April 2010 Newsletter
Online Issue # 24

Practice Page

“Creating is about making it up.”

—Robert Fritz

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

—Alan Kay

Here's something for you to think about, write about, talk about, wonder about, and try out.
The quotations on this page are among my all-time favorites. The first one is the simplest definition of creating that I've found. I love how it helps to demystify creating and offers permission to go ahead and get started: what you are doing is making it up. When creating, you often don't—and can't—know clearly, because you are in a moment-to-moment “making it up” process. You might experience frustration, terror, and exhilaration in quick succession, or you might plod along seemingly forever, still not knowing, hoping for something.

The second quotation reminds me that we can create the future. In the midst of day-to-day living, it's easy to lose sight of this and live as though the future is something that happens to us. We forget that the future is an idea in our imagination; it's always at least a few heart beats ahead of us, more often weeks, months, or even years. The future is seen as “someday” we're moving toward. In truth, the future is in our ordinary moments.

This moment, right now is when we create—whatever we create—with or without awareness. Although a moment is a short period of time, they have a way of adding up. You could say they trend. Repeated moments of something tend to create that something. One or two moments don't create it, but hundreds and thousands of moments do. You might wake up one day and wonder where did all this hesitation come from? It takes courage to look and see the pattern you've been creating, moment by moment.

What if you shifted your focus to create more moments of magic, inspiration, curiosity, or adventure? Imagine how different the creation of your future will be.

Challenge:

Notice a moment. Without judging, see it as it is.

Now see it as the building material for your future—your life. 

What might you be creating with this moment or ten thousand similar moments?

An Affirmation:

You've probably heard the advice to begin with the end in mind. Affirmations are an excellent way of doing that. When you write an affirmation for yourself, you focus on what you want to experience in the future and you bring it into the present moment.

Pretend for a minute that the following is true for you: I want to get up in the morning excited about the day ahead of me, because I'll be doing what I love to do—making a difference in the world. 

Creating that Moment: Making it Up

An affirmation is a positive statement about what you want, expressed in the present tense.

In this moment, my life is good.
I wake up every morning to a brand new day.
I'm excited to be who I am,
eager to do what I love,
confident I make a difference.

Do-It-Yourself Affirmation

Give yourself some quiet, alone time to focus your attention on something you want to happen in your future. As more details occur to you, write them down. Once you've gathered your thoughts on paper, you might already be feeling and picturing what you want more clearly.

Adjust your focus back to the present moment, as though you are already experiencing what you want. Select one detail you jotted down and describe it in the present tense. Examples: I am content. I wake up rested. I choose wonderful friends. I eat fresh foods.

Add another detail, and then another. Play around with the order of what you've written. Read it out loud to hear how true it sounds to you. Do the words flow? Do you like the feel of the words when you repeat them to yourself? 

Finally, check that your affirmation is positive, in the present tense, and what you want.

Notice how your affirmation is both future and present focused: that is its power. An affirmation becomes your future, only when you make it your present moment.

“The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created—created first in the mind and  will , created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.”

—John Schaar

Laurie Mattila 
© April 2010

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