Where To Begin

When I teach workshops, I often find myself talking about the present moment or the importance of being present. Though, I suppose I should say I find myself using the words “the present moment,” and “being present.” I wish I had other words to describe the state of mind in which all the best creativity occurs. Those two terms have so thoroughly entered our common vocabulary that I don’t believe they deliver much surprise or impact. I just can’t come up with anything better.

When I think of being present, I mean my attention is where I actually am. Specifically, I am not thinking about the future or the past, and I’m not judging the present. It’s easy to recognize when I’m thinking about the future or past, it’s not so easy to notice when I’m judging the present. After all, creativity is all about making something that didn’t exist before, looking at the world and asking, “What would I like that isn’t here now?”

It’s an absolutely fantastic question, but it can also cause a little trouble. There is not a single moment in my life where I am not aware there is something I want that I don’t have, or something that I don’t want that I do have. The more I notice the not having and having, the more disgruntled I become with where I am, with the present, even though it was the present that helped give me ideas to create something in the first place. No matter. I know what I like and I don’t like, and I want what I want right now, and I want all the stuff I dislike gone right now.

This is one of the fundamental challenges of leading a creative life. It must begin with acceptance. To create anything, I simply cannot spend my time thinking about what I don’t have and what I don’t like. No ideas come to me, nothing begins, until I have moved my attention off of the half-fullness or half-emptiness of the glass. I don’t care about the glass. It’s old news. I care about the new thing, what currently exists where only I can perceive it, exists within me right now, in the present, and I need only accept it is there and I can begin.

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