Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question. ~ e. e. cummings
During a writers retreat that I hosted recently, I was talking about my writing and work, including the People Magazine piece, one of the writers asked me…
“Do you want fame or fortune?”
For a few breaths, I actually let myself get sucked into that place of either/or, believing I could have one but not the other. By the time I moved out of that yucky place the conversation, as you might expect with six women writers in the room, had moved on.
But I hadn’t. I kept thinking about how often we get mired in the mud by asking the wrong questions.
Recently, I worked with a client who is wildly imaginative, creative and intelligent and who had a dream over the course of several weeks that disturbed her. By the time we finished looking at the dream, she realized that what it was trying to tell her was that she was asking the wrong question. She was asking herself…
“Which creative expression should I focus on for income and my business?”
Instead, the dream was encouraging her to ask…
“How do I bring my four areas of related creativity together to weave a business that is successful AND emotionally and spiritually satisfying.”
Once we arrived at that place, excitement was bubbling up as the possibilities emerged for her work and her life. From that place, creativity abounds.
Too often, it feels to me as though we throw ourselves into the place of the (image here) Two of Swords, the tarot card about making decisions. In the card, a figure has his or her arms crossed, with a raised sword in each hand. Swords is the suit of mind, of thoughts, attitudes and beliefs, as well as communication. This card is often read as the need to make a choice. The figure is blindfolded, often implying that the choice has to come from a place of inner knowing, not mental logic.
Another way to look at this card, though, is how can I move from either/or thinking into both/and? If we move from the place of mental chatter and the inner critic that wants to limit us, to make us believe that we can only choose one thing or the other, to a place of intuition and trust, we can then wonder and ask, “How do I have both?”
Anthony Robbins, famous life coach to presidents, celebrities, and athletes, stresses the importance of asking the right questions. “I’m here to tell you that the difference between people is the difference in the questions they ask consistently…If you ask a terrible question, you’ll get a terrible answer…Remember, it’s not only the questions you ask, but the questions you fail to ask, that shape your destiny.”
Robbins goes on to stress that it is important to ask empowering questions. So let’s revisit my friend’s question, “Do you want fame or fortune?”
My answer? What do I need to do to have both?
And why shouldn’t I have both? I’m not asking to be Donald Trump here. That kind of fame and fortune is more than I want to deal with, but my desired level of fame and fortune? Why not?
I want both fortune and fame.
What about you? Are you limiting your life and your creativity with either/or thinking? Can you move into a place of asking questions that empower your? Can you ask for both/and?