Filling in the Blanks

This week brought a milestone in my life. My partner and I have decided to close our business, which has been on the Internet since 1996. I intend to continue with the courses and consultations I give. I will also continue writing the nonfiction and fiction that's been central to my life for a long time.

I'm hardly contemplating idleness, but I'm feeling the sense of a big gap from where I've been to where I'm going. In a lot of ways this is the essence of creativity.

Creativity is all about the gap, the emptiness, and the uncertainty. If not effectively harnessed, it can be about fear, the "what's going to happen now?" feeling.

Yet it can't be any other way. Going back to the days of the typewriter, if I have a piece of paper that already has type on it, I can't use it to write something new. My new typewritten words will blur into those already written. I need a fresh, blank piece of paper in order to create something new.

I remember that whenever I rolled a piece of paper into the typewriter, nothing intimidated me more than the vast emptiness of that paper. It's the difference between "what's going to happen?" and "what am I going to create?"

The second question empowers us. It reminds us that we do have the ability to shape our worlds. It prompts us to know that every choice we make begins to fill that blank page.

I have made many choices by default through sloppy thinking and by allowing fear to dictate my decisions. Today is the perfect day to remind myself that I can be deliberate and creative in my thinking. I can imagine what I want for the future and make choices that will bring my vision to reality.

What choices are you making today?