For years now I’ve been wondering what the hell is going on with me in one specific area of my life. No matter how hard i tried, I couldn’t write a solid article for the life of me. I had a very difficult time creating. Everything I did just seemed like it wasn’t special enough, that it wasn’t original.

Then on the way home from the Eatsie Boys cafe in Houston it finally came to me. I was trying to be original instead of just being original. I had bought the idea that creating something original would mean that it would excluded all of the conventions of writing, of art, and of this reality. I was looking for a “truly original” idea, but i was going about it in a way that excluded the contribution that other people’s ideas, conventions, and thoughts could be to me.

I thought I would have to be a “lone genius” and not let anybody else contribute to my works in order to be seen as the valuable product, or the genius, or whatever other thing I decided excluding others and their ideas would give me.

I mean, don’t get me wrong…Using this method I did create some really cool and original art, music, projects, and business ideas, but any time it even looked remotely like anything I had seen or heard of before I canned it. If the piece made it through this rigorous series of trials, I released it into the world with little to no fanfare. The piece was so “original” from my point of view that people couldn’t relate to it. They didn’t know what to do with it.

So what that method actually gave me was the place where other people couldn’t contribute to my ideas or to the growth of my ideas, my art, or my business, because I wanted it to be all from me and all “original”.

Cute of me, but not very bright. How was I going to create the change in the world I’d like to see if I couldn’t receive anybody’s contribution?

The Lone Genius

We’re taught in this reality that in order to create something original we have to exclude other people’s ideas and influences. We’re taught that it has to be totally from us and us alone. Does that actually create original work, or does that exclusion become the source for the stagnation of our creative juices? For me, it dried up my creative juices faster than a rain drop dries up on the desert sand.

Here is that idea expressed expertly through a passage from the book “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon:

“There are a lot of destructive myths about creativity, but one of the most dangerous is the ‘lone genius’ myth: An individual with superhuman talents appears out of nowhere at certain points in history, free of influences or precedent, with a direct connection to God or The Muse. When inspiration comes, it strikes like a lighting bolt, a lightbulb switches on in his head, and then he spends the rest of his time toiling away in his studio, shaping his idea into a finished masterpiece that he releases into the world to great fanfare. If you believe the lone genius myth, creativity is an antisocial act, performed by only a few great figures-mostly dead men with names like Mozart, Einstein, or Picasso. the rest of us are left to stand around and gawk in awe of their achievements.”

Mozart, Picasso, Einstein, and countless other “lone geniuses” weren’t ever really alone. Sure they spent plenty of time alone in their studies and away from people whom a lot of them found irritating, stupid, and boring, but they were all willing to extrapolate and receive from everywhere to create their works of art, music, science, and mathematics. They took from nature, from other people’s work and ideas, from their awareness of other times, spaces, dimensions, and realities, and their willingness to listen to everyone and everything around them. Is that functioning more from being alone or being with the interconnectedness, oneness and consciousness of all things?

A “beautiful” example of this is in the movie A Beautiful Mind. In the movie, it shows the character of John Nash (expertly portrayed by Russell Crowe), extrapolating from everything. He observes the movements of pigeons looking for food, the movements of football players on a field, and even the movements of a woman running from a pursuer to create his “truly original idea.” He actually gets the inspiration for his idea for Governing Dynamics (which he won a nobel prize for) from observing a situation with his college buddies at a bar trying to score with some women:

In this bar scene there was a stunning blonde and her four brunette friends. Now, John Nash and his three friends all wanted to go after the blonde, but John realized that if they all went after her she would reject them all, and then the brunettes would all reject them because they wouldn’t have liked being the second choice.

On the other hand though, if the men each went after one of the brunettes, nobody would get the blonde, but “they would all get laid.”

Kind of a weird example, and not sure if that would have actually played out in real life, but anyway here’s his realization as portrayed in the movie:

The Kingdom of We

Adam Smith’s idea was that man will do what benefits him, but what John Nash could see beyond that notion was that things would work out even greater for everyone if every man did not only what would benefit him, but what would benefit him and everyone else as well. How did John Nash come to this observation? By extrapolating from what he saw as the governing dynamics of nature.

Out in the wild when a predator attacks a group of prey, they will go after the injured of the group. It really works out for all involved in this situation, and here’s why:

A) It’s an easy kill for the predator.

B) The predator gets food.

C) It thins the population of the prey animals and keeps the balance of the food chain

D) It puts the injured animal out of its misery

E) It culls the herd and creates a stronger breeding stock for the prey animals

From that one action everything grows and everyone and everything benefits, including the planet.

The thing is we’re not alone. Everything is interconnected. When you’re not willing to include other people’s input, ideas, their creations, and function from the interconnectedness of things with your creations, you exclude everything that doesn’t match your limited thoughts, beliefs, and judgments. In order to expand your life and become truly original you must be willing to include and explore things that are outside of and beyond the current way you are functioning and from beyond your current mindset.

How do you do that? Through:

The Four Elements of Creation

• Choice
• Question
• Possibility
• Contribution

The Four Elements of Creation were formed and discovered by Gary Douglas and Dr. Dain Heer, founders and contributors to Access Consciousness™. Access Consciousness is all about accessing greater awareness and consciousness. The definition of consciousness they function from is that “Consciousness includes everything and judges nothing.”

“A question creates choices. Choice create possibilities. Possibilities allow the universe to contribute to you.

Are you willing to recognize the blessing that choice actually is and the gift that you are when you are in question?” — Gary Douglas

What differentiates people like Mozart, Picasso, Einstein, and Nash is that they were all willing to function from a level of inclusion, and a level of possibility, choice, question, and contribution that was far beyond what was considered the norm in their societies. When you function from question, choice, possibility, and contribution as the four elements of creation then you expand your awareness and the capacities for what you can create.

Everywhere you function from a conclusion, judgment, decision, or computation, what you do is you cut off your awareness of all possibilities that do not match your judgment.

Judgment Kills

In the past day I’ve been to two new-ish restaurants in Houston that both started out from popular food trucks in the area. Everything I’ve read and seen with modern food trucks says that the progression is supposed to be that you start out as a food truck and then if you get successful and popular enough, then you should open up a brick and mortar restaurant.

The first restaurant I went to is called Good Dog, and they specialize in gourmet and totally amazing tasting hot dogs. They execute it really well, and the atmosphere in the restaurant is lively, fresh and inviting. The hot dogs were delicious, original, and inventive enough to really keep my interest and I totally want to come back to try some more!

The second restaurant I went to was called Eatsie Boys Cafe, which is based off of their Beastie Boys themed food truck with interesting dishes. Well, when I went into this cafe, there was a stale energy to it. The food was kinda stale too. They had interesting sounding dishes, but it just didn’t deliver. Apparently this business works great as a food truck, but as a restaurant it is lack-luster.

So what is the difference between the two?

The Eatsie Boys people judged that the next step for their food trucks would be to create a brick and mortar version. They weren’t willing to be aware of what their choices would create. What possibilities did they cut off with their conclusions? What else could they have created that would have been greater than a stale cafe?

On the other hand for Good Dog, it may have stemmed from a conclusion to create their brick and mortar, but it’s working for them. They function from a level a question, choice, possibility, and contribution with their business that is keeping it fresh and keeping it creating an energy that invites people and invites growth.

Anywhere you’re not functioning from the four elements of creation, it will only create stagnation in your business and in your life. Your unwillingness to function from question, choice, possibility, and contribution only cuts off your awareness of the possibilities of what will create a greater life for you, your business, and the world.

When you function from question, choice, possibility, and contribution you will be aware of possibilities that other people aren’t aware of. You will be aware of what your choices will create for you and the world. Are you willing to have that much of an upper hand in the world?

So what does “original” really mean anyway?

The word original comes from the Latin words originals, and originem which means “beginning, source, birth.” In the 1828 Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary it has many definitions which include “Fountain; source; cause; that from which any thing primarily proceeds; that which gives existence or beginning,” “That which precedes all others of its class,” and “Having the power to suggest new thoughts or combinations of thought”

Something that is original is a source in the world, is the beginning or an energy, a birthing into the world of a new way of looking at things. That which works as a platform for new ideas and creation. A platform for greater awareness.

The idea that the world is flat. What did that create for the world? A platform for greater awareness or a platform for greater ignorance and stupidity? Now when it was ‘discovered’ that the earth was round it created a platform for greater awareness than the popular belief that was held before it. That awareness of the earth being round became a source for greater awareness all over the world.

The same thing for when it was discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. Once again it created a much greater platform of awareness in the world while at the same time acknowledged the insanity of the previous beliefs.

The same with John Nash’s Governing Dynamics theory. It flew in the face of 150 years of economic theory (at least that’s what they said in the movie), yet it included more, and created a platform for greater awareness for how things actually governed themselves in nature.

Quite frankly, the world at this moment is rife with insanity. There are many areas where people function from concepts almost as insane as “the world is flat” or “the sun revolves around the earth.”

The thing is, you know there is a different possibility. You know there is a different choice to be made.

What is it that you have an awareness of that you could birth into the world as a source for a platform for greater awareness that would expose the insanity that the world currently functions from for the insanity it is?

I’m not going to call this a conclusion 😛

Consciousness is the key to truly being original. Including everything and judging nothing. How do you get there? From functioning from the four elements of creation in every aspect of your life: Question, choice, possibility, and contribution.

So what awareness, and what space can you be a source for? What can you birth into the world that hasn’t been seen here before? What else can you include in your discovery process? What questions can you ask? What choices do you have here? What possibilities are available to you? What contribution can you be and receive?

And for me, personally? I’m working on it. At least I’ve written a whole article!

How does it get any better than that? ☺

*This article was created from the extrapolation from the past 24 hours of my life where I bought the book, “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon, watched the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, used the Access Consciousness™ tools, went to both “Good Dog” and “Eatsie Boys Cafe”, was asked to write an article for a book, and researched what the best blogging platforms to use in 2014 are and stumbled upon Medium which this article is published on. What else is possible when you include and extrapolate from everything that shows up in your life?

by Bret Rushia.

Find out more about Bret Rushia here