“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you know you have everything you need to achieve everything you want, you can live a life of fulfilment and freedom from fear. But having everything you need doesn’t mean you have all the ready-made resources or tools you need on demand. It means that you can make them up as you go along. You can imagine and implement them into existence as you need them. You have the courage to experiment with the confidence that you will succeed. The safety zone is not a comfort zone. It’s better.
Throughout our recent book, You Belong Here, we shared ways in which you can create a safety zone for yourself and others. But a safety zone is not a walled garden, keeping you in. You are not truly safe if you can’t be all that you could be. The ultimate safety zone is one you bring with you and create as you move forward. It’s knowing that you have the creativity to handle any challenge that comes at you. And when you create this ultimate safety zone for yourself, you help create it for others, too.
We define courageous creativity very simply: it’s the recognized ability to access your inner and outer resources to achieve your goals and find optimal solutions to your challenges—whatever they are. If you own this definition of courageous creativity, you’ll never feel stuck or blocked. You’ll find your path or build a new path. You’ll retain your optimism and passion for the grind, no matter how intense it becomes. Edwin Land, the co-founder of Polaroid corporation and the inventor of the Polaroid instant camera, expressed this notion best: “Any problem can be solved with the materials available in the room at the time.”
In 2022, the verb “MacGyver” was added to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. As Merriam-Webster states, “Angus MacGyver, as portrayed by actor Richard Dean Anderson in the titular, action-packed television series MacGyver, was many things—including a secret agent, a Swiss Army knife enthusiast, and a convert to vegetarianism… In fact, so memorable was this man… and his ability to use whatever was available to him—often simple things, such as a paper clip, chewing gum, or a rubber band—to escape a sticky situation or to make a device to help him complete a mission, that people began associating his name with making quick fixes or finding innovative solutions to immediate problems. Hence the verb MacGyver, a slang term meaning to ‘make, form, or repair (something) with what is conveniently on hand.’”
MacGyver epitomizes the essence of what we’ve defined as courageous creativity. There is always something or someone around you that you can call upon to achieve a breakthrough.
What would you take on if you had no room to fail? What do you care so much about that you’re willing to take on your bogeymen and nemeses? What are your natural gifts that you can honour by using them? Who are the people standing by to guide and support you forward? How can you set up your support infrastructure to sustain your progress? What are you waiting for?
I would love to hear about how you’re chasing your moonshot. Write me at mike.lipkin@environics.ca. On the other hand, I know there are many reasons why you may not be pursuing your dream. You’ve been too busy just surviving. You’ve never seriously considered it. You’ve resigned yourself to a life that’s good, not great. You just haven’t discovered a goal that fires you up, triggers a dopamine surge and gets your neurons firing and rewiring. You don’t see yourself as a creative person who can excite others into action.
It’s time to take a stand on behalf of yourself and all the people you can help to achieve their dreams. Take inventory of your gifts—internal and external. Record all the times you’ve accessed your inner and outer resources to achieve your goals and find optimal solutions to life’s inevitable challenges. Remember what it felt like to surprise yourself and delight others. Think and act like that kind of person. Activate your appetite for more. Tell other people what you’re up to. Dare to risk and risk by daring. Invite breakthroughs into your life by showing that you mean it. Being timid won’t keep you safe. It will just condemn you to regret later on.
