GENIUS HOME - Reader's Creativity Questions: Acting like a genius... 

How do you STOP thinking like a genius and START acting like a genius?

A fellow reader of this website, "j0nskil0k", writes to ask about the perenial challenge of taking your creative thoughts and ideas and actually doing something constructive with them. If you want to move from creative thinking to creative action, you might want to read along...

"j0nskil0k" writes:
 

My problem is not thinking, my problem is DOING!‏
From:  "j0nskil0k"
Sent: 08 June 2004 14:39:49
To:  wily[at]wilywalnut.com

Hello and great day to you Wily 'Genius-teacher' Walnut! :)

First, excuse my bad habit of writing long texts and try to understand that I read english well, but I'm kinda poor at writing it.

Second, I want to thank you about your great website (the BEST site in whole internet! I have bookmarked it, and recommended it to my friend!)! Your "Sleep toSucceed!"-article and others have really worked, and they are great!

Enough of that, to the POINT: My problem is not thinking, I think wildly and freely almost like genius thinks! I HAVE those creative thoughts and complex fantasy worlds in my head, but I have difficulties of DOING something with those great thoughts! I want to write those things, paint those things etc. But every time when I try to do something creative (write, play an instrument, paint), I suddenly start to thinking something else... I can't focus to my artistic and creative world!

All the stress, all the relationships with people, all the things which does not belong to my genius mind, all kinds of "DEVILS" jump in front my eyes and mind and suddenly, I LOSE MY INSPIRATION!

The whole year, between 2003 summer to this day, I have thought but never did. I have all kinds of great thoughts but It's MISSION IMPOSSIBLE to fully pay attention and DO something with these thoughts.. I quess you understood, so is there a article in your site that helps me? Have you written article to help geniuses who always think, but never can't do? 

Thanks.

Smart regards
"j0nskil0k"

Here is my reply:

Dear "j0nskil0k",

Thank you so much for your wonderful letter! I apologise to you for the delay in replying -- I haven't checked my email for a week or so. I was delighted to discover your email in my inbox!

First, to the contrary I think you are 'kinda rich' at writing English -your express yourself clearly with passion and energy, which I LOVE!!!

Secondly, thank you for your enthusiasm and compliments for the website. It gives me tremendous satisfaction to know that some people are enjoying the articles and benefitting from them. I am grateful to you.

Thirdly, to address your brilliant question. I think you and I are very similar -- I, too, frequently find I have all this creative energy surging inside me, with a whirlwind of creative ideas and inspirations and yet I don't channel it effectively into tangible creations. This is a challenge! And I think it is one that has been faced by many creative people who have learnt how to tap their creative mind and then frequently get overwhelmed by, and a little addicted to, its power.

Even the man considered by many to have been the greatest genius of them all -- Leonardo da Vinci -- was famous for his inability or reluctance to finish projects that he started. His curiosity was so insatiable, his vision so penetrating, that he could barely contain it long enough to focus on creating any one thing. But he obviously learnt to do so and we are the beneficiaries of some of his artworks and his many notebooks detailing his studies and investigations in a vast number of fields of interest.

The paradox of creative genius is that it is a wild energy, an awesome force which must be channelled and contained if we are to get full value from it. How you channel it effectively and in what manner is highly personal to you. If your talents suggest writing, then you write. If you artistic, then you paint, or do sculpture or some other artwork. If you are musical, then you compose music, play instruments or sing. If you are entrepreneurial, then you bring your brilliance to play in the business world and find ways to increase profits and expand your business. If you are spiritual, then you increase your awareness and become more insightful.

I don't think I have a clear answer for you right now. This is a question I am still wrestling with myself. The way I feel about it right now is:

• I am tired of wasting time, allowing my mind to race from thing to thing, and not achieving as much as I think I could or should. Therefore, I WANT to focus on one thing at a time, even if it is hard to contain myself that way.
• That when I do actually choose one thing to focus on, then I discover that I can pour this pent-up creativity into that one thing -- I then have a focussed stream of creativity -- which is very powerful.

The creative mind is reluctant to be contained -- it feels threatened by containment, as though somehow it will lose its freedom. However, in my experience, true freedom only comes through discipline - through controlling the energy in some way.

How you choose to express it, and the way you choose to express it, is ultimately part of the creative challenge of your life purpose. Only you can decide what will be most meaningfulfor you. Only you can decide what you want to achieve. But to achieve SOMETHING with your creative ideas and thoughts, you do have to pick one and work with it until you have made it happen. Or discover that it doesn't work or isn't for you.

There are 2 ways to judge the value of your creative ideas and the effort required to manifest them:

1. The Outer: Does it make you more money? Does it help you or someone else? Does it bring you reward in satisfaction or respect?
2. The Inner: Who do you become as you craft the idea and manifest it? What do you learn? How have you benefitted as a person at an inner level? What pleasure does it give you as you express it?

These are my initial thoughts on the subject and I hope they offer some guidance or stimulus to your own thoughts on how to deal with this issue.

I have an article here by Mike Litman of www.mikelitman.com which I think addresses this issue perfectly. I have pasted it below.

Wishing You Happiness, Joy and Success...

Warmest Regards,
Wily Walnut

Wily Walnut is the headbrain at http://www.WilyWalnut.com   , your top resource for unleashing the genius within, becoming infinitely creative, intelligent and brilliant in all that you do!

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