4 Steps to Create Anything

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Imagine discovering a simple pattern found everywhere in life. Once you see it, you will never forget it. All you need to remember is its acronym, STAR. The great thing about this pattern is you can tap into it and begin creating anytime you want!

See Think Act Reap

Have you noticed the creating pattern in life? Some years ago, I coined the acronym STAR from See, Think, Act, and Reap and wrote a book about it – Uncommon Sense, subtitled The S.T.A.R. Approach to Life.  

Wherever you look in life, you can find it. Simply put, it is:

·       Seeing something new.

·       Thinking to understand it.

·       Acting on your thoughts.

·       Reaping results from your creation.

The following graphic shows how the results we reap depend on our actions, which rely on our thinking (understanding), which comes from what and how we see.

Notice that seeing and thinking are internal, while actions provide a bridge to the external.

The repeating cycle

The cycle repeats itself because what you receive can help you see more and more clearly, further feeding your thoughts, which can result in action to create, leading to more reaping.

Until something first occurs inside you, nothing new manifests in the world. Everything you create stems from the actions taken on your thoughts.

You'll notice the above graphic looks like a target. It is!

To score, hit the bull's-eye by seeing something new. After considering what you see, your actions become deliberate, creating something that allows you to reap the result.

The key is that everything begins in your mind. Whether the result is intangible, such as a relationship, or tangible (material), such as a "widget," it all begins with seeing and understanding.

Using the STAR model to create

Imagine the result you want to create is to improve a relationship with a co-worker. The relationship's current state shows up in how you interact, resulting from what is in you and what is in the other person.

Essentially, the relationship is created by what you "see" and how you think about or interpret it. If you want to change the relationship, what do you do?

You could attempt to change the other person, but can you?

Trying to get them to see what you want them to see usually fails. Experience tells us this is a difficult path in any relationship.

Why not look inside yourself and begin working to "see" a new or different perspective?

Let's say you look inward and develop more compassion for the other person. You realize he's under much stress with his work, or maybe family issues are weighing on him. As you begin to see him differently and understand him better, your actions can change, with the resulting interactions taking on a different tone. This process might take the relationship to a new place.

Let's use the STAR approach of "seeing" more, making meaning of our thoughts about what we see, and then behaving (taking action) in a new way to create a new result.

Example #1

I once had a strained relationship with a colleague. All I had seen in him was what I considered selfishness. Everything he said was about him and how much success he had or what he wanted. He never listened to much of what I or anyone else had to say.

Over time, this man irritated me to no end—until one day, something happened. He mentioned his dad, and I noticed he got choked up. I became curious and started to question my thoughts about him.

Maybe he'd had a tough life. Perhaps he was insecure in his position and was overcompensating. When I stopped to think about it, I saw myself in him to a degree. Although I had become tired of listening to this man talk about himself, I decided to make myself available to hear more.

As he slowly opened up, I discovered he'd had a chaotic childhood and an abrasive, mostly absent father. I started to feel more compassion toward him. He had struggled to finish school and was not as confident as I had thought. His cockiness was an act to cover his insecurities.

Because I started seeing him differently, our relationship changed, and we became good friends. I was able to give him some positive feedback and reinforcement. He seemed to change right before my eyes.

Nothing in the world that I said would have made him change. Instead, the change started in me. The way I treated him helped each of us change.

To this day, he is a good friend and calls me for advice because he knows I care and will encourage him. Out of a strained work relationship, a wonderful friendship emerged. It only happened because I saw and thought differently about him, which changed my behavior. I switched from seeing him as an obstacle to seeing him as a human being.

Example #2

Now, let's look at creating something tangible to build a business around.

Choose a product, any product. Something you can get excited about. Something that inspires you to want to share it with others. Start with what you see and know, and ask yourself, "What else do I need to know to produce and successfully sell this product?"

You will see and understand the product more thoroughly as you give it more time, thought, and research. Begin asking questions about what you want to create in as much detail as possible. Become more informed about what customers want and will accept.

Can you make a profit from it? To learn that, you'll need to know how much it will cost to produce and your potential selling price.

Perhaps you'll see the need to lower the price or adjust some part of it to make it more acceptable to your customers. This inner seeing-thinking cycle continues until you clearly understand what is required. Then, you can deliberate about what action to take to produce the desired results.

You can Reap results only when you have gone through these steps—Seeing, giving the necessary Thought to understand, and taking Action. Your results will further inform what you "see," further deepening the cycle of creating what you and the customer want.

The light bulb

Thomas Edison went through the creation cycle numerous times while perfecting the lightbulb. (Yes, he perfected it. He didn't invent it. Humphrey Davy created incandescent light decades before Edison was born. The problem was Davy's filament burned out quickly and produced little light.

It took Edison more than his famous 1,000 experiments to find the right combination of bulb, vacuum, and filament. He had to think beyond those experiments to see what was needed to generate electricity and how to wire a city to fulfill his dream of bringing light to the masses.

What do you see and have a passion for that might change the world—or at least your world?

Final thoughts

When you can't see, you can't create. What you can't see doesn't exist (to you). As a human being, creating is life. All you need do is pay attention to where you are in the creating cycle of STAR -  See, Think, Act, and Reap.

Every created thing must be seen and understood. As Scripture stated 3,000 years ago:

Without the vision of many who have gone before us, life would not be what it is today. Yet when you can see, you can create, leading you to a better life. That is the power of paying attention to where you are in the creating pattern of STAR.

The only limit on what you can create is you and what you don't see!

Now go. Create something, no matter how small, and experience the thrill of seeing your creation come to life!

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