Ten Steps for Creating Success Joyfully
Personal power and creativity, when balanced, generate
tremendous energy! Success includes helping others, harnessing
your own creative genius and living your life from a space of
calm, personal power. These tips can help you find that walk of
strength to bring forth your personal goals and dreams in a good
way.
In my work as an actress, on stage, film and tv, and in my years
of work teaching acting classes of all levels, I've watched in
amazement as the process of developing optimal performance in
acting began to illuminate the process toward developing optimal
performance in other areas of my life -- in all areas, in fact.
I began to see that the qualities one needs to be a good actor
were the same ones needed to succeed in any other endeavor,
including spiritual awakening. One needs confidence, full
knowledge of the role one is playing, and the ability to make it
real for oneself and, therefore, real for the audience as well.
(This is so like the process of awakening, to me. We at once
realize we are spiritual beings having a physical experience,
and not the other way around - as Wayne Dyer put it so well --
and in the next breath, realize that we agreed to see it
through, to make it real) One must be flexible, imaginative and
emotionally free of restrictions and blockage.
One must be willing to dedicate the time and effort, to explore
the script they've been given, work with the other characters on
the stage and make their environment home.
One of the best ways you can increase both your success-thinking
and your creativity, is to take a good acting class. Preferrably
one where there is improvisation included, which means that you
work without a script - making it up as you go along. It's
thrilling, scary and generates tremendous mental growth.
Books have been written on the creative aspects of acting and I
might write an article later on about that very subject but I
only touch on it here, to let you know where some of these ideas
have sprang from.
Others have sprang from my spiritual path and may include ideas
and concepts that are new to you. I encourage you to just try
these ten things for a month and see how you feel at the end of
the 30 days!
10 Spiritually Sound Ways to Boost Success and Creativity
1. Accept assistance. Get help with some of what you are trying
to do, or be willing to let something go when you are
overwhelmed. Conquer any fear of you may have of collaboration
or asking for help. If you look closely at why you feel you have
to do everything yourself, you'll find some kind of fear
operating that is keeping beneficial help from reaching you. In
fact, during this next 30 days make it a discipline to ask for
help at least once a day.
2. Vision it in! Dedicate time daily, to visualizing what you
wish to create, and spend time doing some kind of practice or
review of what you have done. Commit to doing something every
day, but do not set a rigid amount that must be done. One
sentence, written well, makes for a more successful day than
twenty pages written poorly. In other words, develop a healthy
respect for the act of visualization and write it into your
schedule as part of your work.
3. Seek non-human assistance. Ask for a totem animal, to help
you manifest your dreams and to show you the best way to
proceed. Make a list of the skills you need, and announce to
Spirit that you would like a "power" animal to teach you. The
animal may come in dreamtime or during your daily meditations.
It may appear in your life. Personally, Spider is one of my most
influential totems and appears a great deal when I am writing.
If the concept of Totem, or Power Animals, is new to you, you
might enjoy reading Animal Speak OR Animal Wise by Ted Andrews.
It opened a wonderful new world of wisdom and non-linear
thinking for me and it might do the same for you! You might also
enjoy exploring the use of Totem Essences for stronger
connection to non-human teachers in your environment and
spiritual realms.
4. Avoid squandering energies. If you cannot focus on the chosen
aspect, let it go and do something else. If blocked, let it go
for a while and come back to it later. In the past, this has
always been a very hard one for me. The more I wanted something
to be working, or completed, the more driven I tended to be.
However, years of operating that way have taught me that more
productivity can be achieved by shifting attention away from the
thing so desperately desired, when feeling urgent or driven. It
balances the creative flow. Take a break when you least feel
that you can afford to stop.
5. Release expectations. Understand that Spirit may have a way
of bringing the whole thing together, which your personality
self has never even considered. Don't tie the hands of your
Higher Self, by insisting on a certain sequence of events. Trust
that God will unfold the perfect result. If you can take the
position of "interested observer" it will be easier to let God
work in your life. Consider how it would be if you tried to fly
an airplane from your seat in the middle. How clear would your
vision of the entire sky be from that perspective. Better to
trust the pilot.
6. Be willing to take it one step at a time. Get used to not
being able to see the next step. It will be revealed when you
have done the work needed in the present moment. Jumping ahead
is one of the biggest energy drains I can imagine. It's a little
like trying to go 100 miles an hour with your foot on the brake.
All you'll do is make a stink and burn out your brake pads!
7. Practice good will gestures. Find someone to encourage, lift
up, or support. In the reality of the feedback loop, you will
receive what you give out, and the support will be there when
you need it. You are familiar with the Random Acts of Kindness
movement a while back and the more recent Pay It Forward
phenomenon. Both are rekindlings of a much older tradition: Do
unto others what you you would have them do unto you! These
ideas keep reemerging because they represent higher truth! It's
an amazing truth that what you do comes back to you, so do
something nice for no reason every day for the next 30 days.
8. Use conscious speech! Watch how you speak out about what you
want to create--choose your words and images carefully. Don't
push and don't push your ideas on other people. Share only with
those who will support, encourage, and gently challenge weak
points, from a position of support. Your body hears every word
you say about your health. Your mind hears every word you say
about your abilities and skills. Further more, your cellular
memory records everything you think about yourself, whether you
speak it out or not. Instead of saying "I'm terrible at public
speaking" try "In the past, I've tended to be challenged by
public speaking but I am learning to be comfortable sharing my
truth and awareness with others." Speaking in this way literally
programs your mind to put your challenges where they belong --
in the past -- and to focus your thinking toward the future in a
positive way.
9. Do something nourishing for yourself every day. Make a point
of it. It doesn't have to be a big thing. A long hot bath is one
of my favorite gifts I give myself. Affirm "I am deserving of
receiving this vision into reality", to open your channels for
receiving more goodness and success. When you stop punishing
yourself for work not done or results not achieved, you begin to
release the taskmaster that has kept you enslaved to linear time
results and projection. Yes, those things are there but they are
not the law. They are a guideline and guidelines change. Be
willing to enjoy wherever you are, even if it is not where you
think you should be or projected you would be by a particular
moment in time.
10. End the day when the day ends. Maybe the most important tip
of all - Let the day go at the end of the day, without judgment
or negative self-talk. Thank yourself for doing your best with
the time, release any unfinished business to God and ask for
dreamtime teachings, healing and help as you drop away to sleep.