From Complaining to Creating
by Leslie Sann
What’s so? So what? Now what?
~ Russell Bishop
John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” And I say, “Sometimes we don’t like it.” When we don’t like something, we often go into complaint. “Can you believe this weather?!”
Just curious, how useful have you found your complaining? Does it get you what you want? For me, I have noticed that complaining just makes me grumpy.
Yet, complaining can be useful, IF you learn how to use it. These complaints arise to tell you something is awry and instead of merely reacting there is an opportunity for creative action.
Guess what … questions are actions of language. They open the door to creativity.
As soon as we ask a question such as, “What is this?” or, “What’s so?” we have moved from reactivity into creativity. (Notice that the letters are the same, just rearranged.) Creation sits waiting to be released in the midst of reaction. All that’s required is to take an action.
Action negates reaction.
We can take the action of asking a question such as these:
- What is this?
- Is it even mine?
- What can I do about it?
- Can I change this?
- If so, how?
- What is the gift here?
Questions are powerful because they invite possibilities that our programmed brains haven’t yet considered. Give the questions time to simmer and see what bubbles to the surface.
My experience is that questions can stop the thinking machine and open the mind to creative possibility. Akin to a Zen Koan: What is the sound of one hand clapping? When the mind hears that, it thinks, “ huh?” In that moment, in that pause, there is space for inspiration to slip through the open door.
I recently asked a class I am facilitating to ponder the following question. I challenge you to consider it as well:
If there were no problems to solve, nothing to fix, what would you create, just for the joy of it?
If you’d like encouragement in creating purely for the joy of it, please reach out. Perhaps a 1:1 might lift you up. Or maybe you’d enjoy joining one of my upcoming classes.
Yours from Planet Joy,
