My Mahjong skills were in the dumps last week. Frustration was sky high as I couldn’t make the point threshold. Then I realized: The objective is the least moves possible, not a high score! My mood instantly improved once I aligned to the correct goal.
Have you ever had a similar problem? You think you’re playing one game, but you find out later you were in the middle of a completely different situation? As you think about reconstructing life after the pandemic, you may be determined to reverse that curse and play the right game. But your next thought could be This is confusing and intimidating! However, it’s easier than you think: Align to what matters to you, then design your life around those qualities.
Let me tell you how a singer busted wide open when she aligned with a new game.
Mickey Guyton is having a blockbuster year, but it kind of happened by accident. After a decade of what she calls “doing Nashville the Nashville way,” she decided to go in a different direction.
In a writing session, she opened her notebook and tenderly introduced a title that had been haunting her: “Black Like Me.” The room stopped for a split-second, then the writers lit up. When the track was finished, writer/producer Nathan Chapman said, “This could either be the biggest song of your career, or it’s gonna make a lot of people angry.”
“Black Like Me” has been a breakout hit, and it’s also put words around what many have tried to articulate as part of Black Lives Matter. Guyton says, “Country music praises Johnny Cash, praises Dolly Parton, praises all of these old-school country artists. And guess what? The common denominator with these greats is they were singing about their truth, and they were not afraid to speak up and call a spade a space. You can’t praise Johnny Cash and then tell us, in 2020, to keep our mouths shut. Our voices matter.”
Mickey Guyton is committed to staying authentic, even though the way forward isn’t crystal clear. When she thinks about playing the traditional Nashville game, she shakes her head and says, “I can’t go back.”
In the June series, Five Lessons to Prime Your Creativity, we’re looking at important learnings from creative people and how you can make those lessons personal. Like Mickey Guyton, your pre-pandemic life may have fit into a predictable mold. Now that you’ve had some time away, you may be at a crossroads between going back to the way it was and keeping your options open.
It’s natural to feel like you’re caught in the washing machine of uncertainty and anxiety. But instead of trying to hush those feelings, use them as a way to prime your creativity. That’s what Mickey Guyton did. First she stopped trying to align to a cookie cutter mold of what a female singer should be. Then she made the daring choice to design her music around what felt true to her, just like her country music heroes had done. She listened when her instincts whispered, “More of this,” and “A little less of this.”
Here are three ways for you to use your natural creativity to align, then design:
Don’t let a once-comfortable routine be the boss of you. Replace what feels stale by aligning to situations that are rich, provocative, and engaging. Use soft skills like creativity and discernment to play the right game.