I was listening to a Michael Jackson album the other day (all hail the King of Pop) and came to a short track where Quincy Jones was talking about some of the work he and Michael did together.
I’ve listened to this album a thousand times before but don’t think I’d ever really heard this bit where Quincy Jones says:
“You have to do something that gives you goosebumps. Because if you get turned on a lot, you’ve got a chance of somebody else getting turned on.”
Truth.
And this is what it’s all about. Doing what you love. Creating what you want to create. Creating it in the way you want to create it.
It’s about saying yes to those ideas you couldn’t possibly pull off but which fill you with this electric energy because it’s all about the creative process and well…just imagine if you did pull it off. Imagine that.
You know those ideas, don’t you? The ones that come to you in the shower or just as you’re about to drift off to sleep. The ones that pop in when you’re out for a walk or doing your shopping.
The ideas that give you a sudden rush and yes, that tingle, those goosebumps.
This is what it feels like to be turned on. When something deeper, something truer and something beyond your intellectual mind has been downloaded to you from the universe.
And this is also the point:
Getting turned on isn’t something you can force. It’s not about forcing. It’s about allowing.
It’s about allowing the time and the space for those ideas to rush in. It’s about creating enough time away from the busyness of the intellectual grindings of your mind to access that deeper place where the goose-bump ideas come from.
It’s about taking time out to do other stuff away from your business – like going for a run, going to a yoga class, making some art, talking to a friend, cooking dinner, going for a walk – whatever it is. The goosebumps of a brilliant creative idea rarely come when you’re up in your head trying to figure something out.
And then when the goose-bump idea comes, you run with it. You go with it and for it. Because your energy around that? It’s going to help bring other people in. Whether that’s about finding funding, collaborative partners, customers and clients, or a community of people who’ll get behind you.
It’s true. When you’re turned on, you have a much, much better chance of somebody else getting turned on too.
And when you’re turned on about something and other people are turned on about something? Well, then you’re really talking about the path to success.
So today, I won’t tell you to go get turned on.
But I will suggest that you create some space where that might happen.
Love and courage,
Leah
Help someone get (creatively) turned on. Tweet it out: Creativity. It’s about creating space for getting turned on.