Salman Rushdie

"Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts."

— Salman Rushdie

Indian Novelist

1947 - 

Are you revisiting the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to change the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to think new thoughts about your talents and your capabilities?

We all face challenges in life -- challenges that impact the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives.  How we tell the story either gives us power over the events or makes us powerless.

In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had robotic surgery.  I chose not to be a cancer victim.  Within a month of the diagnosis, I decided that the cancer was a gift that would open up new worlds and give me opportunities to meet new people.  I do not see myself as a cancer survivor.  I am very lucky to have received such a gift for what it has taught me.  I am a life-long learner and the cancer was just another experience in my life.

What challenges in your life do you need to reframe -- to retell?  We are all here to learn lessons.  What lessons are you learning from the challenges you face.  How are you retelling your stories to give you more power over the challenges?

Linus Pauling

"Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life."

— Linus Pauling

American Scientist

1901 - 1994

Are you curious about the world around you?  Are you searching for new information and ideas?  Are you asking questions and looking for answers?  Creative leaders seek out new ideas and new ways of seeing the world.  We want answers to our questions.  Part of our thrill in life is learning something new — figuring out something we didn't know.

Creative leaders need a strong sense of curiosity about the world they inhabit.  They are not satisfied with the pat answers of the past.  The challenge is in finding new answers to the age old questions.

Marquis de Vauvenargues

"Great thoughts always come from the heart."

— Marquis de Vauvenargues

French Writer

1715 - 1747

The heart is powerful, intelligent and intuitive.  Most of us have been taught that our intelligence resides in our brain, but this is only partially true.  Logical and analytical thinking occurs in the brain.  Intuitive, sensitive and compassionate thinking occurs in the heart.  Often, though, we let our brain override our heart.  We need to learn to listen to voice of our heart as it reveals a deeper truth.  Reason may dominate our thinking, but compassion should govern our actions.  While the brain is busy analyzing the options, the heart knows intuitively what road to take. 

Years of experience have taught me that my heart knows the answer often before the brain has finished its analysis.   I have learned that it is better to trust the small voice inside my heart then the loud voice inside my head.  Do you trust your intuition?  Are you listening to the voice within your heart?

Toni Morrison

"If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic."

— Toni Morrison

American Novelist

1931 -

This quote from Toni Morrison captures the essence of the creative arts.  Yes, the creative arts are about finding meaning in the world around us, but the arts are also about the magic of that world.  Yes, the creative arts are about creating order in a chaotic world, but the arts are also about accepting the mystery of that world.  Yes, the creative arts are about discovering new visions of the world, but the arts are also about kneeling in reverence before the altar.  Yes, the creative arts are about thinking deeply about how the world should be, but the arts are also about the awe that we feel when the work of creation is finished.  

Are you in awe of what you created and how you created it?  Do you appreciate the mystery and magic of the experience?  Learn to honor and respect the creative gifts that you have been given.  

Robert Frost

"A poem . . . begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. . . . It finds the thought and the thought finds the words."

Robert Frost

American Poet

1874 - 1963

Does your art grow out of your emotions?  How often does your pain find expression in your painting, your poem or your story?  Does your joy find the words to express itself?  Many times we forget the original emotion that triggered the thought that ultimately finds its expression in our art.  Some art begins in anger, some in love.  And if we paint or write well, our audience feels the emotion.  




Here is my favorite Frost poem.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.