Creative Alchemy

Risk and Creativity: when you don't know what's going to happen

What's your relationship with uncertainty? This year I seem to have found myself doing so many things without a safety net, setting up a brand new partnership (www.edgethinking.co.uk), taking on far bigger projects and challenges, and often not knowing how any of this is going to turn out. My old response to not knowing would have been to go to bed and not come out, or to have the odd nervous breakdown, but I'm starting to trust that things have a way of working themselves out. 

The thing that made the difference for me was making sure I was clear on the worst possible consequence of every decision. When I realised that the unlikely event of the utter devastation of my business and livelihood might at worst lead to me having to get a job in a bar, or rent out my flat and that I was okay with that possibility, I was able to take the bigger risks in confidence. I managed to find a level of risk that I was comfortable with, and was able to break the deadlock.

Risky business

A couple of weeks ago I suddenly learned how to stay upside down. I'm not being weirdly metaphorical here, the upsidedownness being part of my (nearly daily) yoga practise. The thing is, I've been doing yoga for years now, and I've never been able to do headstands. Or those crab things. Or for that matter most things involving significant upper body strength. I could do all sorts of things which came easily to me but somehow managed to forget to practise the difficult stuff, the stuff I didn't feel I had the confidence to try. As my yoga teacher pointed out to me, we all have a position which comes naturally to us, that we can't imagine not being able to achieve effortlessly, and the rest we have to work towards. It kind of helped every time I felt like everyone else could do something which completely stumped me, realising that I had my own secret power too.