Archive for April, 2009

I took my 1947 Chevy out of storage today. It always brings me such joy. I’ve had this car since the mid-seventies when I was a struggling young actor and have done my best to keep it in good running shape. I don’t display it at car shows nor do I have an antique license plate proudly displayed above the front bumper. I actually drive it. There is no automatic transmission in this car. It’s standard “three on the column” stick shift. I can’t leisurely drive and talk on my cell phone because I have to be in the present and pay attention to what I’m doing. It’s a bit of work.

Sometimes I grab an hour, gather my writing material and drive to the beach opening myself up to new ideas and insights or sometimes I put a picnic hamper in the trunk and take my wife to a local concert.

Why do I do this? I do it for the same reason I have a vegetable garden. It takes me away from the constant barrage of negative news and the heavy lifting of what I must do to keep my business going. It’s the same reason other people play golf, participate in a local softball game, spend time with young people or work in their flower garden. It makes me feel grounded and it provides a peaceful center from which to do my more mundane but necessary tasks.

I think we all need to figure out a way to take a few moments and ground ourselves. It’s very healthy.

As some of your may know, my second home, my creative space, my healing place is in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Thirty years ago, through passion and single minded focus, I bought a one-bedroom condo. It was the most frightening thing I had ever done, especially since I had very little money and a career that had not yet sprung forth. As it turned out, it was also one of the wisest moves I have every made. St. Thomas is not only where some of my best ideas have germinated, it is where most of my first book, Quantum Leap Thinking: An Owner’s Guide to the Mind, was written.

After a full day of writing, my wife and I like to go for a long afternoon swim in the beautiful blue Caribbean. We need to work out the kinks after sitting for hours in front of a computer. And, quite a long swim it is.

Before I begin to stroke my way across the bay, I always fix my sight on the furthest corner of one of the hillside homes. Once I chose my direction, I look down through my mask searching for the stray sea turtle or manta ray. After a few strokes, I look up to check my destination and inevitably see that I have veered off course. I adjust my direction and, after a couple of dozen hard strokes, look up again only to once again notice that I am yet again off course. I adjust, get distracted by another wonder of the sea and – yes – course correct again. And, so it goes until I reach my destination. If I hadn’t constantly checked and readjusted my direction, hadn’t held my vision firmly in my mind’s eye and hadn’t kept my focus, I would have simply been – lost.

Living an exceptional life demands the same process. You must choose to create a realistic, sensible vision of where you want to go, focus on the vision, take action and check to see if you are moving in the right direction. If not, course correct, refocus and take action again until – you achieve what you want to achieve.

Susan and I recently returned from taking our annual one-week-a-year getaway to my brother’s and my fishing camp in Wisconsin. It isn’t really a camp but it is a place where family members often gather. This year it was quite wonderful being with my brother and his wife. That was almost two months ago and having been back in the whirlwind of life has somewhat blunted my absolute belief that in order to be really creative and come up with “out-of-box” ideas, I must renew my spirit.

So, here I sit on my two-day camping trip overlooking a beautiful lake near Great Barrington, Massachusetts, listening to NPR and writing about renewal. By the way, my wife’s not with me because this year she declared, “I will travel anywhere in the world with you with great joy but – there had better be a shower without spiders crawling up the wall. Good point.

Yesterday I had a guest stay with me, an old and dear friend from St. Thomas. He’s a deep thinker with a great sense of humor and loves to have his mind stimulated with interesting discussion. Other than my brother, I don’t really “hang out” with other men. I think it’s because I have a missing chip when it comes to appreciating sports. So, my ability to carry on a conversation for any length of time in male company about the world of athletics is somewhat limited and often quite painful – unless I’m with someone with whom I respect and feel totally comfortable and like to think and discuss the larger issues of life.

Richard and I had a great time and I felt much lighter in spirit than when he arrived. Today I rented a row boat and spent two very pleasant hours fishing and thinking – totally alone. Once again my mind turned to creative projects, ideas and possibilities and once again I was reminded of the importance of getting away from what’s comfortable even if what’s comfortable is chaos and – renewing the spirit.

As I was recently reminded, we really do have control as to how we see things – our perspective. In celebration of a very special event we invited two dear friends of ours stay at our home in Connecticut. Before he retired, Douglas ran the literary department at William Morris in London. Sally Ann is a brilliant actress and a star of stage and screen. Both are lovely, informed and intelligent people.

Dinner was a lively swirl of conversation covering every subject from politics to movies, from books to the theater. Except for Douglas, we all expressed concern and a little bleakness about Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy and, of course, politics. What was amazing is that when any of the three of us expressed something negative, Douglas turned it around and put a positive spin on the subject. The war? Look at the past and realize that, even if we don’t think so at the time, something good has always come out of conflict. The stock market? Look at history and understand that it has always recovered. And on it went. How was he able to do that? Here’s how. He had made a choice to look at the world through the eyes of possibility and hope rather than negativity and fear. My spirits rose as once again was reminded that I could also make that choice to see the positive – at any time. I needed to “hang out” with more people like Douglas and Sally Ann.

I’m at my brother’s and my fishing camp in Mercer, Wisconsin. This is a familiar area to me as my parent’s brought us up here for all our childhood vacations. You don’t come to Mercer for wild partying. It is a place of peace. My wife and I just got back from taking our pontoon boat out and anchoring in the middle of the lake. We read and relaxed for about three hours. It was magnificent – absolutely no sound except nature, no planes buzzing above our heads or ambient traffic noise – just the silent flapping of one magnificent bald eagle. It’s not for everyone but we needed it.

Serendipitously, I was reading an article in The New Yorker – a well researched article on the nature of creative insight – that wonderful “Ah Huh” moment when all the pieces of the puzzle fit together and clarity of thinking immerges. It’s the essence of the creative process. The core message was that insight will simply not emerge when there is too much stress in your life. You can’t achieve insight by trying and you can’t make it happen by attempting to force someone to be creative. It comes from a lightness of spirit, kicking back, relaxing, diverting your logical, restless mind and getting in the zone. It’s why Google has ping pong tables spread out over their corporate headquarters.

I was in the perfect atmosphere for insight and it reinforced my belief that we must do everything we can to protect and encourage that precious and necessary part of us because having insight is how we grow and creativity is the heart and soul of having a full, productive and loving life.