The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk, and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful. What you discover will be yourself.” Alan Alda
Ah, Comfort City — I know it well! And maybe you do, too. It’s the place that feels familiar and safe. It’s cozy, not too demanding — a walk down the sunny side of the street. People know us there; we’re welcomed and expected. But going into the wilderness, relying on intuition, being comfortable feeling uncomfortable, being OK with “not quite knowing” what we’re doing — now that’s a whole other story, isn’t it?
Comfort City or Intuition Island — which way should we go, which place should we choose? We probably won’t get lost in Comfort City, but we probably won’t find what we’re looking for there, either. Because if we want to write dangerously and push ourselves to the next level, well then, Intuition Island looks like the place we need to discover. Luckily, it’s right inside us, just waiting for us to turn to it.
True, as Alan tells us, we can’t “get there by bus, only by hard work and risk,” and by “not quite knowing” what we’re doing. Intuition Island takes on a different kind of journey—a journey into ourselves. It isn’t as familiar as Comfort City—there’s no ordinary map to guide us. We need to trust that we know what we need to know—that “everything we need is already inside us,” as my great friend and mentor Dr. Rob Gilbert* says so well. Inside us, that’s where the treasure lies — that’s where creativity blossoms.
What we’ll find there — in the wilderness of our own being — will be wonderful, full of wonder. It will open a magic door and we’ll discover ourselves. And when we do, we can bring something special, something unique into the world. So let’s take Alan’s advice: Let’s leave Comfort City behind today and strike out for Intuition Island as we all write on!
*Check out Dr. Gilbert’s fabulous Success Hotline at 973-743-4690.
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