Opening ourselves up to All-Possibility in order to allow something completely new and magical to be created is risky; we have no idea what will happen—or how—and we can’t control what we don’t know! Taking that leap of faith into the Unknown can feel terrifying because it means making yourself vulnerable to the possibility of failure, of being wrong, of messing up—even giving up your old habitual identity as you abandon who you thought you were to become who you really are, as revealed moment by moment in the creative process.

As scary as it may be to let go of the old and familiar, it’s even riskier to let perfectionism, self-doubt, and fear of what might go wrong take over and prevent you from surrendering to the mystery of All-Possibility and creative Inspiration.

But most of us have been trained to play it safe, not take too many risks, and follow the old familiar, rigid rules to stay within the bounds of what is acceptable. What’s worse, all too often we surrender our curiosity and creative fire to those in authority, instead of making our own Inner Wisdom our ultimate guide.

When you submit to an external authority without honoring what’s truly best for you, according to what you know to be true in your heart, you will slowly lose your joy, your love of music, and your passion for communicating beauty—what Plato called the “splendor of the true”—with others. Without realizing what’s happened, you might end up wondering why you feel uninspired, unmotivated and bored, when the truth is that deep down, you are silently grieving the loss of connection with your true Self.

Of course, to fit into society and be outwardly successful, it’s generally advisable to adopt the norms and do what is expected of you. For instance, it’s commonly accepted that as a student, you should hold your instrument correctly and practice the exercises your teacher assigns; as a performer in an orchestra, you should show up at events on time, be prepared, and follow the conductor; as an educator, you must plan your lessons and deliver the quality teaching your students and administrators expect.

Even so, I’ve learned over the years that it’s far more important to have a strong faith in yourself that comes from learning how to listen to your own heart and follow your inner guidance rather than blindly follow the culture and authority figures who dictate the rules of the outer game.

At the same time, it’s essential to keep your inner world and outer world in balance, with a healthy dose of humility that always stays open to the possibility that you might be wrong—about anything. Learning how to balance your inner and outer worlds for deep peace, joy, and success is a lifelong process!

Not only does humility help protect you and others from some of the pain resulting from your inevitable mistakes, but having the willingness to believe that anyone can be wrong—including both yourself and those in positions of authority—means you’re always open to discovering better, more natural and inspired ways of doing things that may not have been thought of before.

The flexibility and adaptability of an open mind-body-self is even more valuable than the laudable commitment to hold fast to something we’ve always been told or have even experienced to be right, but which might not actually be the best way—or even right at all.

When aspiring to create art, we need to be willing to let go of everything known—both what our own ego tells us and what we’ve received from outside—in order to be open to the mystery of Inspiration—something which often does NOT bend to established rules, but rises above them.

When we let that fiery spirit flow through us unhindered, something new, fresh, and pure can be created. Something as natural and unique as a leaf on a tree—both the same as, yet utterly different from, every other leaf ever produced before or after. That is how an inspired note sounds, too. So that even when it’s out of tune or the phrase is lopsided, it can be admired as something imperfectly perfect when it stems from Inspiration. Just like we, ourselves.

Of course, listening to knowledgeable teachers, accepting good advice from trusted sources, and following rules that make sense is often the quickest route to learning what we need to know. After all, you need to have a general idea of the basics like how to hold your instrument, what needs to happen in order to make certain sounds and phrases, and how rhythm and intonation work before you can go much further. Being able to humbly submit to authorities outside of ourselves with integrity and imbibe new ideas is necessary and beneficial at every stage of our development!

But following even the best rules and most sincere guides can still stunt our growth and end up causing harm if we adopt a rigid moralistic attitude along the way. That attitude also makes it much harder to discern whether a rule is universally applicable, and whether it is personally helpful to you or not.

When you blindly adopt the belief that following those in positions of authority and accepting their rules is “good” and makes you a “good person” and if you don’t follow the rules, that’s “bad” and makes you a “bad person,” you are giving up much of your own power and freedom of choice. Over time, you might forget to think for yourself, and it gets harder to see clearly and make choices based on more subtle information than what first met the eye.

My own belief in a worldview that divides our thoughts and actions into “right/good” vs. “wrong/bad” used to be very strong; for a long time I didn’t question the value of this kind of black-and-white thinking.

In fact, as I got older, just asking certain kinds of questions with an unbridled or “unhealthy” curiosity, I firmly labeled as “wrong” behavior. Having a passionate desire to innovate, experience, or create something alternative to accepted norms also got relegated (by me) to the “wrong” box, as (supposedly) ego-driven, and of course that was also a “bad” thing.

Because I wanted desperately to be a “good” person and do things correctly, I resolved at that point to relinquish, along with my natural curiosity, my passions. I became the “arch conformist,” determined to follow all the rules, make sure I did everything right, and accept as true whatever I was told by those I trusted in positions of authority. This may sound like rigidity in the extreme; true, I became a temporary slave to blind perfectionism. And perfectionism (the need to be correct and right in everything, to the extent possible) is the surest way to feed self-doubt and crush your creative spirit!

In fact, as I said, this conditioning is not really unusual. We’ve all been conditioned to accept without question the way of life we are born into, and to believe what we are told is worthy of our striving.

With love and awareness,
Jennifer

P.S. If you’re ready to turn life’s challenges into creative breakthroughs, ask me about my course – Emotional Alchemy for Your Inner Artist: Turn Raw Feelings into Creative Gold. I also have two openings in my online studio for new private coaching students who want to explore this kind of transformation in their music and life. Send me a private message, and let’s talk. 🙂