The laws of creativity apply to everything – not just to works of art.
The gift of practicing art is that it teaches the creator how to create, and how to be a creator. Over and over again, the artist learns the process of making things – including the obstacles that arise, the futility of forcing the flow, and the joy of allowing inspiration. This practice has been nothing less than revolutionary in my own life.
That’s because I grew up learning more about Getting than I did about Creating. And I’m not alone in that. Most of the life lessons we’ve all learned are about Getting.
We gotta get rich, get approved, get things from people, get a job, get a life, get laid, get publicity, get someone to do something, get approval, get high, get married, get a loan, get good grades, get a clue, get into college, get up, get down, get out.
Get it?
Getting is an epidemic. It makes us grab at life. It takes us out of the present moment. It makes us powerless. It forces us to manipulate our own spirits so that we can manipulate the situation. Getting requires that we use our precious creative power to get, rather than to use it for its primary purpose, which is to Create. When we misue this power, we become contorted. We block the flow. The focus is on “out there” rather than “in here.”
When we become Creators, we turn the whole thing around. Everything becomes an inside job. We experience true power. We create our lives.
One of the people in my six-week e-Seminar set her intention for wealth and money during the first week. She is now going through a huge awakening about her relationship to money and to her father. She realizes that her dad has been her source of money, and so she has spent most of her life looking to him, resenting him, and playing games with him to get her money. She never learned that there was any other way to do it.
As a beginning step, I asked her to imagine what it would feel like if she knew she could create her own money and generate prosperity for herself. I asked her what it would feel like to not need her dad’s money.
It was the first time she’d ever explored that possibility. She said it would be amazing and liberating. It would allow her to have a relationship with her dad on her own terms.
Stepping out of the mindset of Getting and into the mindset of Creating heals relationships. It will also heal your life. When you don’t need to Get things from other people (including your happiness), then you can allow them to be who they are and make their own choices. You can request things, of course. But the energy of this is very different from trying to Get something.
Think of one thing that you’ve been trying to get. What it would feel like to become a creator instead? How would your actions be different?
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{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Christine, you have a wonderful blog. Your posts help me take a new perspective on some things that challenge me. I have found a bit of synchronicity to your posts corresponding to little life lessons I may need to learn.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and stories with us.
PS I bought some of your music last week and liked it very much. Such truth in your lyrics
Doh! Big a-ha moment while reading your article! I just realised that there are a couple of things that I’ve been trying to “get” rather than create in my life… these are also unsurprisingly the areas in which I’ve been feeling most disempowered, helpless and frustrated
. When I shift my focus to “creating”, I can feel the difference in energy right through my body, plus I feel confident and inspired to take action!
Thanks, Christine!
Ahhhh… Creating. I have recently had my eyes opened and have created a nice source of alternative income through my photography. It is something that I never imagined being possible, but that was because I felt I needed to work for my income, rather than PLAY and create it. Now, I have people calling me out of the blue. I get it, because I created it, and life is GOOD.
Thank you Melanie! Very nice words to read this morning as I sit to write songs today.
Mags – That’s great! I love it when those moments happen to me! Glad to be a mini-catalyst today!
Danny – Congratulations. Sounds like you experienced quite the paradigm shift too.
Where could I find some info about your e-seminar?
Christine,
So thanks for that.
Your insight continues to amaze me. I have been a getter. I was told I had to get (a job, money, a secure life). I have calmed down now. Having kids puts things in perspective. You don’t need to get all that much anymore. You learn to be creative again and even if it’s only creating silly games with them or creating an exciting life for them. I am also looking at a more creative way to live my life, to be less dependent of a company, to be more flexible with time. So I guess including me in your prayers at the retreat has helped in some way
When are you coming to Europe for a gig? I’d love to hear you perform.
Hey Christine – very original post. Awesome.
It’s such a relief knowing we can create and shape our realities instead of the old victim mentality of hoping good things happen TO us.
I think Tony Robbins’ book “Unlimited Power” was the first time I ever learned that I could control my mind instead of letting it control me. I read it when I was 22, and I’m 38 now.
How do people survive without this stuff?
Mark – I think that’s it; people “survive”. Do you want to survive, or *thrive*? Obviously, thrive, or ya wouldn’t be reading Tony Robbins… but people can live unexamined lives, probably happily. I want more. I want to thrive.
I have, happily, created a life where I am completely free to choose what to do. And, I’m helping my kids co-create their lives that way – they are free to choose what they do, too. I choose to work the job I have because I enjoy the help it gives others, and when I work a steady job, I enjoy the regular income, and being able to pay my bills. I was just writing elsewhere that that *creation* and *choice* can be scary, because that puts the responsibility for my life and happiness right on my shoulders. But ever since I’ve accepted that, I have the happiest, most free life I’ve ever lived.
I sat down at my desk this morning, which is slightly messy, and looking over the mess, laughingly thought “This is the day the Lord has made.” Then I realized: *I* made it. I made the mess, I made the choices that meant I was sitting at the desk right at that time. Wow, creation’s some powerful stuff.
After reading this post, I am thinking about “getting things done” and how lately I have applied that to my work as a writer. Instead of creating the thing I’m writing, I’ve been approaching it as another “get.” Could be why I’m blocked and resentful towards my work? An aha moment for sure. Thank you Christine.
Caren – that’s a great distinction.
Peggy, you hit the nail on the head. I too am a writer. I’ve been focusing on writing as a means to getting. And worse still, concentrating on where I fit in the pile, i.e. who is “better” than I am… who my competition is… what they’re doing…
How destructive is that? What a waste of time…
Christine, thank you. Your blog makes sense, pure and simple. And I need these kinds of reminders. Thank you.
hi darla – you can email me at christine@christinekane.com. I’ll send you more information.
hi mimi – it seems that everything in our lives – kids, writing, meditation – is there to remind us about creating, not getting! i don’t know when i’ll be in europe for shows. it’s just a matter of someone getting me there by paying me!
mark – i was really moved by tony robbins’s book “awakening the giant within.” i had always just assumed he was some guy trying to motivate people. but that book is a classic. i’m with you there!
caren – i like thrive, too! great mind shift work on the desk thing!
peggy – yea, whenever i hang out in nashville too much, i become a “getter” when it comes to songwriting. it’s all about the commerciality. so i try to bend and twist into this formula. and then i have to shake it off and let it go and go back to creating. glad this helped you into that space!
thanks, jeanie! you go!
What a great idea, Christine. From that perspective, I’m creating new work/clients, which sounds much better than getting new work/clients. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks for another mini-epiphany… Now I’ll start asking myself “How can I ‘make’ what I ‘need’?” and try to stop figuring out how to convince the world it should give it to me…
This is a wonderful example of our attention. If we focus on “getting” we might never be satisfied. But if we focus or attention on the creating… we will be much more likely to get there!
Thanks so much for another wonderful post!
Sylvia C.
Once again your wisdom opens the eyes. I get it.
This past week I have been facing the getting things done, look at, achieve you name it I have tackle it. When I read your post today I realized that it is time to return to creativity. That brings a whole different play area. The simplicity of having fun creating in the moment has an incredible feeling. Thank you
Thanks Armando!
Howard, that’s the key shifting moment…and it’s great to start it with an open-ended question.
Syvia C. – You’re welcome! It’s such a simple distinction, isn’t it? Yet, our hard-wiring often keeps us from shifting that focus.
Thanks Irene! (I responded to your email last night!)
Every year I make a playlist of favorite songs to commemorate all of the creative efforts of the musicians I’ve discovered/rediscovered/followed faithfully throughout their careers. In listening to last year’s playlist, The Real World is standing out as great little creative gift. Just wanted to say thanks for the song, and thanks for the blog where I can share that thought so easily. Happy April!
Thank you for this. I was actually going to write you an email asking you to post something about this kind of topic. I needed it that badly.
I am having a horrible week at work, and I think that I forgot about the creating part. I have been too focused on the bad “stuff” I have been getting from the people that I work with that are also in “getting” mode. “Getting” and “getting” equals a bad combination, particularly in a work environment and definitely in my classrooms.
So, thanks for reminding me that I need to create the relationships and results I want in my life and not just take what I can get!
I came across your Blog months ago and I just love the way you write! I love the way you think!
I think I’m going thru some type of meta-morphisis lately (as I do a few times a year, LOL!)
What you say about creating vs. getting is so right on! Thanks for writing this!
Have a great Day!
I’ve never thought of exercise in this way til now. But I always (and many) say, “I have to get in shape.” This is a much different thing than creating a healthy life I guess. And just writing that makes me feel different about it. How very cool
Thanks!
Bless you, Christine for this great post. It is so true! I think back to being unemployed and wanting to get a job. Now that I have a job, I think to myself ‘now what?’ When I flash back to my days of being unemployed, the one thing I miss is the optimism and feeling of possibility I had. I know this sounds weird, but the job I envisioned in my head was better than the job I landed. Maybe it is time for me to CrEaTe the job that was meant to be. Thanks again. I will be investigating your e-seminar.
Great post – and you’re right, I never thought about the “getting” mindset before, though I guess I know it’s always been present and maybe even pre-programed.
This has been so eye-opening for me. I’m still trying to process all of this and how it applies to my life, but it has been an awakening for me.
Thank you!
Christine, thanks for expressing this thought. My life has been all about creating versus getting over the last few years (or I’m trying for it to be), but I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. When you create, YOU’re in charge. Even simple things can be rejiggered from active (creating) to passive (getting–even though getting still involves effort), such as “I need to get a roommate to share costs” to “I’m going to create a nice space to share my house.” I’ve had a lot more success when I create then when I try to get.
Christine, as always, you’re truly inspired, and inspiring! I love this post and my readers would as well so I’ll be linking to it soon.
I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend in Chicago!
Hi Christine, I’ve recently been trying to understand Steve Pavlina’s theory on polarity and I keep running into examples and explanations of it everywhere.
I watched Lions for Lambs last night which was the perfect example. This morning I decide to check out your blog and here it is, more clarity.
Thanks you so much.
In Spirit,
Nneka
I’m always happier when creating, so is my family. Schools I think focus too much on the getting, to pass a test, follow rules. When my youngest is stumped on her homework, knows the answer, but won’t put it down because she doesn’t know the right strategies, (was I supposed to circle or underline that part), something needs changing.
One step further – by acknowledging the abundance we already have we become even more mindful of the gifts we have…we expres those gifts. So in my estimation, there are those who have a limited sense of things (the “getters”) and those who see the abunance around them and are “graciously grateful”….
Thank you for your work…you touch many lives…
“Ginn”
Virginia J. Pulver
Read my Journals: http://www.pulverpages.com
This is a nifty and powerful distinction. The pleasures of making stuff are so deep. The getting of things–usually not so much.
There is a dark side to creating…unless I misunderstand the polarity of getting and creating in this blog. I do a lot of creating…I make things happen for my family, for my work, and sometimes for me….and I am now exhausted from all this magic. People recognize that I can “make things happen or appear” and ask me to “make” things all the time.
I would like to tone down this visible creating (for others) and nourish myself. Not that I expect to “get” anything….I would just like some stillness to breathe and figure out what in all this creating is “mine”, an expression of who I really am.
hi christine!
just got your newsletter and so enjoyed it – reminded me how much your blog helps me on a practical level and how I’ve missed it lately…so I’m grateful for the nudge back to it. and I thought you might appreciate this link & the articles’ insights in relation to all you’ve been blogging about recently – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
i’m sure you don’t have heaps of free time to browse the new york times these days. and i see you’re reading a new Martha Beck book? i always LOVE the books you recommend so it’s now on my list! this world needs more inspiring women like you – you’ve certainly helped, inspired, amazed and challenged me throughout these last couple of years. so thank you, and carry on…
much love, jenn
Christine,
Your insights were just what I needed today. I am a Center for Spiritual Awareness minister and love the idea of creating on every level of life. Your music has inspired many people in my groups and so please keep those powerful songs coming from “right out of nowhere.”
I saw you in Berkeley and look forward to your return to Calif.
Namaste’
Lisa
Christine,
Hear, here …