Find The Courage To Be Creative
By Paula Morand
At one point in my life, I had a touchingly tragic to story to tell about circumstances that happened to me that changed my life forever.
It became part of my books and my motivational speaking tours.
Simultaneously, I was working to get past it, to embrace a new and vibrant life and to engage fully in new and rewarding family experiences I was happy to have. But I could not seem to work the past out of my system.
Like a candle, the story drew people to me and they were entranced. But like a shadow, it haunted my days.
I was just beginning to become a published author at this point and then as always I read and read, seeking inspiration and insight. My search took me to the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, the American author who just passed away last month at the age of 88.
Among the many lines she penned was one that touched me deeply. She wrote:
“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.”
I began to understand that there is a brightness and a darkness to all of life’s actions. I changed my approach and no longer tell that single story. I began to feel whole again.
I began to read more of Le Guin, a fascinating literary icon who was one part tough feminist and one part tremendously creative, leaving us with amazing science fiction and fantasy.
When people talk to me about living creatively, she is always my example. Her books, now translated into 40 languages, sold millions of copies all over the world. One of her best known books, The Left Hand of Darkness, has been in print for almost 50 years.
She wrote more than 20 novels, a dozen books of poetry, 13 children’s books, more than 100 short stories, seven collections of essays, and five volumes of translation.
Personally, my favourite works of hers are Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books with a Journal of a Writer’s Week and No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters.
Here is just a short sample of the amazing insight she left us to mull over:
“When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.”
“To oppose something is to maintain it.”
“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”
“The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.”
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.”
“Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.”
In a 2005 interview with The Guardian newspaper, she said the writer’s “pleasant duty” is to ply the reader’s imagination with “the best and purest nourishment that it can absorb.”
If you are working on your first book or your next book, or just finding your own courage to be creative in your unique way, I cannot think of any better advice to pass on.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion.
24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Check out Paula’s bestselling books on Amazon: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and her newest release “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth”.
For speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.