p.5 You may barely notice the underlying structures in your life and how powerfully and naturally
they determine the way you live... You can change the fundamental underlying structures of your life...
once a new basic structure is in place, the overall thrust of your life - like the power of the river's current - surges to
form the results you truly want... You can learn to recognize the structures at play in your life and change them
so that you can create what you really want to create.
p.6-7 The structure of anything refers to its fundamental parts and how those individual elements function
in relation to each other and in relation to the whole... When these parts interact, they set up tendencies - inclinations
toward movement.... Every structure contains within it the inclination toward movement, that
is, a tendency to change from one state into another state. But some structures tend to move, whereas others tend
to remain stationary. The structures that tend to remain stationary consist of elements that hold each other together...
What determines the tendency to move? The underlying structure...One of the most important insights of this book is
in this principle: Structure determines behavior. The way anything is structured determines the behavior within that
structure.
p.8 human beings act in accordance with the underlying structures in their lives...
Some structures are more useful than others in leading to desired results.
p.9 The structures in some people's lives lead to oscillation. These people have a general
experience of moving forward and then backward, and then forward and then backward again. This pattern may repeat endlessly.
Because of the structure in play, their attempts to change their life may work at first, and then not work
p.11 When you think structurally, you ask better and more useful questions. Rather than
asking, "How do I get this unwanted situation to go away?" you might ask, "What structures should I adopt to create
the results I want to create?" ...The creative process uses a structure that does not oscillate
but moves toward final resolution so that the creator brings into being the results he or she wants.
p.12 if the structures in your life do not support your success, you will be limited. When
you are able to shift to a structure that leads to resolution rather than oscillation, you will increase not only
your possibility for further accomplishment but also your probability for further accomplishment.
p.31 There is a profound difference between problem solving and creating. Problem solving is taking
action to have something go away - the problem. Creating is taking action to have something come into being - the creation.
p.38-39 The inventiveness of the creative process does not come from generating alternatives, but
from generating a path from the original concept of what you want to create to the final creation of it in reality...
there is a focus of critical judgment, not a suspension of it... The creator develops an economy of means.
The more mastery, the more direct the path from original concept to final creation... Focus needs an object
of attention. To a creator, the object of focus is the final result that he or she wants to create.
p.49 It is wise to learn about the creative process from those practitioners who know the most about
it and who have used it to bring the highest fruits of the creative process into being. This is a different skill
from what you have learned in school, at home, or at work, and yet it is one of the most important skills to develop in your
life.
p.51-54 The steps in the creative process are simple to describe, but they do not constitute
a formula. Instead, each step represents certain types of actions...
1. Conceive of the result you want to create. Creators start at the end. First they have
an idea of what they want to create. Sometimes this idea is general, and sometimes it is specific. Before you can create what
you want to create, you must know what you are after, what you want to bring into being...
2. Know what currently exists...
3. Take action... As you invent actions to bring your creations into being, you
begin to develop an instinct for the actions that work best. Creators are able to develop an economy of means...
The art of creating is often found in your ability to adjust or correct what you have done so far...
4. Learn the rhythms of the creative process: germination, assimilation, and completion...
5. Creating momentum... Each new creation gives you added experience and knowledge of your own creative
process.
p.58 What motivates a creator? The desire for the creation to exist. A creator creates
in order to bring the creation into being.
p.68 In the creative orientation, the most powerful question you can ask yourself is, "What do I
want?" At any time and in any situation - regardless of the circumstances - you can always ask and answer that question.
p.69,70 By keeping his focus on the result he wanted to create - an electric light - Edison was
able to focus the process toward a successful result... Artists have a clear sense of this need to focus on the result
they want.
p.72,73 Once a vision is clear, processes organically form that lead to the accomplishment of that
vision. This means that, in the creative orientation, process is invented along the way... The
process should always serve the result.
p.73 A common rule of thumb in life is to have a formula about how things should work, so that if
you learn the formula, you will always know what to do.
p.90 If you try to change your behavior without first changing the underlying structure causing the behavior,
you will not succeed, This is because structure determines behavior, not the other way around.
p.116-118 structural tension is the armature of the creative process. It is the bones.
It is also the engine of the creative process and the energy source for that engine.
Tension strives for resolution... You, as a creator, establish tension,
use tension, play with tension, orchestrate tension, and resolve tension in the direction you choose.
The way you form structural tension is by first conceiving of a result you want to create
and then by observing the relevant current state of the reality you have in relation to that result.. When you form and hold
structural tension, resolution moves toward the vision you want to create... The energy generated by the discrepancy
you establish is directly useful in the actions you take on behalf of the vision. Movement leads to more movement.
p.118 Only an accurate awareness of reality and an accurate awareness of your vision will enable
you to form structural tension as an important part of the creative process.
p.122 The best place to begin the creative process is at the end. What is the final result you want?
This way of thinking helps you conceive the result you want to create independently from how you will create it... When
you first set out to conceive of a result you want, start with a clean sheet, a blank canvas, a fresh beginning...
When you are conceiving of a new creation, it is best to begin without considering what you have thought
before, or done before, or even what others have done before. With each new creation, begin anew
in your mind. This technique can make quite a difference in your effectiveness.
p.127 There is a difference between a concept and a vision. Concept comes before vision. Concept
is general, vision is specific. In the conceptual period you are experimenting with ideas. You are mentally trying
out various possibilities. This is a formative period... Once you have formed the concept, the next step is to crystallize
it. This is an act of focusing.
p.133-137 The following principles will help you experiment with conceiving of what you want to create.
1. Ask yourself the question, What do I want? ...Knowing what you want has two important
advantages. You are able to focus your attention quickly, and you are accurately describing the truth to
yourself... Confusion usually comes from focusing on process, or solution, and not being able to see where you are going.
When you are considering what you want, your ability to focus your attention toward desired results eliminates this
confusion...
2. Consider what you want independently of considerations of process... You will need to
consider process when you create. But this should happen only after you know what result you want. In fact, you will
probably be surprised at the clever ways in which you will invent the path between your current reality and your vision...
3. Separate what you want from questions of possibility... If you find yourself limiting
what you want based on what seems possible to you, you are censoring and inhibiting your vision... The art of accurately
naming the result you want begins with separating what you want from questions of possibility.
p.155-160 Three Stages of Creation...
Germination... During the initial stages excitement, keen interest, and freshness abound.
It is a time for generating action. Great insight, realization, enthusiasm, change, and a sense of power often occur. As everyone
knows, however, these expectations of germinational energy dissipate over time, often after a brief time...
Assimilation... During this internalizing stage, the result being created is growing organically,
developing from within, and calling forth inner resources, while you are taking inner and outer action...
Completion
The third distinct stage of creation is completion, which includes bringing to fruition, manifesting the
whole, finishing, following through, and learning to live with your creation.
p.163 All too often people fail to focus their choices upon results, and therefore their choices
are ineffective.
p.165 Making choices is a vital part of the creative process. Not only do you choose what you want
to create, but you also make a series of strategic choices along the way, choices about actions, experiments, values, priorities,
hierarchies, and how further to support all your efforts.
Because creating is an art, it deals in approximation. There are no formulas
to follow, no hard rules to apply. Creating is, at its roots, improvisational. You make
it up as you go along. You learn to break ground. You learn to learn from your failures as well as your successes.
Over time, your own unique creative process develops, and your instinct for making choices that are in your best interest
increases.
p.171 The way people choose reveals where they see the power in a situation residing and how that
power is activated and used.
p.206 In the creative process, change is the norm... The creative process is an endless series of
phoenixes. New life emerges from the ashes and dust of what is past and over.
p.235 The pivotal technique in the creative orientation may help you use unwanted circumstances as a catalyst
to help propel you toward where you want to be.... Step 1. Describe where you are... Step 2. Describe
where you want to be... Step 3. Once again, formally choose the result you want... Step 4. Move
on.
p.241 One of the great secrets in the art of creating is mastering the force of structural tension.
If you attempt to resolve the tension you have established prematurely, you weaken your ability to create the results you
want... instead of trying to force yourself to resolve the tension created by the discrepancy between current reality and
your vision, let structural tension do the job it was designed to do. As a creator, even in an unwanted situation
you can learn to establish tension and hold that tension until it is organically resolved.
