As my latest book in the Life On Purpose series comes close to being finished, I want to share some of the key passages of it here. The book is entitled Path of Mastery: Being the Change You Want to See in the World, and it’s a culmination of over 16 years of endeavoring to live true to my own life purpose while also coaching hundreds of people to do the same.  Today’s excerpt is on Congruent Creativity.

Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. Don Miguel Ruiz

When we use the power of our word (and words) in the direction of truth and love, we’re taking major steps along the Path of Mastery. But how do we practice this in our everyday lives?  I admit, it’s not always easy, and sometimes it’s downright hard, but I have found that it’s well worth the effort.  Does this mean I never slip or fail in being impeccable with my word?  Not at all.  I fail on a fairly regular basis, but like most failures, these times are perfect learning opportunities, and with enough learning opportunities we can all get better and stronger at being true to our word and ourselves.

So, let me introduce one other distinction that I believe will help us all move in the right direction.  It’s Congruent Creativity.

8 Steps to Congruent Creativity

One of our greatest gifts, if not the greatest gift, we are all given as we arrive here on Earth is the gift of creating.  It is, in fact, a gift that comes in three packages for we all have three different ways to create.  Perhaps you feel that you aren’t a creative person.  Well, guess what?  You created that perception of yourself and you could, if you chose, create a different perspective — one that would be far more empowering to your life.

We all have the ability to create in these three ways:
•    with our thoughts,
•    our words, and
•    our actions.

Congruent Creativity is the process of aligning these three ways of creating with each other — where our thoughts are creating the same thing as our words and our actions.  If you are one of those people who does not feel they are creative you probably have a wealth of evidence for that belief; a long list of examples where you weren’t able to create what you desired.

Consider that it’s not that you aren’t creative but that your three spheres of creativity are out of alignment with each other.  After all, when things are congruent they are matching or in agreement with something else. In other words, you may be creating one thing with your thoughts, while at the same time creating something else with your words, and you may also be  creating something entirely different with your actions. So your thoughts, words and actions are canceling each other out.  The end result is nothing much gets created and thus your notion of “not being a creative person” becomes true.

You can probably see how knowing your Divinely Inspired Life Purpose and staying aware of your Inherited Purpose can play important roles in Congruent Creativity. If you want to live a life that is consistent with your life purpose, then become very attentive to the degree to which your thoughts, words and actions are aligned or not aligned with your life purpose.

So, if you want to experience an amazing level of creativity in your life, begin practicing Congruent Creativity.  How?  Here are 8 steps you can take to create Congruent Creativity in your life.

Release Your Belief:  The first step is to release any notion you may have about your ability to create since that belief is inconsistent with anything you’re out to manifest in your life.  Sure you have evidence that you’re not creative, but that evidence is itself proof that you really are able to create.  You created that evidence.  Paradoxical but true.

Create a New Belief:  Next bring your thought sphere of creativity into alignment by designing a new belief that you are gifted with creative ability. You have been creating all your life and I mean that in two ways.  You’ve been creating ever since you were born and what you’ve been creating all that time is ‘all your life.’  Perhaps you’ve misused or under utilized this powerful gift but that’s now in your past.

Think it and Feel it:  Closely akin to the ability to create with your thoughts is your feelings.  You can energize the creating power of your thoughts by deeply feeling what you’re also thinking.  Don’t just think “I am a mighty creating being” feel it as well, and you will turbocharge your thoughts.  In fact the more you feel it the more you will create it.  So, whenever you work with your thought sphere of creativity, remember it’s really your thoughts and feelings creating together.

Speak it and it is so:  Next add in the next sphere of creating — your words, and be sure your words are consistent with your thoughts and feelings.  Now, you’re adding real energy to the equation because your thoughts/feelings and your words have a synergistic energy when they are congruent with each other.  Your creative abilities are becoming more focused. Just like focused, aligned light becomes a powerful laser beam, so will your creative powers.

Add in Action:  Now add in the power of action and your congruent creativity is switched into “overdrive”  IF your actions are consistent with your thoughts/feelings and your words.  If not, one will cancel out the other, leaving you back to square one.  But once these three spheres of creativity are congruent with each other, your ability to create is likely to escalate beyond anything you’ve ever experienced, particularly if you once thought, “I’m not a creative person.”

Let’s pause right here and insert an example.  About a year ago as of this writing, towards the end of the year I began pondering upon what my next year of a life on purpose would be like. (Yes, I do endeavor to practice what I preach.) As I was meditating and journaling on the various possibilities, one thing that kept coming up was to focus more on my writing, and to really step into the possibility of being a visionary writer of fiction and non-fiction.

It was about this time that Ann had been reading a series of fantasy books by a particular author who she greatly admired.  She even went to the author’s web site and read about how she’d become a full time writer.  It was about this time that Ann mentioned to me about what she’d read about the writer, and wondered if I shouldn’t focus more of my energies in the coming year on my writing.  This was completely independent of what I’d been thinking, for I’d not yet mentioned my own thoughts on the subject.  Needless to say, it was powerful confirmation that I was on to something, for I’ve learned long ago to listen to my wife. I’ve also learned that when we’re aligned, watch out Universe, which leads to my next point. (You can learn more how this Purpose Project of becoming a Visionary Writer is unfolding here.)

Use the Hyperdrive of Collective Consciousness:  It is possible to move your creative abilities into ‘warp factor 10’ by working with the “Collective Consciousness” of others.  In other words, as you work to bring your creative energies in alignment with each other you will begin to attract other people to your efforts.  Why?  Because everyone loves a winner and you’re creating yourself as a winner.  Success breeds success.  This begins to give a whole new meaning to the term “like-minded” people.  You will be attracting people with like-minds.  The challenge at first is to distinguish between those of like-mind and those that have simply shown up around you because they’ve been attracted to the results you’ve been producing.

The Power of Shared Vision:  Once you are clear about the overall vision or purpose you are here to create on Earth, you can use this vision as a way to separate the wheat from the chaff.  You don’t need to worry about trying to convince someone to your way of thinking or your vision because you will be attracting people who already share that vision.  The clearer you are about the vision, the easier it will be for you to detect who else shares the vision with you.  Then everyone who is sharing in the vision is able to use the power of Congruent Creativity to bring that vision into reality.

Pulling it All Together:  Although it may sound like the steps to Congruent Creativity are linear they do not need to be.  In fact, the most powerful way to create is to bring alignment of your thoughts/feelings, words, and actions simultaneously by “acting as though” what you’re thinking, feeling and saying is already so. Many times people feel they need to wait for something before they can be in action.  They wait until they have enough confidence or until they’ve learned enough to be sure to succeed. This waiting game often leads to procrastination and greatly slows down the process.  But with Congruent Creativity you gain the confidence and learn what you need to know as you bring your three spheres of creativity into alignment with each other.