This is part 6 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.

If you’ve read and digested my post yesterday you’ll be ready for this one.

While it’s much shorter, it’ll involve you taking a bigger mental leap.

Your Next Step

So, you’ve got a well defined “what” and an utterly compelling “why”. So now I bet you’re asking…

“What do I need to do to get into creative flow?”

“Tell the first thing I have to I do to find inspiration on demand.”

“How do I get in the zone whenever I want?”

It’s normal to think that your next step is to work out what to do in order to become what you want to be. That’s what most people would suggest.

But this is completely the wrong way round.

Focus On Being First

By focusing on what to do before you work out how to be, you’ll  keep doing the wrong things. And when they don’t work you’ll have decide what to do instead.

Then you’ll be tempted to seek out more information to work this out. And if that doesn’t work, you’ll repeat the same process. It’s like shooting in the dark again and again.

But this is what so many people do over and over.

Try Something Different

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”- Albert Einstein, (attributed)

So why not try something different?

By focusing on being what you want to be first, you’ll be amazed by the options that pop into your head.

It’s an extension of the simple but powerful NLP technique of “acting as if”.

If you don’t know what to do, pretend that you are someone that knows. When you act as if,  it can be a little spooky when these ideas come to you from nowhere.

How To Do It

This is going to take a little creative imagination on your part. But it shouldn’t be too hard for a creative person like you.

So, let’s say you want to be a hugely successful music producer.

Simply imagine that you already are.

What’s that like? How does it feel? What do you think about? What do you say to yourself? What do you say to other people? How do you act? What do you do? How do you hold yourself physically? How do you breath? What do you notice that’s different?

It might take some practise, but get used to being that person a little more each day. And eventually you will become comfortable with “being” that successful music producer.

Notice When Others Do This

When I first learnt this it seemed a little out there and quite frankly “woo woo”.

But “woo woo” or not, when I tried it myself it worked, despite my scepticism.

Then when I thought about it I could identify people I’d met in my life who just “were” before they “did” anything.

For example, I’ve been lucky enough to grow up around a few extremely successful musicians. And they all were successful musicians, way before they did anything remotely successful.

You can probably think of some yourself. They’re not necessarily musicians, but I’m sure you know the type. You’re might be a little envious of them:

“Who do they think they are?”

“What have they done to be like that?”

“What have they done that I haven’t?”

The answer is nothing. Yet.

But they are already “being” successful in themselves which makes it possible for them to be successful everywhere else.

And they always end up on top.

Some Words Of Caution

Please don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting you go out and annoy everyone with a know-it-all arrogant attitude. Because that way you’ll end up doing all the things that an arrogant know-it-all does.

I’m also not suggesting that you lie, make up or tell people things that haven’t happened. That’s not cool.

But I am suggesting that you decide exactly what you want to be, and then focus on being it before you attempt to do anything else.

The Benefits Of Being Before Doing

You’ll intuitively know what to do without consciously thinking about it.

You’re less likely to waste your time doing or learning superfluous stuff.

When you “are” that person inside, you won’t be comfortable until the conditions are the same outside. It’s an effortless motivation strategy.

You’ll even find it more of a struggle to remain in your alien “unsuccessful” situation and will naturally gravitate towards success.

And success will gravitate towards you.

 

This is part 6 of a 12 day blog series called “12 Steps You Must Take To Get Into Creative Flow Whenever You Want” or the more seasonal “The 12 Days of Creativeness”.