How would you describe your relationship with your creative self? What do you do everyday that nurtures that relationship?

Every individual has the power to be creative and it is a personal task to live up to the full span of this potential. The task is to design a lifestyle that draws out the creative energy. Everyday we wake up to new possibilities and we grow by the way we treat those possibilities. I attribute my own progress to my willingness and ability to inquire within and formulate an everyday plan that supports me to grow in a meaningful way.

I think to some degree, we all want to be great and creative at what we do but the question is how? Personal greatness is a feeling and an attitude, but more importantly it is a practice. Through action, we can design life to fulfill our aspirations. So, design of personal excellence is an action-oriented approach to achieving and sustaining your best. It’s a creative process that exercises deep ambitions.

Psychology Today refers to creativity as the act of making something new and meaningful. However we choose to look at it, the source of creativity remains a mystery and part of being creative has to do with our relationship with the unknown. The creative continuum flows through an unknown state and onto a known state, and cycles back around. Whether it is solving a math problem, painting a masterpiece, or coming up with a brilliant marketing scheme, we need to deal with not knowing before we see any results. The unknown can be a difficult place to be, but it is also a place where we learn and discover new things. This unknown-to-known cycle is fulfilling when our values and ambitions are aligned with what we do. When misaligned, we experience dissonance and unwanted stress.

To experience a greater flow of creativity, we have to be conscious of how we conduct our days. Everyday is an opportunity to seek out our best efforts and test our beliefs as to what is possible. Most of the time it is our underlying beliefs that limit us to the old ways of being. In order to unleash the full potential of creativity, we must be willing to identify inhibiting beliefs and challenge those that reside in the core of our ambitions. Sometimes fear can be a barrier to exercising passion, but it can also be a motivator. As we inquire into what is important to us, we learn to use fear as a dancing partner rather than a bully.

As a Master’s student, creativity coach, web designer, and just as a person with many passions, my challenge is to balance all the different activities so I am able to be fully present to each of them. I also get inhibited from time to time by the fear of not being accepted, and I think that is just part of who I am and what I do. I don’t settle for “normal” and I’m out to do things that have yet to be done. So with the constant balancing act and fears, what keeps me going strong is really the design I follow to lead my daily activities. To me, the real question is: what are my values and how do I spend my time accordingly?

My days are designed around my values, goals, artistic outlets, daily 5’s, and weekly challenges; everyday is intended to be perfect and complete based on what I find most meaningful:

Values: Design your greatness by encoding your inner values into your daily activities. Discover what means the most to you and allow those elements to drive you forward. Struggle with them, let them be, and eventually come to understand what they mean. The more you familiarize yourself with your fundamental values, the less you will struggle. You will be able to think more clearly and advance more quickly because you will know what is important at every moment. I stick to three main values: passion, commitment, and flexibility.

Goals/action plan: Identify and prioritize projects you are working on or want to work on. Write down your goals and specify what needs to be done in order to reach them. Set timelines and examine what you’re doing everyday that gets you closer to achieving your goals. The action plan serves as a guiding tool toward your vision. The more strategic and refined your plan, the quicker you will realize those visions.

Artistic outlets: Spend time with your creative pass times. Feed your creativity from all angles and leave yourself open to unexpected inspirations. Get to know your inner artist. What is it hungry for? How does it want to be expressed? Some of my artistic forms include photography, playing the guitar, and writing.

Daily 5’s: Everyday commit to doing 5 things that are important to you; 5 things that are aligned with your dreams. This is a great way to challenge yourself and progress in your desired path. My daily 5’s are: meditation, workout, read, write, and mindful-practice. I can’t always get to all of them, but they give me an idea of what a complete day looks like.

Weekly Challenges: Every week is a chance to redefine what it means to be you. Mondays are generally viewed as a curse in the Western culture, but really it’s an opportunity to refresh your creative lens and stretch your boundaries. For example, add a new activity to your daily schedule, or take out a certain behavior (like going on Facebook) and see how that affects you. Creativity thrives on a good challenge, not comfort and old habits.

Design a daily plan that suites you and watch yourself ascend to new heights. Continue to evaluate your plan and see how it can be improved. Be flexible with it and it does not have to be a rigorous regimen; but build focus. Create a progressive lifestyle that captures your visions as much as possible. That is, practice habits that promote you to grow and eliminate or replace those that don’t.

The perfect design is not solid; it is open-ended and flexible so it can adapt to change. So, keep the variation alive and honor your values. At the end of the day, it’s not so much about what you got done, but the methods you used and how you felt about them. Eventually, you will just follow your plan and effortlessly rely on yourself to move forward, based on how you value life.

Reinvent yourself and discover what it means to fully live.

Arya Salehi
858.349.9210

When was the last time you felt your own unique excellence? In other words, when was the last time you felt your personal best? How would you describe the feeling of being excellent? How can it happen more often?

These are various questions to ask ourselves as a way to get familiar with our own feeling of greatness. It can be a very inviting experience if we answer them wholeheartedly without holding back a grain of truth. We must approach our greatest potential as an unbounded mystery that is waiting to be discovered, inside and out. With this attitude, our fruitless certainties turn into intelligent curiosities; our innocent wander becomes courage to discover and create. The more we are present to this way of being, the more we begin to understand it, and naturally we remove the distractions and non-essentials that are in the way. The essentials are things that bring us peace and joy, and we can attain them through self-awareness and a willingness to learn. Personal excellence is a way of centering in on who we are and who we want to become at heart. Indeed, it can be a warm and inviting experience if we let it.

Excellence begins with a simple observation. As plain observers we can see the world for what it truly is rather than distorting it with our personalized interpretations. We can manage a clear mind by letting go of past and future thoughts, which illuminates the present moment and opens us to abundant possibilities. Through simple observation, we allow ourselves to experience what we are naturally inclined to and what makes us smile throughout the day. Needless to say, excellence does not come uninvited.

The term ‘excellent’ may seem intimidating because of institutional standards. Doubts may arise. Am I good enough? What about others who are better than me? What if I fail? Doubt has no place in the heart of a champion. The only real, important question is: how shall I proceed? Plan out the answers and advance through your heart. Let go of the past, forget the future, the most important thing in this world is the present. Tune into your current of excellence and enjoy every moment that unfolds. Keep in mind that the process is gradual, maybe even slow and delayed, but it is through calm successions that we can absorb the essentials.

Make mistakes generously. Making mistakes is a part of being human; it is how we learn but it can also hinder us from learning if we resist. We must be open to our past mistakes and accept and cherish them as tools for learning rather than points of shame or guilt. Embrace your past errors as your teachers, encouraging you to grow, not dictators holding you down to suffer. As we proactively choose the path of excellence, we begin to realize our ability to make mistakes and learn freely without the approval of others.

Being excellent is something that liberates us, not cripple us to other’s standards. It is a feeling that we must nurture and not leave unprotected. Therefore it is important to distinguish between those who inhibit us and those who encourage us to improve. We can attract the latter by seeing into the excellence of others and listening to them. Support your peers in their own ambitions while sharing your own; exchange insight and motivation. This way, we are sending out the message that we want to receive and are in the cycle of positive energy. By nature, excellence wants to be shared so our job is to simply allow it.

Stay focused on what matters most and use every moment as an opportunity to discover your greatest potential. Keep in mind this does not always have to be an exciting event or even require us to be “go-getters”; sometimes settled patience is all that is needed for the right circumstances to align.

Live and adjust,
Relax and strive,
Tune into the mystery,
Never be bored.

Arya Salehi
858.349.9210