Defenseless
Got an interesting perspective from The Grasshopper as he intoned this turn of a phrase: “The best defense is no defense at all.”
It immediately got me to wondering, “What are we defending?” It seems most often that we defend who we think we are. When we get defensive, we are putting up a fight for a false front that we present for public consumption, or as I like to say, “the person we made up and got comfortable with.”
There is a giant upside when you lay down your arms and stop defending your stunt double. Your false exterior begins to crumble and fall away and what’s left is nothing that needs a defense – You!
The real you is nothing or “no-thing.” It’s not a gender, a temperament, neither fat or skinny, rich or poor, smart or dumb. It doesn’t have a social security number, social status, or membership in a particular religion or political party. No wonder the real you needs no defense because all the above is stripped away, allowing an authentic you to come out and play.
Examine what you are defending and you will see that what you are doing is propping up a cardboard cutout and calling it “You.”
“You” can’t be defined or defended, but it is the core of who you are – a cauldron of nothingness that is the force of creation.
If you absolutely need a label to define yourself, try this one on for size: Creator.
When we are stripped down to our bare essence, we are creation machines.
Creativity doesn’t need a defense, just an open space to work its magic. We keep our space to create confined when we insist we are all the things we’ve defined. That is truly limiting behavior.
You open yourself to endless possibility when you open the barn door and let the horses run. They’re no longer corralled; just free-to-be without a name or a saddle, and nothing to rein in their creative force.
Every minute you spend to defend delays your ability to create. The maxim is simple: If you want to create more, defend less.
All the best,
John
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