Simply Said

Creativity is like juice. It can give you an inspiration buzz similar to drinking a 10 oz. glass of freshly-squeezed chilled, foamy orange juice on an empty stomach.

And yet….

Creative energy can be easily sucked out of us by our own and others’ negativism, woe-is me talk, and by focusing on the reasons ‘we can’t’ instead of focusing on the reasons ‘we can.’  Relentless talk about the downturn of the economy, disappointing political heroes, and business leader trust gone awry, can almost visibly drain the inspiration right out of us.

I have an image though that I’d like to share with you …. and together then, perhaps we can all … break free of the things that are holding us back from being all we can be, and start again to ‘think large’, and believe in the big picture and in fact, a bright picture.

Here is your picture for the day.

Barnacles.

Barnacles are an unattractive, pervasive crustacean. (My apologies to all barnacles.)

Instead of working hard and ‘crawling after their own food’ barnacles glue themselves to rocks and other living and non-living things and wait for food to wash by. (www.library.thinkquest.org). Once something alive, free-floating and yummy swims by, that’s when the barnacles reach out their barbed legs and grab onto whatever and absorbs or ‘sucks out’ the oxygen of its grabbed prey. Through adulthood, the barnacle species will remain in their ‘spot’, held permanently by one of the strongest-known natural adhesives.

Barnacles have ‘trap doors’ that rhythmically open and close. (www.chesapeakebay.net).

An unscientific, personal interpretation of the above description:

a)  Barnacles are lazy and are leeching off of the energy of others.

b)  Barnacles ‘stick’ onto unaware passers-by.

c)  Once grabbed, the passer-by is definitely ‘stuck’.

d)  If not alert, the unsuspecting can fall into the barnacle’s ‘trap door.’

A business and ‘real’ life interpretation of the barnacle saga:

a)  In our own worlds, both business and in our ‘real’ lives, we need to be wary of the lurking barnacles around us.

b)  Barnacles need our creativity and energy to feed themselves.

c)  Barnacles can be people, businesses climates, work settings, the news, ourselves …. anyone and anything that can suck our own oxygen or drink our creative juice.

d)  The barnacle folks will glue-us-back from being all that we can be.

e)  It’s easy to be unaware that we have even fallen into dangerous waters where our creativity and spirit are threatened. It can just ‘happen.’

My thought for the day then?

For me, I’m going to think about what lurking negativity is ‘out there’ and ‘within me’ – holding me back from all that I can be. And then, I’m going to go against the scientific theory of being stuck by ‘the strongest known naturally adhesive’. I then plan to break free of any barnacles that are holding me back.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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