and me. It had been a lifelong dream and it was time for us to have the experience. I was charmed by the cliffs on the island of Capri, the beauty of the French Riviera, and the periwinkle blue and white buildings on Santorini. It was an amazing adventure to places of staggering beauty. It was an investment in the joy of travel.
On the cruise ship, I met an incredible pianist, Pearl Kaufman. Since the publication of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, a number of people have said that they wish I had interviewed more musicians, so I took the opportunity to interview Pearl. Pearl performed on the ship three times, and each performance sparked a standing ovation with cheering. People fell all over each other in the line to buy her CDs. She was adored, and she plays on cruises all over the world to enthusiastic audiences (talk about a great job!). As Pearl said to me, “everyone should experience the joy of being cheered——there's nothing like it.” Pearl decided to become a pianist while watching a movie at age eight, and thankfully, no one tried to talk her out of it.
She received a music and scholastic scholarship to college, played for Igor Stravinsky, and is known for her famous movie performances with Henry Mancini and John Williams, among others. She loves all kinds of music, and believes strongly in its inspirational qualities. I asked her if she had any special favorites and she had an intriguing answer: “I'm like Elizabeth Taylor—I fall in love with everything I play.” Pearl says she does not get blocked or bored and never plans to retire—just slow down a bit to enjoy her grandchildren. Her advice for aspiring creatives: “Go where the action is. You can't stay home and expect your work to be seen or heard. You have to make the effort.”
Love is an essential success strategy for any endeavor. Doing work you love captivates your life force and enthusiasm. If you are settling for doing work you hate, you are missing this joy of full engagement. Falling in love with our work, over and over again, fulfills us like a great marriage. Our work is a potent relationship, and love is an essential lubricant. Pearl's love affair with her piano and its possibilities reminds us all that expressing love through our creative work is a peak experience of life.
CHALLENGE
Spend some time this month “remembering” what captivates you about your work and renew your vows.
MANAGING HIGH CREATIVITY
Highly creative women often have special aptitudes that give rise to creative intelligence, a superior ability for innovative thinking and application. In today's marketplace, our ability to think differently about problems and solve them with original and novel solutions is a key to success. Highly creative women can have problems if they don't see themselves or their abilities clearly. In my experience, some of the strengths and necessary talents of highly creative women can also be their downfall if not managed well. This book is meant to be a guide to help you to leverage your abilities and counter these potential pitfalls. These would include:
Being overly sensitive and therefore too thin-skinned to be out in the world much
Ambivalence about money and therefore being afraid or uncomfortable charging what they deserve
Intuitive—getting wrapped up too much in other people's life decisions, which distracts the highly creative woman from her own life
Divergent thinking—going from project to project—too many ideas at the same time can be overwhelming and make it difficult to focus
Independence—being afraid/disinclined to ask for emotional support and business help when they need it
Severely critical—perfectionism can be paralyzing and prevent highly creative women from ever releasing their completed work into the world or finishing projects at all
Non-conforming—being scapegoated by others for being too far “out there” and not following enough protocol to successfully do business in this world—can lead to isolation and loneliness
Not completely confident—having damaged self-esteem or lack of expertise in certain skill areas that they may need to learn or to delegate to others
Can be workaholics and ignore their own needs for self—nurturance, serenity and relaxation
Need for solitude—the highly successful woman must honor this and negotiate with partners and family
Can make simple things complex due to a long list of internal comfort criteria
Sad—often feel that they haven't met their potential or realized their dreams for this life
Fear of being who they really are and telling the truth about it and risking disapproval
Feeling guilty about not having chosen a traditional career path with job security, a pension, and securing people's understanding of what they do
Feeling confused by having too many interests and not knowing what to specialize in
Fear of rejection as being unbearable and something from which they won't recover
Fear that pursuing their creative work will hurt the ones they love
Being labeled by others as a risk taker or being hesitant to take the necessary risks to succeed
Fortunately, there are remedies for all of these issues, and this book is your guide to creative success and peace of mind. Most of these creative liabilities are also strengths, but you must learn how to capitalize on them and redesign your strategies of being in the world.
This is a book of hope and know-how. Let's start by looking at what inspires you.
SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY USING YOUR INTUITION
Worried that you're not creative? You are, but you may be out of touch with your creativity. Your intuition can lead you into a world of novel ideas, experimentation, and brainstorming that will perk up your work life and stimulate innovation and problem solving. Intuition is not just for New Agers. Many executives, business owners, and research and development professionals attribute their successes to following intuitive clues.
Intuition is your internal information and feeling source. It is an inner library of physical and emotional cues that can direct you onto the right avenue. It is the composite of “gut feelings” and perceptions unique to you. It is an inner way of knowing. Too often, we are trained to discount or repress that knowledge and therefore purposely neglect it, devalue it, or refuse to recognize its message. Intuition is a tool for insight and illumination. Can you recall a time when your intuition prompted you to follow a different course and connected you to a result you were looking for?
Susan recalls a time when her intuition prodded her to take an unfamiliar exit off the expressway on her way home. As she turned off, she felt foolish and almost turned around. But she followed a country road and passed an intriguing building with a “For Sale” sign on it. She stopped in amazement—this building fit her image of the gourmet shop she wanted to open some day. Here was her dream in reality; the rest was up to her.
The creative process demands that, like Susan, you are willing to step into the unknown and see what happens. Creativity is born of inspiration and your inspirations evolve from your passions. So follow your whims and see where they lead.
These excursions will stimulate new thought patterns and generate new
