July 12, 2003

• Getting Your Rockets Boosted

  
  

  Some people just boost your rockets.  You know the ones I mean.  They aren't the "Oh, my God, I'm in Love" people, they are more the, "Oh, I'm glad you showed up, lets get this show on the road" people.  I have friends who do this for me.  Whenever I spend time with them, without their apparently doing anything unusual, I come away energized to create and to expand my ideas.  Whenever we get together, the next days and weeks are full of high output and clear visions.  The last time it happened, I thought it must have been something in the water.  Seriously, it was almost like being on some drug-induced high.  I went from laughing over foccacia to writing 1,500 - 2,000 words at a session twice a day for two weeks.  (Um, that's a lot for me.)

  
  

   I noticed the effect of these Booster Rockets in my life.  That made me stop and look back to see if I could identify other Booster Rockets through the years.  When I'm looking for them, I can see them.  It's the nature of a Booster Rocket to be unnoticed at the time of the boost.  We notice the sensation of acceleration, the dizzying new height, and the burning fire of creativity.  We don't recognize that we achieved this status as a result of that Booster's influence. 

  
  

  Julia Cameron says that many times if someone is a Booster Rocket for you, the effect is reciprocal.  At the same time they are helping you into orbit, you're pushing them along as well.  We can miss the significance because it doesn't feel like hauling each other up by the bootstraps.  It's more like, "Here, you have your hands full, let me give that strap a quick - YANK!"  And you both go your merry way. 

  
  

  How open are you to the influence of a Booster Rocket?  Try thinking through the following questions:

  
  

  1.  Are you open enough to accept help?  Take pen in hand and note five offers of help in the past month.  Did you accept or decline them?

  
  

  2.  Which Booster Rockets have you combined with successfully? How did you combine?  Letters, the Internet, phone calls, coffee dates?  List any and all people and methods that work.

  
  

  3.  Who among your friends boosts your energy and their own?  Such relationships are mutually nutritious.  Pick up the phone and plan contact.

  
  

  4.  Is your significant other a Booster Rocket?  This question may be painful.  Spend a gentle fifteen minutes writing on it.

  
  

  Questions from Julia Cameron's Supplies, A Troubleshooting Guide for Creative Difficulties.

  • 12:49 pm
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