Path of Least Resistance, the - Kindle Book - Kindle eBook

You got to where you are in your life right now by moving along the path of least resistance. (Location 318)

The underlying structure of your life determines the path of least resistance. (Location 330)

You can change the fundamental underlying structures of your life. Just as engineers can change the path of a river by changing the structure of the terrain so that the river flows where they want it to go, you can change the very basic structure of your life (Location 348)

The structures that have the most influence on your life are composed of your desires, beliefs, assumptions, aspirations, and objective reality itself. (Location 405)

Structure is “nothing personal.” Someone in a structure that leads to pain, frustration, and hopelessness is not being designated by the universe as a victim of life. Put anyone else in that same structure and that person will have similar experiences. On the other hand, put anyone in a structure that leads to fulfillment, accomplishment, and success, and that person will have these experiences. (Location 434)

To attempt a psychological solution to what is really a structural phenomenon does nothing to change the underlying structure. (Location 485)

When you are solving a problem, you are taking action to have something go away: the problem. When you are creating, you are taking action to have something come into being: the creation. Notice that the intentions of these actions are opposite. (Location 495)

Such approaches—releasing repressed areas of consciousness, positive thinking, transformational experiences, accepting things exactly the way they are, “creative” problem solving, situational management, behavior modification, stress reduction, “new” styles of thinking, and even certain forms of meditation—all attempt to teach people to respond to life or to the universe as if the circumstances were dominant. (Location 664)

The problem solvers propose elaborate schemes to define the problem, generate alternative solutions, and put the best solution into practice. If this process is successful, you might eliminate the problem. Then what you have is the absence of the problem you are solving. But what you do not have is the presence of a result you want to create. (Location 952)

The greatest leaders and statesmen in history have not been problem solvers. They have been builders. They have been creators. (Location 974)

The problem leads to action to solve the problem leads to less intensity of the problem leads to less action to solve the problem leads to the problem remaining (Location 1007)

But creators not only can imagine or envision, they also have the ability to bring what they imagine into reality. Once a creation exists, an evolutionary process can take place. Each past creation builds a foundation for the next creation. (Location 1090)

As Roger Sessions described, Beethoven’s sketchbook is filled with themes and variations. However, these sketches represented neither free association nor generating alternatives, but rather a focused study of the way intervalic structures interact. “Modeling, then testing in systematic and apparently coldblooded fashion.” (Location 1112)

The action of the child inventing a new game with his playmates; Einstein formulating a theory of relativity; the housewife devising a new sauce for the meat; a young author writing his first novel; all of these are, in terms of our definition, creative, and there is no attempt to set them in some order of more or less creative. (Location 1327)

The steps in the creative process are simple to describe, but they do not constitute a formula. Instead, each step represents certain types of actions. (Location 1350)

1. Conceive of the result you want to create. (Location 1358)

2. Know what currently exists. (Location 1371)

3. Take action. (Location 1393)

Without an ever-increasing ability to adjust the actions you take, trying to “stay with it” can seem like banging your head against a wall. After sincere attempts to “stay with it” fail and fail again, the path of least resistance is to quit. (Location 1412)

4. Learn the rhythms of the creative process. (Location 1416)

Germination begins with excitement and newness. Partly this germinational energy comes from the unusualness of the new activity. (Location 1419)

Assimilation is often the least obvious phase of the process. In this phase the initial “thrill is gone.” This phase moves from a focus on internal action to a focus on external action. In this phase you live with your concept of what you want to create and internalize it. It becomes part of you. Because of this, you are able to generate energy to use in your experiments and learning. The drama of the first blush of germination is over, but this new, quiet energy of assimilation helps you form the result. (Location 1422)

Completion is the third stage of creation. This stage has a similar energy to germination, but now it is applied to a creation that is more and more tangible. In this phase you use the energy not only to bring to final completion the result you are creating but also to position yourself for your next creation. In other words, this stage leads also to the germination of your next creation. (Location 1428)

5. Creating momentum. (Location 1432)

Each new creation gives you added experience and knowledge of your own creative process. You will naturally increase your ability to envision what you want and your ability to bring those results into being. (Location 1441)

Living your life as a creator is truly a special existence. It is hard to describe to a person in the reactive-responsive orientation quite what it is like. Not only are the same events understood differently, but the possibilities and actualities of life are completely different. (Location 1462)

The orientation of the creative is not simply a different context, as it sometimes has been inadequately described by people not in that orientation. It is living in a different universe. (Location 1464)

They create what they create, not in reaction to their emotions but independent of them. On days filled with the depths of despair, they can create. On days filled with the heights of joy, they can create. (Location 1486)

What motivates a creator? The desire for the creation to exist. (Location 1496)

Napoleon was convinced that the idea of a steam engine was impossible and told its inventor so in no uncertain terms. “What, sir!” exclaimed Napoleon to Robert Fulton, “you would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.” Once a vision is clear, processes organically form that lead to the accomplishment of that vision. This means that, in the creative orientation, process is invented along the way. (Location 1823)

The process should always serve the result. And because a new result might require a completely original process, limiting yourself to preconceived notions of what processes are available can be fatal to spontaneity. As painter Jack Beal put it, I have purposely tried to keep myself relatively ignorant on the subject of color. . . . I have tried to keep my color on an intuitive level. . . . I have tried not to learn what warm and cool means or what the primary colors are. . . . I know some of these principles because you can’t help but learn, but I try to let my color be as spontaneous as possible to the subject I’m painting. (Location 1835)

Learning processes has become the socially acceptable response. There is an abundance of processes for losing weight, growing hair, building muscles, vitalizing energy, having successful romantic relationships, quitting smoking, dressing successfully (and with the right colors!), reducing stress, overcoming psychological barriers, finding enlightenment, becoming self-actualized, learning to love yourself, contacting “higher intelligence,” finding peace of mind, enhancing your sexual prowess, analyzing your dreams, integrating your mind, body, and soul, opening your heart, closing your past, being more “left” brain, being more “right” brain, becoming more affluent, etc., etc., etc., etc. This is a wonderful age we live in. So much is available. But often the criteria people use to determine which direction they should take are dictated by notions about process rather than concepts about results. (Location 1872)

People both want to create what most deeply matters to them and simultaneously believe deep down that they cannot have what they want. This very human dilemma is actually a structural conflict. (Location 2038)

Here is an analogy of how this structure plays itself out over time. Imagine yourself in a room. Imagine yourself midway between the front and back wall of the room. Imagine that the result you desire is written on the wall in front of you. Imagine as you move toward that wall that you are moving toward what you want. Imagine the belief “I cannot have what I want” written on the wall behind you. As you move toward the back wall, you are moving away from what you want. Imagine that around your waist are two gigantic rubber bands. One rubber band stretches from your waist to the wall in front of you. This represents the “desire” tension-resolution system. The second rubber band stretches from your waist to the wall behind you. This represents the “inability to have what you want” belief tension-resolution system. Now, imagine what happens as you begin to move toward having what you want. As you approach the front wall, what happens to the rubber bands? The front one, of course, relaxes, and at the same time, the one behind you stretches further. As you approach the front wall, where is it easiest for you to go? Where is the greater tension? Where does the path of least resistance lead? Clearly the path of least resistance leads toward the back wall. As you move toward creating what you want, it becomes harder and harder to take the next steps toward creating it. If you have reached the wall and have created the result, it becomes harder and harder to hold on to that result. It becomes easier and easier to lose ground and move back toward not having what you want. In nature, energy moves where it is easiest for it to go, and you are part of nature. So, one way or another, sooner or later, you will move back the other way. You will do so not because you have some deep-seated self-destructive urge or because you actually want to fail, but because you are moving along the path of least resistance formed by the stru...

...cture in play. Now, imagine what happens as you begin to resolve that tension by moving toward the back wall. As you move away from the result you want, there is a shift of dominance. The rubber band that had the most tension is now resolving, but the rubber band that was resolved is now increasing its tension: Obviously the path of least resistance now leads back toward the front wall, toward the result you desire. Over time you will tend to continue to move back and forth, back and forth, first toward one wall and then toward the other as the path of least resistance changes. These shifts may take minutes or years. Most often the oscillation occurs over a longer period of time, and the phenomenon can be difficult to observe at first. Though the specific actions taken might differ, anyone in this structure would behave in fundamentally the same way no matter what his or her desire. Any desire can be substituted for any other desire, and yet you will still see oscillation. (Location 2048)

But you can shift into another structure. This, however, cannot be the product of trying to solve structural conflict. If you are dissatisfied with this structure and try to change to another, more useful structure based on your dissatisfaction, it will not work. This is just another form of conflict manipulation. (Location 2618)

The structure that is senior to structural conflict has the following properties: • It incorporates structural conflict into itself. • It transposes a complex structure into a simple structure. (Location 2639)

Structural Tension Structural tension is formed by two major components: 1. A vision of the result you want to create. 2. A clear view of the reality you now have. (Location 2657)

Creators not only tolerate discrepancy, they appreciate and encourage it. Discrepancy contains the energy that enables you to create. The discrepancy between what you want and what you currently have forms the most important structure in the creative process, that of structural tension. (Location 2680)

Tension strives for resolution. The structural tendency of a stretched rubber band is to relax, or resolve the tension. You, as a creator, establish tension, use tension, play with tension, orchestrate tension, and resolve tension in the direction you choose. (Location 2686)

Being “Realistic” You weaken structural tension when you lower your vision. If you compromise what you want, you do not create the true discrepancy that forms the tension. It is all too common in our society to misrepresent what we really want. We have been encouraged to “be realistic,” “be practical,” and “want only what you can have.” The irony is that you want what you want, whether or not you misrepresent that to yourself. (Location 2697)

Once you establish structural tension, your natural tendency will be to generate actions in order to resolve the tension. From the inception of the creative process to its conclusion, the actions you take will be supported by the structure. (Location 2734)

As you work with your own creative process, these moments will become extended. Eventually you will live in a state of structural tension. You will consistently and automatically have an awareness of where you are and what you want to create. (Location 2742)

How clear do you need to be about the result you want? Clear enough that you would recognize the result if you had (Location 2827)

it. (Location 2828)

As you begin your own creative process, realize that there is no “right” way of doing it. There is no “right” way of painting a painting, no “right” way of composing music, and no “right” way of creating your life. Much of what you will do will be based on personal style, preference, values, and desires. As you experiment with your own path, you will become an expert on your own creative process, and that is the only one that is directly relevant in your life. (Location 2881)

But your life can be a creation. What a difference that is from reacting or responding to the circumstances. Your own life can become a separate entity, and when it does, you can form it, mold it, and change it the way you want. When you are able to do this, you are free to develop your life as independent of your identity. You can succeed or fail without the added burden of an identity crisis. (Location 2972)

Knowing What You Want (Location 3015)

1. Ask yourself the question, What do I want? (Location 3018)

Knowing what you want has two important advantages. You are able to focus your attention quickly, and you are accurately describing the truth to yourself. (Location 3025)

2. Consider what you want independently of considerations of process. (Location 3040)

you do not know. Those who attempt to make results dependent on process are severely limiting themselves. This is a good way of repeating history, (Location 3043)

You will need to consider process when you create. But this should happen only after you know what result you want. (Location 3046)

3. Separate what you want from questions of possibility. (Location 3054)

Vision also has a magic quality. I define magic as seeing the results without seeing the entire process leading to those results. (Location 3133)

Those who learn to know reality, without holding on to the past, are in the best position to truly live their lives. This is anything but amnesia. This is not forgetting the past, but remembering that the past is over. (Location 3306)

People who have strong beliefs in a conceptual framework of reality often interpret reality to fit their biases. Those who have strong political views often interpret reality to reinforce their political explanation of the world. (Location 3401)

Germinational energy occurs when you are conceiving your vision. During the assimilation stage, you are teaching this vision to yourself. You are internalizing the vision, making it part of yourself. (Location 3501)

Bringing to fulfillment that which you are creating is obviously important. Few people have mastered this stage. All of us know people who do not bring their creative activity to completion: graduate students who need only to write their theses to receive their doctoral degrees, but never finish writing; entrepreneurs who begin businesses, yet somehow never make them financially viable; (Location 3557)

Some people feel uncomfortable having what they want. Receiving, or learning to live with your creation, is an essential phase of completion and hence of the creative process. It is the ability to receive the fruits of your endeavors. (Location 3567)

the human spirit will not invest itself in a compromise. (Location 3693)

Over a period of time they reinforce the belief that they are powerless; that the power over their lives lies in the food or exercise, not in themselves; that their life is threatened by eating certain foods and not exercising. (Location 3850)

Formally Choosing When you make a choice, take two steps: First, conceive of the results you want, that is, have a clear vision of what you want to create. Second, formalize the choice by actually saying the words, “I choose to have . . .” It is not important that you say the words aloud, but certainly say them to yourself and inwardly: truly make the choice to have that result. Saying the words of your choice is not the same as muttering an incantation with mysterious magical powers, nor is it a type of repeated affirmation. (Location 3890)

When people make a fundamental choice to be true to what is highest in them, or when they make a choice to fulfill a purpose in their life, they can easily accomplish many changes that seemed impossible or improbable in the past. (Location 4210)

In the reactive-responsive orientation, people look to the circumstances to provide them with satisfaction. They are inevitably disappointed, because circumstances themselves do not provide satisfaction. In the orientation of the creative, you create your own satisfaction, independent of the circumstances. Then you bring satisfaction to those circumstances in which you are involved. (Location 4254)

One reason the assimilation stage is so little understood is that during this stage, progress in growth and development remains invisible for a time. For long periods it may look as if nothing of significance is happening or being learned. A common experience during the early steps of assimilation is for no change whatever to take place. (Location 4418)

One powerful way to assimilate your present step is to move on to your next step, even if you feel inadequately prepared for it. (Location 4474)

If you follow the fads, you will always be behind the times, because by the time something is a fad, the innovation is over. (Location 4602)

Because of this method of thinking, people try to learn more and more to have a larger basis for comparison. But this collection of facts and theories does not help us create nor understand what may be occurring in reality. (Location 4843)

Because the creative process includes many events that are unpredictable, unforeseen, unusual, and sometimes illogical from a linear point of view, preparing yourself with more theory and facts doesn’t help you and may even hinder you. Often steps in the creative process seem to have “no right” to occur as they do, but they happen anyway. As you increase your ability to create, these kinds of nonsequential events become predictable, reliable, and useful as you develop an economy of means. (Location 4851)

All successful entrepreneurs have learned to build momentum. One way is to create a pattern of success by deliberately structuring a series of small successes on the way to your final goal. Each success adds to momentum, is easily assimilated, and helps build credibility and mastery. (Location 4903)

What he was doing, in fact, was inventing his own steps along the way and developing his own unique method of creating what he wanted. If he had relied only on standard formulas prescribing how to run a successful business, he would never have been able to build the momentum he did or to assimilate the steps he took. He was able to build momentum and assimilate the steps only because he made them his own. (Location 4955)

When you attempt to move in the direction of results you want, there are times when you discover that the route to those results is more involved or longer than you originally thought. The difference between our mountain example and the creative process is that the backpacker knew that if he continued walking, he would eventually reach the second mountaintop. At such a strategic moment in the creative process, it is not always clear that you will reach the result you have in mind. (Location 5025)

Because of time delay, people often give up taking actions that are, in fact, effective, but the result of those actions has not yet had a chance to appear. (Location 5049)

Alchemists of old sought to turn lead into gold. Many people have a talent for reverse alchemy: turning gold into lead. Turning a wonderful relationship into a difficult one, turning a pleasant dinner party into a cold war, turning success into failure. Some people can’t take yes for an answer. (Location 5414)

It is difficult to know where you stand in life, what matters to you, and what you live for when you do not make distinctions. When you avoid distinctions, everything takes on a glow of arbitrariness. Nothing seems to matter when everything has equal value. (Location 5555)

One of the major differences between the technological age and the industrial age is the location of power. In the industrial age power was located in the hands of a few. Many people had to organize their lives to accommodate industry. People lived near where they worked. The local economy was fed from the work base, and complex, intricate relationships arose between the work force, the management, the local store keepers, the services from government, and national and international economic trends. In the new technological age, power lies in more and more hands. This leads to more and more choice. Where to work, how to work, where to live, how to educate our children, how to organize our communities. (Location 5803)

Much has happened to dull the memory and overlook the real legacy of Kennedy, which has been greatly misunderstood by most historians, journalists, and biographers. They focus on the events of that era and try to evaluate the political accomplishments in a narrow framework. They do not understand that Kennedy’s true legacy was a spirit, that of reaching for what is highest in humanity. This spirit cannot be explained by events and accomplishments, just as it is impossible to explain the influence of Elvis Presley on the history of rock ‘n’ roll simply by listing his record and television appearances. (Location 5855)

Transcendence is the power to be born anew, to make a fresh start, to turn over a new leaf, to begin with a clean slate, to enter into a state of grace, to have a second chance. Transcendence makes no reference to the past, whether your past has been overflowing with victories or filled with defeats. When you enter a state of transcendence, you are able to create a new life, unburdened by both the victories and the defeats of the past. Transcendence is more than just the accurate realization that the past is over. It is also a realignment of all dimensions of yourself with the very source of your life. (Location 5969)

By your presence on this planet, you make possible creations that would otherwise not be possible. They become possible because they come from your concept, from what you have learned, from your experiments, from your historical past, and from what you can aspire to. I can’t think of anything more divine than the creative act. All the myriad dimensions in which you exist converge in a single extended instant during the creative process. (Location 6039)

unilateral bargain, one person assumes that if he or she follows certain practices, others (or perhaps even the universe itself) must reciprocate in some way. In a one-way bargain the other party never really agrees to the bargain and often does not even know of it. A classic example of a one-way bargain is found in the early stages of many relationships, when one person unilaterally decides not to date any other people, with the implicit demand that the other person in the relationship do likewise. This is a one-way bargain if the other person never makes that agreement. (Location 6098)