It’s our birthright to live a creative, abundant, happy life. We were born with all of the necessary components to create a wonderful life, loving and fulfilling. Our creator gave us the gift of life, making us perfect, unique individuals.

What happens to our creativity as we grow up and become adults?

When we were children, we simply created. We played house, we played school, we made believe we were grown ups – anxious to be one. We fearlessly climbed trees, built forts in the woods, made up songs – all without any sense of judgment about what we were up to. We created without thinking as we moved through our invented world.

On our way to becoming grown ups we began to lose our sense of play and imagination. Judgment entered the picture. We received our first criticism, and thus began our fearful retreat into a safer world. Somewhere along the way, we abandoned our fearlessness to color outside the lines.

Ironically, those of us that hold on to our creative nature and make a living from it as adults often struggle with the fear of not being enough. Creative work is very personal and intimate, displaying the essence of a person – our heart and our core. By delivering our work to the world, we expose ourselves. The idea that our work might be criticized or that we won’t be loved is always pulling at our creative energy.

Displaying our creativity is always a risk. This is why we make the false statement that we are not creative. To be creative, is to risk being unloved. I hear people say “I am just not very creative. I can’t think things up like you can.”

Of course, we are all creative. Everything in life is a creation that comes directly from us. Whether we believe we are creative or not – we are always in the midst of creating.

Shifting our mindset to releasing our judgments about creativity, in ourselves and in others – frees us up to be fearless creators. It’s what we’re built for. Anything less than that is cheating the world.

Coach Charrise

It seems we make things hard sometimes. I work with people who have the mindset that though change is inevitable, that it’s hard work. My sense is that it’s only as difficult as you expect it to be.

Change Is inevitable. It’s not the world that changes so much as the people changing inside it. It’s always about the people. People carry the story around with them that change is difficult. The story perpetuates. Someone says, “Yeah, things at work are really tough. There are so many changes going on. Changes are so hard on me.”

Is that really true? Our resistance to the idea of change makes it so. But is it true that change is difficult? It certainly doesn’t have to be.

We are all evolving – every day we experience changes in our thoughts and our mindset. We allow our moods to change at the whim of someone else’s actions. We float through life feeling insecure about the future, wasting precious energy on worry. Uncertainty causes us to fill in the unknown with worst case scenarios. We become frozen in the fear about what could be.

I think we were built to be resilient to the ongoing changes that occur for us. Anything else is simply a thought. Our victim mind nurtures the thought that life is hard, that we must struggle.

When we really get present to the idea that our thoughts aren’t always real, that sometimes we create stories that produce an imaginary set of worries and fears, we are liberated. A gentle shift in our mind from that of being prey to change to that of being grateful for it can make all the difference.

It seems so simple.

Have you ever been given a second chance? You know, some sort of close call between life and death? I was watching a documentary on the Hudson River Airplane emergency landing yesterday. Talk about second chances!

The passengers on the plane were making calls to loved ones, telling them goodbye. According to one of the passengers, his life was playing back for him as the plane was heading down, and he knew he had not lived the life he wished he had lived. He still had things to do.

Several other passengers talked of the thoughts that went through their mind as their life was fatefully put in the hands of the flight crew. When you have limited chances for survival, and you have time to think about it, you naturally reflect on what you’ve done in life – and what you haven’t done. You think about the people in your life that you love, and in this case, call them to tell them so.

One woman made such a call – and commented that of course she got her husband’s voice mail. Imagine that? Imagine if she had not survived, and all her husband had was the voice mail.

Of course, the flight crew ended up pulling off a series of skilled moves which saved the lives of every single passenger. All 155 people ditched the aircraft and were safely moved to shore.

Can you imagine being one of those people, knowing your plane is going down? I mean – truly imagine it. What would you regret not having done? Would you have loved more, worried less? Would you have taken more chances? Would you have worked less and played more?

One passenger said that he was given a second chance, because his work was not finished here. He said that all 155 passengers have some sort of purpose to complete. They are questioning everything now – in order to answer the question: Why was I spared? They are looking at their life with fresh eyes, asking themselves how to get started living their best life.

My wish for you is that you don’t wait for a second chance to make good use of your first one. Ask yourself these questions today, and begin living your life full out and fearlessly.

Love immensely. Laugh until your belly hurts. Do what makes you most happy, every single day. Give generously. Take chances. Dance and sing, and breathe in the scent of a life well lived, each and every day.

Coach Charrise