The Order of Creation

Here’s the order of creativity: Focus, Feeling, Thought, Creation. You focus your attention on anything at all – your cat, your partner, a memory, a story – and you immediately feel something as a consequence of what you’re focusing on. Soon, thoughts matching the feeling begin arriving. Once you have a thought, you can begin turning it into words or actions. Rinse and repeat every moment of every day for the rest of your life.

The most important steps, I’ve come to understand, are the first two. I know how I want to feel: curious, calm, hopeful, friendly, appreciative. I also know I don’t want to feel angry, scared, doubtful, bored, depressed, or hopeless. You would think it would be easy, therefore, to quickly shift my focus as soon as I am feeling bad. It is definitely not. I have had to stand in my own misery and say aloud, “Just shift your focus. That’s all you’re feeling. It’s not reality.” I did so yesterday, and I’ll probably have to do so again today.

Writing, fortunately, is a great way to practice using this order deliberately. We typically focus on the fourth step, the creating part, though that’s impossible without the first three steps. That is, I can’t write until I have an idea, which is just a thought, and my thoughts have to match what I’m feeling, and my feelings will always match how I’m focused. I usually notice the thoughts first, and if I don’t like them, I shift my focus until I get the thoughts, the ideas, I like, and then I can actually write.

I like writing. I like language and the mechanics of how a sentence is formed, and the dynamics of one sentence against another. I like stories and their hypnotic effect on me as I tell and hear them. What I really like, however, is focusing on purpose. I can’t control which thoughts I get as I focus, and that’s just fine. But I can control how I focus, and that’s all I need. That’s all anyone needs. The rest follows automatically, whether I’m paying attention to my focus and feelings or not, whether I think reality is what happens to me, or what I create through me.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com