Creating something new requires both personal capacity and social conditions. These trees, for example, grew because the trees were healthy and because of favorable conditions of earth, air, water, light and temperature.
When you have an idea or an opportunity comes your way, you too combine your personal beliefs, confidence and skills and social conditions that impact what you can do.
This power to create emerges when eight separate powers are engaged. All eight must be present (both inside you and in society) in order to move from where you are now into what you want to achieve.
The 8 powers of creating are:
- Culture: beliefs, values, traditions and customs that support what you want to create.
- Community: support of social political, economic, environmental conditions.
- Control: Your ability (by yourself or working with others) to engage time, resources and conditions needed to create what you want.
- Competence: Ability skills, confidence required for your creating.
- Communication: Skills and freedom to speak up, express your ideas.
- Connections: Resources and people who support what you want to create.
- Commitment: Determination to move forward, find and connect to the power to create.
- Creative action: The motivation and ability to define and implement a plan, learn from experience, get desired results.
Before you move forward, find out whether you have the power you need to succeed. Assess each of these powers and ask yourself: “is this power present?” If not, what do you need to do to attain this power?
Use this power to create tool to save yourself time and effort, to avoid dead-ends and most important, to find the places that are open for you to proceed now. You also will know when you need a longer range plan and when working with others to create social change is the only way you can proceed.
Diagram by Day Piercy
Copyright 2015 Day Piercy All Rights Reserved