Adopt a creative, versus a reactive, orientation

Habits can be remarkably persistent. The very characteristics that make them useful also make them difficult to change. This is where adopting a creative rather than a reactive orientation can be particularly useful.

Research shows that by focusing on what you want to create in your life rather than responding to what you want to fix, you make it easier to move away from the current situation and toward your desired future.

According to musician and author Robert Fritz, who writes about the creative process, when you have a keen understanding of where you are now and where you want to go, you set up “structural tension,” like the tension on a rubber band when you stretch it between your hands. The creative challenge then becomes how to close the gap between the two states so you move toward your vision. The question of “how” to do so releases energy that can drive you toward creating the results you want.

In her article, “Dancing with Systems,” environmental scientist and system dynamicist Donella Meadows promoted taking a creative orientation toward complex, dynamic systems. She wrote about “dancing with” them rather than controlling them:

Systems thinking … says … [t]he future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being. Systems can’t be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned. We can’t surge forward with certainty into a world of no surprises, but we can expect surprises and learn from them and even profit from them.

For most people, the idea of creating or dancing toward something new holds much more promise than that of trying to fix something that’s broken.