The Power of Creativity \(Book 1\): Learning How to Build Lasting Habits, Face Your Fears and Change Your Life pdfdrive com

Creative Takeaways
Write down a hit list of people you would like to have as your
creative mentor. Remember, they can be alive, dead, accessible or
inaccessible.
Next time you face a creative challenge, visualise your mentor and
ask what would they do.

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6
STRENGTHEN YOUR MIND AND YOUR BODY
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
– Haruki Murakami
T
HINGS
AREN
’
T
GOING
WELL
for you Bryan,” my boss said.
I  was  working  as  a  press  officer  for  a  charity.  It  was  supposed  to  be  my
dream  job.  You  know  the  kind:  Earn  an  honest  wage,  work  nine-to-five  hours,
drink nice coffee and tell myself I’m finally making a difference in the world.
I was all for it, and this was my first performance review.
“Are  you  listening,  Bryan?”  my  boss  asked.  “You  missed  an  important
deadline; you caused confusion for other members of your team, and there were
mistakes in your work.”
On  a  Wednesday  morning  in  November,  we  were  sitting  in  a  quiet  room
away from the hum of the office.
“There’s so much to learn,” I said.
I  accepted  I  was  guilty  of  mistakes,  of  incompetence.  I  produced  an
important report with typos, a presentation with incorrect slides and I’d missed a
meeting with a client.
“I’m sorry. I can do better, just give me more time.”
He adjusted narrow-frame silver glasses. “You’ve got three months, but you

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need to put that master’s you studied for into action.”
“I’ll try,” I said. “I’ll do better.”
That  night,  I  bought  a  popular  book  about  productivity  and  implemented
every  strategy  I  could  understand.  I  reread  my  boss’s  emails,  searching  for
actions I’d missed.
I sent the management team weekly updates of my accomplishments. I even
pinned  a  quote  from  Viktor  E.  Frankl’s  Man’s  Search  For  Meaning  to  the  wall
near my desk.
Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you
had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now.”
I embraced the job, but no matter what I did I couldn’t figure out how to give
my  boss  (and  his  boss)  what  they  needed.  Every  project  I  worked  on  failed.  I
tried  to  send  e-Christmas  cards  to  the  charity’s  mailing  list  only  to  find  I’d
compiled a list of the wrong recipients.
I  created  a  development  plan  for  the  charity’s  website  that  my  boss  didn’t
want to read, and I wrote a 2,000-word profile of the organisation’s work that the
management team said they couldn’t publish.
I felt as if I were under attack.
After Christmas, my boss called me back into that room.
“We’re letting you go, Bryan. The work you’re doing here isn’t much beyond
that  of  a  clerical  officer  in  the  civil  service,  and  that’s  not  what  this  charity
needs.” My boss slid a white envelope across the table. “Here’s your notice.”
I felt like taking the envelope, ripping it up and throwing it at him. Not even
Viktor Frankl could help me.
“I left a good job to come here.” I thought of the permanent and pensionable
job I’d had as care worker for people with intellectual disabilities.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked.
“This is hard for me,” he said. “I know it must be hard for you.”
I folded the envelope in two.
How could this be hard for him when I was the one losing a job in the middle

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of a recession with my wife and two small children depending on me?
“When do I finish?”
He folded his hands.
“We’ll  give  you  till  the  end  of  February  alongside  whatever  holiday  pay
you’re due.”
I left the room and walked out the front door and into the small car park. I
got into my rusting 2002 Renault Clio. Then I punched the ceiling over and over
and swore as loudly as I could get away with in a business park at 3:00 p.m. on a
grey Monday afternoon in January.
For weeks afterwards, I was angry about being fired, being out of a job and
claiming  social  welfare.  I  tried  to  write  about  it,  but  I  didn’t  make  much
progress.
I  couldn’t  find  a  way  to  balance  my  anger  and  disappointment  with  the
calmness writing demands. and the endurance I needed to look for another job.
I looked outwards toward the biographies of artists I admired for answers. I
wanted  to  see  how  they  overcame  personal  and  professional  setbacks  and  still
found strength to work on their ideas.
What  I  found  surprised  me.  Some  of  these  creative  masters  lived  deeply
unhappy lives, while others knew how to change their destructive habits for the
better.