It is so easy to slide down the path of focusing on what is not working on our creative journey.   The book that is not written, the painting that is not painted, the music that is not scored … the money that is not coming in, the message that is not getting delivered, the audience that didn’t give a standing ovation … we can go on & on. Most of us are experts at finding what is wrong or not working!

What would happen if what we focused on our victories instead? Is it hard to think of one right now? Hummmmmmmm … perhaps you have not been allowing yourself to notice them for a long time. As kids we had tons of victories … and we celebrated them constantly … we caught the ball & squealed, we tied our shoes and grinned at ourselves, we put a crayon on the paper & drew a line & giggled out loud and clapped our hands. It was one BIG victory after another.

Somewhere along the way this got turned around in a new direction. Someone pointed out something that was “wrong” … then we started noticing the “wrong” things everywhere. We particularly started noticing things wrong with us and with what we were doing or how we were being. For many of us, our lives have become a life focused on what is not working about us and for us since then.

OK, I know I know … there is some value to seeing what did not work so that you do not repeat it and can improve on it – YES! But I am not talking about that … I am talking about when we begin to ONLY focus on what is wrong so that it is becomes all we see. Wrong, Not working, Failure … and that focus has it expanding and expanding every moment/hour/day/week, etc. that we focus on it.

Quantum Mechanics has proven to us that: Whatever you focus on expands. You can test it out for yourself … start thinking about the color pink – focus on it and the more you think about it the more thoughts will start being generated about pink and even more surprisingly the color pink will start showing up all around you.

So now … If this is true then WHY would we want to keep focusing on and expanding what is not working or is wrong in life? WHY wouldn’t we want to focus on and expand what is right, our victories, our successes?

Tons of things are always working no matter what seems like it is not working at the moment. It is a change in perspective – a simple shift in your view and your attention. IT can be as simple as shifting from, “My photography did not sell at the show” to “That was a real victory to get in that show and I made a lot of great contacts”.

Imagine a whole day where you actually look for what is right and is working and is a victory. Is this too wild to even imagine? Do millions of “BUTS” coming up for you? Then you definitely want to try to imagine it!

So now are you thinking I have become too Airy Fairy? Think I have lost my grasp on “reality” and substituted some Mary Poppins’ attitude? Hold on … think a moment … who just thought that? Consider that those thoughts are just more of the old thought process that comes from spending too much time focusing on what is wrong and having it expand in your life. As Einstein (one of my favorite creatives) said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

That everything-is-wrong consciousness begins with this one thing is wrong, then we focus in on it and engage with it and we quickly find something else wrong. Then it keep expanding til everything is wrong. Where it ends up is with us being totally resigned that anything can actually be right or go right so WHY BOTHER? That resigned part of us is what denies that anything can be right and fights to have us keep focusing on what is wrong.

So how about you try it on for a day? Let go of your resignation for ONE DAY. Turn your creative juices on and spend a whole day ONLY looking for your victories, for what is right and is working. If you catch your mind reverting back to thoughts about what is not working or telling you this is crazy and that, “These things really ARE WRONG, look at them”, just stop, take a deep breathe and find something right again ASAP. Then keep going to find the next right thing.

Notice at the end of the day how the day began to go for you, what inspiration you might have gained, what kind of things began to happen or get done. Tomorrow you can choose to have another day of it … you can even keep it going a day at a time until you notice that focusing on the good things, the right things, the victories and successes are now your new way of viewing yourself and your life. That is what I ultimately would love you to have for yourself.  No telling how much more Art you will produce if you took this on!

Dig deep if you have to … I’ll give you something to start with: It is a victory to even be able to be sitting here right now reading this!!!

What are your victories?
What is working in your life, with your Art, with your Creativity?
What is good about what just happened a few minutes ago?

Feel free to share with me/us … What fun it would be to enjoy comments about what is working and good and right in our lives and with our Art and Creativity!