, there's little energy left over at the end of the day to switch careers or get motivated to do something different.

4. If you really do listen to the voice within, you fear ending up in the poorhouse, and this belief kicks in as soon as you think you might be better off doing something else and that’s as far as it gets.

5. You want certainty about the future but of course no-one can give you that certainty so you stay with the devil of a job you know (or the devil of a partner) and resign yourself to a life of sacrifice and sameness and mediocrity.

6. The misconception that we must find the perfect answer before we commit to anything else, and so we keep looking for something in heaven rather than something right in front of our noses.

7. It’s all too hard, pass me another ___________ (fill in your preference).

When we get accustomed to living our lives this way, it may take a shock such as a terrible family or health crisis to wake us up and unfortunately this is what it does take before a person decides ‘enough is enough’.

But what then?

Another dilemma emerges from the sheer specialisation of the workforce. What/ Who / Where/ When/ How do I change my life? All you know so far is what doesn’t work! How do you find the right path to your desired future? What do you really want?

There must be a way out of this mess?

There is. Learn how to create your future. Become a life artist.

But it’s not for everyone and it takes lots of 'guts'. Turning one’s life around and becoming a creator rather than a reactor (interesting that creator is an anagram of reactor) won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. Discovering or finding what we should do with our lives is one of life’s amazing dramas. It is a never-ending process of self-discovery and should be appreciated for the degree of difficulty involved. It’s the journey Bernie!

You will have your knockers. “What a dumb idea!” “It won’t pay the rent.” How impractical.” “He’s off with the fairies again.”

But it’s not impractical and it won’t put you in the poorhouse. (Hey, you will think of the worst that can happen and have plan B ready…won’t you?).

Here’s WHY you should seriously consider becoming a life artist:

Here’s HOW you go about becoming a life artist:

And finally never forget that the world is not run by those who are right, but it is run by those who can convince others that they are right. Make sure that you are leading the way with your own original perspective on what the right way can be. Be foolish, ask a silly question and suddenly you are a genius.

The creative life or the reactive life? No contest.

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