Corporate Newsletter: SureWest

Issue 8: Creative Tension

August 14, 2002

Hola, CIA agents! Recall to mind the personal vision you came up with a couple weeks ago. Now let's see how reality works together with vision to effect positive change...

>> INITIATING CREATIVE TENSION

Is your personal vision as clear to you as the image on the monitor before you? Do you know exactly what reality will look like after you've achieved your goal? Next, have you taken a clear and honest look at your perceptions of current reality?

If these conditions are met, then you're probably experiencing creative tension. Creative tension is the energy created when your vision doesn't match reality. You know what you want things to be like, but things aren't there yet! Depending on the passion you have for your vision, you may find your heart, mind and body yearning a way that almost hurts.

This tension can be a little uncomfortable, but it's the very thing that will keep you pushing toward your goal. It's like a rubber band stretched between two fingers -- it draws the fingers together with relentless pressure. When you wake in the morning, this energy will compel you to plan the steps necessary to meet your goal. When life and work distracts you for a few days or weeks, this creative tension will turn your attention back to your vision. This is the very tension  that forced me back to write this issue after two weeks away. Not a day went by without the internal reminder that this issue was waiting to be written!

>> STRENGTHENING THE TENSION

If you find that you don't have enough motivation to reach your vision, then you might be lacking in creative tension. It's time to either refine your vision or get a better view of current reality.

It could be that you've set your vision so far out in La-La Land that you don't really believe it could happen. If so, it's time to adjust your vision to something attainable. It could be that you think reality is just fine as it is. If so, it's time to ask yourself whether your vision is really a vision or simply a snapshot of your average day.

Sometimes, we lack in creative tension because we don't think enough about our vision. We don't spend enough time envisioning how we want things to be. Write down your vision and then read it every morning when you wake and each night before you sleep. Do this for a few weeks and you'll notice the difference it makes in your daily efforts.

>> YOUR MISSION

Unlike a rubber band, I've found that creative tension often increases in strength as you see your goal getting closer. With each completed step of your plan, your vision is closer to reality, and your energy for reaching it increases. This renewed energy will only come with forward movement.

Now is the time to take the next step toward your goal! Do something today that contributes to reaching your personal vision.

"The danger is not that we aim too high and miss it, but that we aim too low and reach it."
 -- Unknown

See you in the hallways, change agents!

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Some ideas and definitions used in this newsletter were found in the "Fifth Discipline Fieldbook" by Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross and Smith (ISBN 0-385-47256-0)