Some years back, I was in a meeting with Magic Johnson to discuss a book he wanted to write. He told me he\u2019d had two ambitions in his life. Basketball and business. He had accomplished the first one and become a champion. Over and over. Now he wanted to write about the second one: Being a successful businessman and inspiring the younger generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew what you wanted to do ever since you were young,\u201d I said. \u201cWhat advice would you give people who don\u2019t know what they want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should keep trying everything until they find something they like. When they do, they should give it their all.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was fortunate to know what I wanted to do from a very young age. When I was six, my mother showed me a newspaper photograph of a prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn of the Royal Ballet. She was standing on the tips of her toes in a sparking tutu, her ankles swathed in satin ribbons, her arms making a graceful arc above her head, her jeweled tiara placed just so on her head. I decided that was what I wanted to do as I pranced around our dining room table. I practiced spins and jumps and when I opened the refrigerator door, I threw a leg out behind me, clobbering whoever had the bad
luck of standing there.<\/p>\n
When I started dancing, I had no turnout and I couldn\u2019t do the splits. When I learned to knit, my first sweater had slipped stitches in it and it was too big for my father. When I started writing, I wrote terrible poetry and my prose wasn\u2019t so good either. I wasn\u2019t one of those writers whose first book flew up the bestseller lists. It took me years of practice to get where I am today and I\u2019m still learning. The key is that whatever I\u2019m doing, I don\u2019t think about what I can\u2019t do. I don\u2019t think about where I\u2019m heading. I think about where I am right now and I look back to see how far I\u2019ve come instead of how far I have to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since I retired from the ballet, I\u2019ve flexed my creative muscles by knitting beautiful sweaters, studying
healing in the Philippines, and writing every day. When someone asked Olympic champions gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Michael Phelps how they rose to the top of their sport, they said a similar thing. \u201cI wasn\u2019t necessarily better than anyone else. I just practiced more.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I started writing my blog, I didn\u2019t think I had much to say. But each week, I put all of my attention on what I\u2019m doing. It doesn\u2019t always come easily. It often takes several days and a number of false starts to perfect a blog. The one I\u2019m writing right now is the result of choosing several different topics and finally settling on the one that really spoke to me. I\u2019m on blog number 455. I\u2019m not trying to tout what I\u2019ve accomplished. I simply want to inspire my readers to do what they love and to stick with it. If you\u2019re not sure what you want to do, remember what Magic Johnson said. Try it all and when you find something that gets your attention, put everything you have into it. It doesn\u2019t matter how good you are. It\u2019s not your job to critique your work. It\u2019s your job to do what you love and have some fun along the way.<\/p>\n
During this unprecedented time of angst and dirty politics, I don\u2019t know what I would do if I didn\u2019t have my writing to dive into. Of course, it feels great to get a publishing deal but that isn\u2019t my end game anymore. These days, I write to express my feelings, process my life and unburden my heart. I write to know myself better. Whoopi Goldberg said, \u201cI think of myself very differently than other people do.
Writing my memoir is an opportunity to learn more about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creativity takes courage. I know someone in her early sixties who told me she\u2019s bored these days and doesn\u2019t know what she wants to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me that you love guitar music,\u201d I said. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you learn to play the guitar?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to start anything new at my age and be bad at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was stuck and most likely, she\u2019ll remain that way. I feel sorry for her because being creative is the only way I can endure this rough patch we\u2019re in. Creativity doesn\u2019t require new content. Instead, it feeds on a new perspective of what is already there. It might be a way of rearranging what is familiar and generating unique, imaginative insights. It might be a way to go with the flow and stop resisting
and enjoy the process. When I was in Bali, I bought a painting of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of education, creativity and music. Her name comes from the Sanskrit word \u201csaras\u201d which means \u201cthat which is fluid.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most valuable gifts of creativity it that is never runs dry. You may think it does, but it\u2019s simply waiting for you to catch up. Maya Angelou said, \u201cYou can\u2019t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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