“The way you create any outcome in your life is to hold the vision of your deepest desires.

At the same time, though, you must honestly and accurately assess your current situation and how it relates to your greater vision. By doing this, you engage tension between what is and what can be.

This tension is the primary creative force behind the manifestation of any outcome.

It’s as natural and powerful as the force of gravity.”

~ David Emerald, Author of “The Power of TED*”

Pick up a rubber band. (Imagining it will be fine. :))

Put it between the biggest finger on each of your hands. Pull your fingers apart, stretching the rubber band. Now, imagine that your right hand is your ideal, pulling away from your left hand, which is your current situation.

Feel the tension?

Nice.

That tension between your fingers is the same type of tension that exists when you dare to dream and envision your ideal life. The moment we do that, we create what TED from “The Power of TED*” calls “Dynamic Tension” between our ideal and our current reality.

Here’s the challenge: What do we want to do when we feel that tension between our fingers and between our ideal and where we are? Relieve it, right?

As TED advises: “In the case of dynamic tension, you can resolve the tension in either direction. You can let go of your vision and snap back toward your current reality, or you can move from your current situation toward your vision.”

As Victims, we compromise our ideal vision and then bitch that someone’s persecuting us.

As Creators? As Creators, we know that “It’s impossible to invest your soul in a compromise.” So we hold that tension and take what TED calls “Baby Steps” toward our goal.

“It is the Baby Steps you take, the everyday things you do,

that eventually lead to the manifestation of your outcome.”

“Some of the steps you take may end up being detours or out-and-out mistakes.

By staying focused on your vision, though, you’ll find even those steps useful in the creating process.”

Feel the tension and take a Baby Step, baby!!! :)

(This is from a longer note I wrote you may dig. Check out the overview of one of my favorite new books called ““The Power of TED*” by one of my favorite new people, David Emerald, here.)

Hi, Bri.

I’ve decided to post here instead of nagging you with personal mails. That way, everyone can share the fun!

This thing about tension…

I had been a teacher in American schools for over 13 years (and a private teacher for a few more) when I moved to Japan to learn how to teach ESL. Remember, I was “highly trained” in the States, with a Master of Education degree. I was a school principal at 29, and thought I knew what I was doing.

The school where I taught in Japan was a commercial school, kind of like Berlitz, where “students” are actually customers. I would have said, “I teach English to Japanese students,” but the company would have said, “He delivers a service that we have contracted to provide to our customers.”

Same event, different paradigms.

I learned a lot from them, and one of the best things (at last, back to the Big Idea) was about creating tension.

They taught us that the lesson proper (after a warm-up) would begin with a “Pre-Activity.” This was a talking activity designed to do two things: allow the teacher to assess the students’ ability (and adjust the lesson accordingly), and-get this-show the student what s/he didn’t know. This was specifically designed to create tension between where the student was and where s/he wanted to go.

The lesson was then taught. Finally there was a concluding activity. This was like the Pre-activity, but at a higher skill level. Its purpose was to show the student what s/he had learned.

From a business standpoint, of course, this was brilliant. Student/customers could see that their 50 minutes and tons of yen were well spent.

As a teacher, though, I have carried this away in my toolkit. The pre-activity, by creating tension, makes the students “hungry.” Too much tension and they give up; too little and theY sit back and relax. It’s like the Buddha said: The strings on a lute must be neither too tight nor too loose (I call this “The Goldilocks Principle.”) Hence the idea of “Baby Steps.” Not too much tension, yeah?

Another good one, Bri. Thanks.

James

That’s awesome, James! Well said.

Funny b/c I just read (in basically one sitting…it was that good!) Robert Fritz’ book, The Path of Least Resistance

I’m going to be writing some big ideas on it, but he’s the one who really developed the idea of “structural tension”—finding the tension btwn your ideal vision and your current reality an moving as a creator toward the tension’s resolution. He also does a brilliant job of outlining how the non-creator orientation (the reactor/responder orientation) is buffeted by life’s circumstances and “oscillates” between opposing desires in “structural conflict.” More on that soon…

For now: here’s to creating our ideal vision, seeing reality accurately, and taking those baby steps!

-bri

Now here is one to live your life by. There is certainly something to be said for ‘molding the clay’- and when we come up with new ideas, I feel most do not pursue them because they feel the tention of where they are now- and the voice inside calling them forward. But it is funny- using this rubber band analogy- because when we have the idea, its like we stretch out- reaching out- and then once we let go of our own feelings of limitation and any voice inside saying ‘you cant do it’- we are free to release the tension and move forward.

Great post!!

Brilliantly, said, Ninja! With that * knowing * we can powerfully take the next baby step in front of us and we’re bound to be successful!

Why thank you, sir. :) Baby steps- that’s an important one.