Your Hot Pink Octopus – ?

Your Hot Pink Octopus – ?

OK, look – I didn’t want to be the first one to mention it….
but you’ve got a Hot Pink Octopus
and it’s wrapped all around you.

You can’t get away from her.
You can pry off one arm, but she’ll wrap it somewhere else.
Maybe somewhere that tickles.

You can try to hide from her…..
but you know a 600-lb Hot Pink Octopus can fit through a hole the size of a quarter…
so she follows wherever you go.

She’s been with you forever.

She’s your creativity.
She’s your stories.
She’s the uncanny sense that you have been put on this earth in this
incarnation to

share your words
share your vision
share your voice

She’s the part of you that knows better than you —
and the less you try and manhandle her, the better.

Babe, you were put here to share your octopus.
And when you share her,
and people love her or don’t,
you can know that it’s not You that they love or don’t,

it’s your Hot Pink Octopus.

Your Hot Pink Octopus might even win awards
or make you a fortune
or connect you with other Cephalopods

And together, you can do great things.

Quit fighting her.
Quit trying to ignore her.
Quit pretending like she doesn’t matter,
or that you can only make time for her once everything else gets done,
which never happens.

The world needs your Hot Pink Octopus:
Her shape-shifting wisdom…
Her gift of camouflage…
Her endless curiousity….
Her remarkable ability to adapt and learn…

She’s been on this planet for almost 200 million years.

Let her speak.

 

Discouraging words?

Discouraging words?

Funny how we let ONE casual remark derail our dreams, isn’t it?

That one thing that one teacher said that one time has kept you paralyzed since middle school.
That callous remark from a casual acquaintance stopped you cold.

Even after all the smiles and support and even REQUESTS (!!!)

“Say, when are YOU going to write your book?”
“Do you have a book?”
“If you wrote a book I would totally buy it.”

just one discouraging word….
and you retreat.

You tuck your book dream back under the mattress where it continues to invade your nightly reveries.

I get it.

Book writing is:

complicated – where to start?
creatively confounding – what to write?
confusing – who would read it?

I got you.

I’m leading Figure Out Your Book In One Day on Jan. 4th for the third or fourth time, and if you show up, we will banish those clouds once and for all.

Satisfaction guaranteed.

(I mean, obviously, if it’s perfect for you, I will sell it to you – but I won’t be pitching you. I’m only interested in working with people who are a great match and are willing to invest the time and money to see real progress. Because let’s face it, your diet of free stuff and pdfs and salesy webinars is just NOT moving the needle for you, correct?)

Plus it really helps me to hear directly from you what you’re up to, so you’d be doing me a favor.

Let’s go hang out together where the the heavens are bright/with the light of the glittering stars, and where those deer and those antelope play, shall we?

A Reason to Celebrate

A Reason to Celebrate

I’m going to tell you the truth:

I did not love this book while I was writing it.
I did not love this book while I was editing it.

Mostly because I was so ill with long c0vid that it was hard for me to love anything at all.

But I had faith.

And by the time I was in the booth recording the Audible version, I loved it.

I tell you this to underline this truth:

YOU ARE TERRIBLE JUDGE OF YOUR OWN WORK.

So judging
Stop evaluating.

Start writing.

The world needs your book – more than you even know.

If you would like to share some about your book project with me in a small group (no sales – just wisdom and mutual support) – please find a time here.

The Non-Artistic, Highly Creative Person

The Non-Artistic, Highly Creative Person

Image of painted lines on the ground, including the word "zone"

I think there’s a whole subset of people wandering around out there who don’t think of themselves as creative. The fact is they’re very creative- they’re just not very artistic. They think that because they don’t draw or sing or perform in some way, or create visual art in some way, that means they’re not creative. And that’s not true. Creativity doesn’t have to do with artistic talent. It has to do with innovative problem solving.

You may know one- they’re the people who are always the most interesting people in the room. They’ve always got 10 different projects going. They love finding out things for themselves, so they’re always doing things like figuring out how to roast their own coffee beans, even though they never drink coffee.

Their brains are perpetual motion machines. They’re kind of armchair experts, they like to figure things out. They have very high standards generally, so you can usually trust their recommendation- if they say that something is good, it probably is, mostly because they’ve tested it themselves.

As you guys know as highly creative people… if I tell you it’s raining, you’re going to stick your head out the window to check. Same with the non-artistic, highly creative person. They take no one’s word for anything- they have to prove everything to themselves, which can make them feel like they’re being a little stubborn, but really, it’s just their inquisitiveness and their curiosity.

So, if there’s a non-artistic, highly creative person in your life, give them freedom. They’re going to do things their way, just like everybody, but honor that. Give them a lot of freedom to design their own path a little bit and try tying their requests to their values, because they tend to be a little anti-authoritarian. I’d love it if you did this because it matters to me or this way, or it’ll have this impact in this world. And that’s not a bad tip just for dealing with anybody, honestly.

The thing I noticed about non-artistic, highly creative people is don’t bullshit them. Don’t flatter them. Don’t try to butter them up. Their bullshit detector is a hundred percent. Now we artistic, highly creative people… we can be buttered up. But I find that the non-artistic, highly creative people, not so much.

So, if you’re going to give them a compliment, give it to them straight. Don’t sugar coat it. And if you’re gonna give them a criticism, give it to them straight- don’t sugar coat it, they don’t need your approval. And certainly, reward them in their love language. And again, this is a good tip for anybody, but the non-artistic, highly creative people tend to often like to be behind the scenes. They don’t always like a lot of recognition or a lot of attention, but they need to be recognized and paid attention to.

So, if you’ve got one in your office or in your family, figure out how they like to be recognized.

They may not want to make a big fuss in front of everybody, but they might appreciate a note. They might appreciate a gift. They might appreciate some time together or just your acknowledgement. So that’s my little two minutes on non-artistic, highly creative people. Just because they dress boring and don’t have a flamboyant personality does not mean they are not highly creative people.

10 Signs You Might Be Overthinking Things Just a Bit

10 Signs You Might Be Overthinking Things Just a Bit

  1. You have a system for everything. For example, laundry gets sorted by color but also by weight because heavy things take longer to dry. You can parallel park anywhere, thanks to your system of always using the Pythagorean Theorem. Your system for eating breakfast means that you always end up with the exact right size bit of toast left for swiping up the last of the eggs. And you get a little freaked out when you realize that some people just do those things all willy-nilly and off the cuff.
  2. You love to make lists. And you feel no shame about putting things on the list that you have already done, just for the supreme satisfaction of being able to cross it off immediately.
  3. You get anxious if you’re not sure of the dress code. So you might make a few calls ahead of time, and you might even put an extra shirt plus a different pair of shoes in the car, just so you have options.
  4. You enjoy creating a “go” bag. You enjoy the challenge of thinking through exactly what you might need in the unlikely event of, say, an earthquake, and putting together the perfect emergency kit, which includes canned goods and a first aid kit, of course, but also some cash in small bills, copies of your insurance forms and a book of crossword puzzles to fight boredom while you’re waiting to be rescued.
  5. Buying airline tickets is an all-afternoon event. Weighing the various pros and cons of which airline, which airport, which flight and which seat is a delicate and time-consuming process that you would never, ever entrust to someone else. 
  6. You’ve seen the study that shows that some people do not have a voice inside their heads, and that totally freaks you out. I mean – really? Really?!?!? I can’t even.
  7. You secretly believe that numbers have personalities. Twos are friendly, sevens are mean and eight is like that older guy who always wants to give you a hug. Ammiright?
  8. You still feel bad about that thing you said eight years ago. And you also feel bad about the thing you didn’t say last week. And then there’s the thing you said at Christmas, and it was fine, but now you’ve thought of an even better way to express yourself and you wish you had a time machine so you could go back and have the conversation all over again.
  9. You would never in a million years steal anything…but you do catch yourself figuring out HOW a person might steal from almost every store you walk into. What can you say? Your mind lingers on larceny. You might also have worked out how to plan the perfect murder, but we’re not talking about that, are we?
  10. When someone says, “Can’t you just relax and enjoy this?” you have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about.

 

NOTE: All this overthinking (or as some of us call it, just good common sense) can be a sign that you are a Highly Creative Person. Take the quiz HERE to find your creativity quotient right now. 

 

Finding Your Zone of Creative Genius

Finding Your Zone of Creative Genius

First, let’s un-collapse the words “artistic” and “creative,” because they are not the same thing. And the conflation has led to a massive misunderstanding of the true nature of creativity.

Here’s the thing: everyone has some area of creative genius. Because we are tribal animals, designed to live in groups, there is a natural distribution of interests, skills and talents. Which is sort of magic, if you think about it. I mean, just imagine that you are back in cave-dwelling days – someone would be the healer, and someone would tend the children. Someone would be good at working with their hands, and someone else would be the one who always wants to go exploring off into the far lands. Every group forms a complete society based on the fact that everyone is good at something.

Whatever area you would be naturally inclined toward is an indication of your zone of creative genius.

Because your area of creative genius is so much a part of you, it can sometimes be hard to discern, so here are a few other clues:

  1. You have a natural interest in your zone of creative genius. You find yourself watching shows, reading books and spending endless hours online digging into this area. It might seem weird to you that other people aren’t so interested in it. If there’s a convention for it, you might wish you could go.
  2. You have a natural talent in your zone of creative genius. You don’t know how instinctively understand this area – you just know. Your natural aptitude may surprise others, and you’re probably surprised that other people don’t share your inborn talent.
  3. You have an inexhaustible enthusiasm for your zone of creative genius. If someone shook you awake at 3am, whispering, “Hey – we’re going to go do XYZ – wanna come with?” you would immediately get up and start looking for your shoes.
  4. Others defer to your authority in your zone of creative genius. If you’re the one everyone turns to when it’s time to plan the party, or design the garden, or build the addition, or map the route or clear up the miscommunication, then you have become the designated authority in your area. Congratulations. You may not think of yourself as an expert, but everyone else does.
  5. And most significantly, You have a natural ability to problem-solve in your zone of creative genius. In fact, problem-solving doesn’t even feel like problem-solving when you are in your zone. It just feels like fun – and time flies when you are having creative fun. Figuring out how to feed a houseful of people with limited supplies, or figuring out not-dumb team-building activities, or building a better mousetrap offers you a welcome challenge and a chance to experiment, and the hours zip by while you tinker.

You may have discounted your zone of creative genius as just a hobby or pastime, but because of the way you get into a “flow state,” there’s quite a bit more going on. You are engaging the most powerful aspect of your brain’s power, and the ideas/things you create are probably quite a bit more valuable than you might realize.

You may have been taught to discount the things that come easily to you. I remember the disapproval of my parents when I didn’t do well in Calculus and French while getting excellent grades in English and Drama. There was this, “Well, of COURSE you got good grades in those things,” attitude. It seemed that only success in the subjects that were hard for me had merit. While I do believe we should work hard at the subjects in which we are out of our comfort zone, we should reward people for their natural aptitude, and encourage them to go even deeper.

NOTE: If you find that you possess MULTIPLE areas of creative genius and that you are naturally good at a lot of things, you may be one of the 10-15% of the population that qualifies as a Highly Creative Person.
Find your creativity quotient HERE with this easy, fun quiz.

Start noticing the “un-earned and un-learned” talents and abilities you – and others – possess, and see how you can maximize them today.

P.S. Highly Creative People, or "HCP's" as I like to call us, are the most underutilized resource on the planet. Together we can change that because the world needs our unique talents and genius, and there's no time to waste.

Think you might be a Highly Creative Person?

Take the HCP Creative Archetype Quiz