reimagine

Reimagine everything. The theme our keynote speaker, Ron Johnson, CEO of jcp, creator of Apple Stores
and the Genius Bar, idea man behind designers creating specific brands and products for Target, reiterated throughout his presentation. Reimagine everything. His words sinking in as he continued to speak. Use your imagination. Embrace imagination. Don’t believe the skeptics. Believe in yourself, your ideas, your convictions.

Ron spoke passionately to these topics at the CitizensLeague 2012 Civic Celebration. His father, Verne Johnson, has been involved with the organization since before its inception 60 years ago – his passion for engagement clearly passed from father to son, a successful business man and a man who filled me with motivation and excitement – feelings a speaker hasn't invoked in a while. Ron - a person who took risks, huge risks, when Apple was a floundering company, when Target wasn't a common household name and couldn't differentiate itself from the other big box stores, now tackling jcp to turn it into America's favorite store. Ron spoke to the successes through what his father embodied, what made him a successful and wonderful person and what he passed along; he touched on the qualities of clarity, courage, creativity and kindness.

I sat there taking it all in. Clarity. Courage. Creativity. Kindness. Simple concepts with deep and profound implications. I wrote a bit about creativity the other day, finding my creativity, working with it, through the roadblocks and my own hang ups, discovering outlets and proceeding. Throughout the presentation and in the following days, I now ponder these additional concepts; about how all revolve around one another – opening a process for me, (re)imagination: a key to life and living.

Ron brought the presentation to a close stating the worst thing you can do when things are going well is rest on your laurels. He then quoted Maryann Williamson saying, “"We're all assigned a piece of the garden, a corner of the universe that is ours to transform. Our corner of the universe is our own life — our relationships, our homes, our work, our current circumstances — exactly as they are.” I left that presentation discussing the impact of his words, his battle cry to get uncomfortable. What makes a person memorable, makes them important, gives them a sense of purpose, of fulfillment in life and provides a legacy is clarity, courage, creativity and kindness.

 Get moving and reimagine what is in front of you. 

The process

Creativity [kree-ey-tiv-i-tee] n. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

 A glorious and frustrating concept.

 I contain a lot of creativity; many ideas: standard, complex, normal, abstract. Self-discipline is my own worst enemy. I fight it, I resign myself against it, I eventually and occasionally embrace output in spurts - a vicious cycle of self-loving and loathing.

 I make stuff. I like it, love it even. Cards, images, stitching, writing. I have an extensive ‘to create’ list full of ideas I want to make and articulate. Some of these things I am actually pretty good at doing.

 I am told I have a 'good eye'. This eye is the core of it but not a sustaining feature - the discipline, the ability to overcome fear must be present – so difficult, I am forever reaching and beating myself up when I can’t find it quickly enough, easily enough. It is hard. I don't write this to garner sympathy but to explore why so many creative people (and I'm guessing most of us are), namely ME, don't ever get outside of our own heads, our own fears, our own damn laziness.

 Ira Glass has a quote (thanks to a friend who posted a .jpeg on the interwebs) that oscillates in my head, taunting me, encouraging me, "Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through."

 Creativity, like anything, is a process. It is not immediate; creativity takes time, it takes dedication, it takes heart, most of all, it takes self-acceptance. I am here to accept my abilities, my talent and to grow it instead of stifling myself through fear or the unknown.

 These past few days I have been in an output mode, self-love instead of self-loathe, my heart goes into my creative output the goal of self-discipline and self-loving to follow. As the creative output ramps up, hell, I am even writing about it.

 Sealing up a new, completely original card to a friend I smile; realizing this is as much for her as it is for me. The quote I chose, a Chinese proverb, reads: The journey is the reward.