 Hi everybody today. I'm with Simon Berkowitz. I'm excited for us to be talking about purpose I know this is something that's exciting interesting Important obviously for all of us. So Simon great to have you here Thanks George great to be here. So Simon I'm gonna read your bio so that folks know kind of your your background a little bit and then we'll get into this this idea of How do we keep our purpose alive? So? Simon has been working with clients to explore the area of creativity for the last 20 years And particularly their resistance to creativity So I know this is relevant for a lot of you because you are a lot of your creating content in some way and Simon can help you unleash your creativity So today we're gonna be talking about the latest practices for tapping into our true potential Simon is a client of mine in the MasterHeart the coaching program and Simon's great to have you here Thanks George. Thanks. This is something which It's actually relatively recent that it's really come alive again for me because for many many years I was working with purpose in in the way that I think is quite common where we're trying to find this big destiny sort of thing coming through us and I have many experiences where I Would connect to a purpose for myself and Then it would go for a while and then I would lose it and I started to see the same thing not with every kind There are some people I think you're an example of somebody who Really has clear purpose finds it easy to connect to that in your day and it's remains stable Certainly in the time that I have known you know, so that you're somebody who it works like that for But there's quite a lot of people that I work with That's just because it's something which I can struggle with who it comes and goes a little bit and as It goes Submerged underneath the chaos of a day or the difficulty can be quite hard to find the way back So it's not to say that all these things about going back to the things that really we appreciate it as Children those passions those amazing Wonderful joys that we can connect to it's not to say that route isn't is wrong. It's not it's fantastic I've just found that with Quite a few people Having a different strategy to reconnecting within the day It's something that seems to be valuable So what I thought I'd do today is I'll explain a little bit about creativity and how I see that a little bit about a couple of Traps that there are which I see with purpose and then I'll give these three different routes Which seemed they just seem to work and there a way that purpose can be brought much more into Wednesday Even when we're disconnected to it and I'll give some examples about how that's what that can work Sounds awesome sounds awesome, and I might chime in with a question here or there But I think this is all very relevant for for all of us. So, yeah so for me creativity is not just the act of creating writing or Creating a piece of music or a piece of art. It's really about how we embody and express ourselves fully in the world So that can be in any conversation we have in any situation we have and it really seems to as I as I understand it Have a certain structure and that structure is that we have a movement within us That is a movement of exploration It's a movement outward to do something in the world and then that gets stopped by this kind of resistance this inner resistance this kind of You can't do that you can't do it this way what difficult feelings all these sorts of things But those are really the only two movements That we have to manage. How do we move into that more creative space of what we really want to be doing and Then how we manage the resistance in such a way that we can then take action embody it and create more things So that's the frame of Creativity and that's that's the context within which purpose Happens now if you think to an aha moment, I always use this example When we're struggling with a problem and we have an aha moment There's an epiphany. There's an upsurge of energy. There's clarity in the mind and magically Purpose appears. I mean it seems to work like that. It's suddenly I didn't know what to do and then oh This email I can write it like this this blog post. That's the structure. I need I don't need to call that person It just arrives. That's our creativity at play That's that's how it actually works. So purpose and creativity have this kind of relationship and The thing that gets in the way is this kind of resistance. So The offering really of what I want to talk about today is how to use purpose within our day Within our day to reconnect continually no matter what we're actually feeling and it's with this idea that We're not Only trying to embody this idea that we have about what we're here to do We're trying to create space for something to happen for something to come through. That's how we get new ideas That's how we get that inspiration of that aha moment so there are a couple of traps which I've seen from Ways of working with purpose, which I think are really useful to know about One is thinking that we need a big purpose before we can act right It it can be you know, if you don't have it it can be like this I feel like I was paralyzed by that for much of my Early life. I mean really until the last I would say 15 years Um that has started transformed. But yeah, it's it's almost like no no until I find the purpose of my life I'm not going to take any action. I'm not going to commit to any career. I'm not going to Write a blog post because maybe it's not, you know, yeah, so thank you for for mentioning that I mean, it's it's crippling when oh, yeah Yeah, that that thing and I think you know speaking from personal experience as somebody who can procrastinate very well I'm an expert at that at times. I can see how that that can also be a way to avoid You know really seeing what's there and what you can actually do now And that's a very exciting thing to realize Um, just just just by contemplating Maybe I don't need a purpose. That's all that that's the first one. The second one is thinking that the thing that we've got from one of those lovely processes, you know, this mission statement, these values, whatever it is Thinking that that alone is enough Because it very quickly becomes a dead thing, you know, just oh If it doesn't have the life that comes from that upsurge of energy from that creative impulse Then, you know, it just doesn't have the energy to create. Yes. I'm so glad you mentioned this Because I have had Gosh, I don't know how many versions in my life. I mean starting I've been interested in the question of purpose since I was A kid, you know, I remember writing out something in high school. I've read some book, you know and wrote out mission and values And then of course probably several times in during high school several times in college After and it's like I've done it many times in my life. And do I refer to a document these days? No, I don't refer to any document I've written these days It's more like you say that that relationship with The the daily up swallowing of purpose. That's really interesting that you mentioned that the document becomes dead Quickly more quickly than we would like. Yeah, right And and it's not to say that that can't be important because if there is a project Yeah, yeah, then, you know, it really you really need that Need something like that especially if you're trying to gather people together, you know, and it's like we can all literally on the same page right exactly, yeah, so When it comes to this inner thing this inner movement Um, I think that it's it's not that it's not can't be useful that it can it's just that It can be that we drift Into some kind of form of resistance. And then when we look at it It becomes a mess or What what was I even trying to say and so then it becomes something we can then use to give ourselves a hard time about Because we're not in contact with it So it's really just about this aliveness, you know, and like you said You you don't have a piece of paper now Because you know, you know, you've opened it up that much for yourself that it's clear So those are those are two of the traps The simple way that I like this is these three methods The first one is finding the purpose in this moment Right Now the reason I love this is because it brings everything to a focus And it also excludes so much that we don't need to worry about So the purpose in this moment is I I'd really love to share how useful this realization has been for me So that actually cuts out all sorts of other things that I I just don't need to worry about And the thing about asking what the purpose in the moment is is that I can ask in this moment and this moment and this moment and so Rather than if I'm constantly looking to this big overall vision I can then sort of like have to work out quite how that trickles down into this moment I can actually look to the needs of the moment whether I'm at work Whether I'm with a client whether I'm with a family member whether I'm out socially And this becomes a way in To open that space towards that creative impulse I Like that a lot. I felt I feel like this is also connected to You know ancient spiritual teachings Right, you know, it's like mindfulness in buddhism. It's like the present moment, right? Or or I'm actually even thinking You know Christianity You know give us this day our daily bread. It's like this is our our sustenance and our purpose for today It's like this is this moment the person in front of you needs to be helped You know and you're helping that person or this thing is asking to be written. You need to write this thing or whatever it may be Yeah, it's really I like that. It's like instead of being always um stubbornly uh requiring The dead document to To you know come alive in this moment, you know, you must funnel down to this very moment This is my values my mission. It's like no no no it's this moment. I'm having this conversation And how can I have the best conversation? possible, that's it yeah One of the one of the things you see because of my kind of Challenges struggles and all this sort of thing. It's easy for me Because I have so many ideas coming up. It's easy for me to drift off a little bit and if I drift into resistance And resistance can come in many forms. It can be difficult feelings. It can be procrastination. It avoids all sorts of All sorts of things this resistance If that comes up It's a very very quick way to start to move out of that Because I don't have to get that purpose of the moment right It just gets me moving if you see how to mean it gives me an opportunity to change Okay, so I'm sitting here with this blog post What's what is the purpose of this blog post? Oh And then something moves You know or and I'll go into this in a moment if there are challenging situations going on It's a great way to cut through to what's really important about about this particular issue in this moment So I love it because it enables one to move back towards Connecting to that sort of bigger sense of one's purpose, which is what comes through When we're more open and more expanded without us having to be in touch with it already If you see what I mean, so it's kind of like moving up the scale of states into something a little bit more open Nice Yeah My dog agrees too We'll try it So That's that's kind of finding the purpose of the moment It's kind of the every day every moment sort of thing now There are states when and I'll give a bit of an example Well, I'll give one now So if like I have in my life somebody I care deeply about who's unwell And so what that means is that there's additional strains going on Sometimes using what is the purpose of the moment will enable me to cut through the challenge of that To what's important but sometimes I may be Challenged even more than that. It's upsetting to have someone we care about who's unwell It's upsetting to see it adds lots of strains in different areas And so here I have a ready-made purpose Which I will employ which is how can I be kinder to myself? In this moment Because what I see happening in me and what I see so often with clients is that When a person is down because something has really thrown them for a loop One of the first things which often comes in is self criticism So of judgment I must have I must have done something to make this happen. How could it happen to me, you know, all these kind of statements And so it's almost again a bit like you mentioned mindfulness. It's almost a practice To start to be able to at the very least Not coming with that criticism quite so heavily And what it does when a person really takes it on board is It starts to smooth that process So I was talking to somebody today who it used to stay in these self critical states for several weeks After something had gone very badly. It was very very strong for this person Now it's down to hours minutes very often And it's literally because the kindness cuts through it just cuts through the self criticism And enables one to start to hold oneself without resisting the feeling And so it can then change on its own And that brings us back up into a place where maybe we can ask what is the purpose of the moment Nice, I like that. It's a That question can serve as a mantra for when we are Yeah, not not feeling 100% positive and you know empowered or something like that, but yeah, I like that a lot Yeah, so there you've got these two bases the every day And when things are really tough And then you've got this more creative space And that's really Where I believe that these kind of questions that people use For the life purpose to get into that or any form of play or prayer or opening So something bigger than ourselves I feel that's where it really has the opportunity to become more of a habit You know, so if we've managed ourselves out more quickly out of a difficult space Then we can open to ask For some insight into our bigger purpose and Steven Spielberg has this wonderful quote about how he works with films He says he listens to whispers listens for whispers He says his intuition Comes in these tiny little Whispers of what the next film should be or how to take you know solve that scene And that's the kind of approach which I feel is so useful. It becomes more like an inquiry An ongoing kind of question About how what is what is my real purpose? What is it about and very often It will be something Larger You know much bigger than ourselves But I'm going back to that trap of the dead thing if we're coming from a stuck place Most of the time when we try and get something larger than ourselves, it will go with the energy Not always, but it can often go with the energy of that stuck place So what we get back doesn't have this expressionist You said I mean so This is just how I've been working with it. Like I said at the beginning There are a lot of people like yourself who have found their way But I've just found this so useful for people To be able to manage in that way because it means having a bad day doesn't mean you can't connect Right. Yeah, it's wonderful. I feel like this will be Create some breakthroughs actually for some people. So Thank you. Thank you for for sharing it and your your way of sharing it also is very Yeah, it's very nurturing and I expect that some people watching this might say How do I get Simon support in Breaking through the resistance to creativity And and maybe some people might even want to work with you on Working with their own purpose You know, so, um, maybe you could share with share with the audience How do you how can people get in touch with you and how do you like to work with people? So, uh, you can get in touch with me through my website simon berkowitz.com S-i-m-o-n-b-r-k-o-w-i-t-z.com And that's just a place to connect and I'm always very happy to have a Conversation with somebody to find out what's going on really and see if my approaches Could be a useful one That's for one-to-one work. Then if you're interested I Love working with groups with the creativity stuff and I use Voice and I have some workshops starting up again in september which are the speakeasy workshops And there it's an opportunity to experience the creative process And this place where the Comes from which is where the purpose actually arises from In a group setting it's a lovely way to experience how easy it is to move through our blocks And very often people are surprised by Actually how how good they are at being able to Get clear on their purpose or their creativity They're even passing that moment how easy it is for them In these workshops. So that's the other way And so your website simon berkowitz.com is where people can and I just went there and there's a contact me button On that website. Just people can just click there and and reach out to you there And in terms of your online workshops for creativity Um, how do we find that? Yeah, thank you. It's the sami method s a m a i i method And that you can find on facebook Okay, great semi method on facebook. Of course, I will link it in the notes of the video so people can just click on it Simon, it's been great to to talk about these things. I think these are so important and you gave some very helpful and encouraging ways to to To treat ourselves in in those moments. And how do we refind that that way of empowered action? So thank you for for your work Thank you George. Love it to be here today