Elevate with Grace

From Creativity to Self-Expression: The Unlearning We All Need with Myke Dixon (Part 1 of 2)

• Elevate with Grace • Season 3 • Episode 7

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In this episode I pick up from our last ep the Creative Cure & had the absolute joy of riffing with Myke Dixon for a conversation that felt less like an interview and more like a part self-expression part creative awakening or ALIVE'ING.

If you’ve ever felt the tension between who you are and who you’ve been conditioned to be this episode is truly for you, I am so sure you are going to love it! In this episode we unpacked the real work of reclaiming our aliveness, trusting our instincts, and bringing more humanity back into the places we lead, work and create.

This is part one, the second half of this interview will drop Thursday 27th November.

Because we know you are going to want more  Mykel Dixon click here for the:  website

You can also check out his book here: Everyday Creative by Mykel Dixon - Available on Audio (with Myke narrating which is awesome) or Book form!

Audio book (with Myke narrating, its a terrific listen): link 

Real Book or eBook: click this link

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

1. Creativity is not something you do, it can help us find who we really are.  Creaivity is not a rare artistic skill, its energy, aliveness & self-expression.  We don't learn creativity we rediscover it!

2. Fear and judgement get in the way - we need to reconsider the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and question why we think we need to do this for others, creativity and self-expression is food for your soul.

3. Modern life has created a great numbinng - watch out for those Matrix references

4. Self Expression is a lot broader than art - think about the journey and the freedom to create more than the outcome. 

5. Reclaim your workplace and think about the opportunity to create meaning with your co-workers and teams, try to break down some of the process and to allow the Artisian approach to venture into the workplace.  

What you still have to look forward to:

In the second half of this interview we will talk about how to bring Aliveness back into your work and life, some simple creative practices that can help transform your day and how to trust your gut more and say yes to those impulses that are calling us to ACTION. 





Music created by Claire's daughter Hannah

Welcome to Elevate with Grace, a podcast for people who are short on time and long to take steps to create success on their own terms. If you are feeling overworked, undervalued, and stuck in the daily juggle, knowing you are meant for more, then this podcast is for you. We cut through the noise to bring you the most valuable up-to-date insights, expert, wisdom and practical strategies. With bite-sized actionable tips, we help you take bold steps to creating real progress, real impact, and a career and life that truly work for you for. Thank you for listening into our podcast today. We truly appreciate you. My name is Miranda, and the other half of our dynamic duo is Claire. Today I have gone rogue with Claire's blessing and I'm incredibly excited to bring you a very special podcast, two part series, Elevate with Grace's very first interview. Carrying on from our last episode, the Creative Cure we are so fortunate to explore this deeper with the dynamic, creative and inspirational Mykel Dixon. In this episode, Mike and I will dig into what's holding us back from achieving full aliveness. And Mike is a global authority on this. He's an award-winning Australian author, globally recognized keynote speaker and leads corporate offsites that ignite human connection, unleash wild creativity, and drive meaningful performance. So excited. Before we dive in, just a quick check in on the Action Challenge from our last episode. The action challenge was to create a small step change of bringing creativity into your daily practice. A perfect setup for the episode today. A. 10 minutes to create something at home or work journal, doodle bake, bring color into your outfit, change your team frame, change up the way you do online meetings, et cetera. So I do hope that you've really enjoyed that challenge. Claire was unable to join today, but I know she has been diving into this head first, attending author talks, writing more, creatively planning her holiday, embracing her more creative side and for me i've made my craft and art supplies much more visible and accessible so I can touch them and do something on them every other day. I've joined a little art group which was very scary, checked out the gallery, created a creative manifesto, and I just feel so good about this challenge and just that step change. All righty into our session today. Whoa. I've actually taken a pause between interviewing and recording this because the thought shared in this session really had me rethinking what I frame as creativity and how we don't need to learn this, but instead rediscover what creativity can do and mean for you. Hopefully this is great news you don't need to start from scratch, just small moments to remind yourself what it is to feel creative and what it is to feel alive. If we think about it, as just a muscle that needs to be trained like our biceps in the gym then we can get on our way very quickly and very easily. It's already inside you. This creativity, what we learn and talk about today, bursting to get out. So I'll pop back at the end to summarize some of the thoughts, but I'm just so incredibly excited to share this interview with you all, and I just, I truly hope you love it. In

Miranda:

this episode, I have the absolute joy speaking with the amazing, now I didn't check, is it Michael Dixon or Mike Dixon? What do you prefer?

Mykel:

Anything at all. You can call me Tony.

Miranda:

you comfortable if I call you Mike?

Mykel:

Yep.

Miranda:

one of those Australian things, right? Name. I can't cope with it.

Mykel:

You could you could take me way back and call me Dicko. How about that one? Straight outta High School.

Miranda:

I'm gonna stick with Mike. Best winning author, TEDx speaker, award-winning keynote speaker, and all around creative guru. Mike. It's just an absolute pleasure and a mind blowing opportunity to be speaking with you today. So thank you so much for saying yes

Mykel:

the privilege is all mine, I'm sure.

Miranda:

Oh, thank you I first came across you at Sunshine, rainbows and Lollipops, which was an all day event, and I'm curious whether you're gonna do with them again. But they were super hard to describe. It was just this unreal, immersive, surreal experience. left me both inspired and changed. I never thought I would do an all day corporate event that looked like that. It was just amazing. And then following you post that on LinkedIn I just love how real authentic your conversations are it really does feel like we talking for all these years since. And and then it was only a year ago that I found your book Everyday creatives. And thank thank you so much for that I've but I've gotta say you're so humble i've attended your events, I've followed you on LinkedIn. And I i know you didn't know you had a book most people are plug in that I that thing for those who haven't come across Myke before, Mike has this amazing book called The everyday creative, dangerous guide for Making Magic At Work. And for for those that have been following Elevate with Grace you will will know that we are all about small steps for success on your own terms So so a dangerous ride for making magic totally up our alley. Bring it on. What what I absolutely loved book is that creativity is something that I feel like I've rediscovered. In 2017, so I sort of tried wanted to relearn creativity and there's certainly a lot of of reasons, why people don't get into creativity. They're a little bit scared and fearful. I definitely find, when I I talk to people about it. They're like, oh, oh, sounds great. Invite people to paint. And they're like, sorry, I'm not, sorry, that's not worth thing. And and so as much sometimes I've been talking about it with friends and family banging on being on about it, trying to give them some facts, I really haven't haven't landed, then I read your book and I was and I was like, this this is the message. This is what we need but I'm i'm curious many how many people do you have these conversations. Many people are still just, I don't know, not getting the creative vibe and what do you think we can do to change change that,

Mykel:

that was a beautiful introduction, by the way. Very generous and very kind. You gotta own it. You. Stop it. Yeah, the big, if we go straight to the jugular is that somewhere along the way we started thinking about, or we were conditioned or we were told and taught that creativity is something we do, but it's not. It's who we are. It's life. It's the purest expression of life. It is energy on the move. It is the most natural way of being in the world yeah, to just see things, to process them, to imagine new possibilities, to take a different route to try, experiment, play. Obviously we do that as kids and then we start to get educated. We start to get. Indoctrinated. And then we start to develop these stories that were either creative or not. And even the people that live in creative industries or have found themselves they struggle just as much with the, with stories that either empower or disempower around creativity. And it's that segregation as though it's something, yeah, it's something you do as opposed to something you are, and I like the way that you said that you're starting to rediscover creativity.'cause that's the shortest, most effective, fastest path back is you don't learn to be creative. You remember? So the big quest that we're all on as individuals, as teams, as leaders, as businesses, and as a global community, is to remember that we're all born creative and that our capacity to imagine new possibilities and to play and explore and experiment with the world around us is the most natural thing we can do.

Miranda:

That sounds beautiful, but like I said, so many people are so scared of it. And that's the bit I really struggle with. And so Claire, my podcast partner came up with this idea of create before you consume because what we were finding was that we are very comfortable talking about a Netflix episode or, that mindless doom scrolling that we all fall into at different time. But the but the idea of something and putting it out there is, it's scary. And it it just feels to me uncomfortable. When you sort of talk to it with people. the the reason that I rediscovered it, I just felt like it was control of my of, when Like my we weren't controlled very much was t 200 our baby here. My my husband was always fear, like setting

Mykel:

setting the comfort what we were doing at

Miranda:

when

Mykel:

home or when we holiday

Miranda:

and so it was like, I need control back. And I

Mykel:

and actually

Miranda:

found that

Mykel:

that

Miranda:

which, different journey and all those good For many people they don't find it. They don't think there's a need, they don't think there's anything missing. And when you describe it as this beautiful joy and play, et cetera, it's we, how do we get people to experience that and to want that?

Mykel:

Yeah. It's a really good question. It's hard to want something when you haven't felt it in a while, and it's hard to know the value of something if you haven't experienced it in a while. So a lot of the work I do, whether it's one-on-one or whether it's with teams in offsites or programs and events, experiences, et cetera, it's very experience based because people need that embodied sense or this emotional entanglement with what it, how it feels to be creative or to be in a creative space or to express themselves. And once they get a taste, once they reignite those cells in their body, in their brain, in their heart, they start to remember and they start to. They start to get hungry for it. They, wow. What is this feeling? I haven't felt in a while. It's familiar. It might be dormant, it might be something, that's almost nostalgic. It's this sense of when I was a kid or when times were different or before. Yeah. I got the nine to five and the mortgage and all the pressures of raising children or whatever it may be. And it just it starts to crack. Open the door a little More of it you let in it can be both a troubling process because it can be quite confronting when that door does get cracked open a little bit. It can start to crack open just about every area of your life. Which is really tricky, but the reason we fear it is I mean there's so many reasons but ultimately it's about judgment and it's about what will others think. And it's about feeling as though we're not enough and that everything needs to be perfect if we're gonna share anything. If I'm gonna draw, I can't draw. Yeah, you can you are defining, or you're kind of conflating this idea that you can't draw with, you need to draw like Picasso, but you can draw. You just pick up a pen and draw.

Miranda:

that's

Mykel:

And even if you didn't have arms, yeah. You'd put a pen in your mouth and you can still draw. It's these little definitions, these stories, these narratives these contextual frames that really keep us paralyzed and imprisoned. Instead of just enjoying the joy of expressing who we are and the full capacity of our humanity. We've got legs and arms if we're lucky, we've got heartbeat. We've got a voice. We can sing, we can dance, we can move our bodies, we can do all these things. We just don't we limit our expression so much for yeah, for so many reasons. And not to harp on too much about this, but going back to your question a little bit in there, we're also living at a time that. I mean, 10 years ago it was, or let's say 15 in the advent of social media and the internet and oh, wow, look, we can share our stuff more widely. We can create and share, and first we just share about our lives. And then it became more of a product. And then we'd start to get advertising, and then we start to get influences or people that, full-time creators, et cetera, et cetera. And now we are at the peak of that experience where AI is starting to come in and the thought, it's so performative even doing an update on when you go on holiday. Let alone something that you create. It is, it's like, oh my God. I dunno if I could share anything for fear of what others might think. So then we resort to well, I'll just watch the world. I'll doom scroll, I'll watch Netflix, I'll consume i'll. And then that just puts us in this dull resigned, almost cynical state, where we're just passively consuming content and getting further and further from the natural capacity We have to express who we are, and I like to call it the great numbing, where we're just numbing ourselves into this state of, I think like the Matrix. Remember the movie, the Matrix, and everyone's in bathtubs and they've got the plug,

Miranda:

movie.

Mykel:

they're so ahead of its time.

Miranda:

let's unplug.

Mykel:

Yeah. And and when he comes out and he sees that there's just these billions of humans in bathtubs of pink goo all just eh, that's basically where we're at.

Miranda:

Not yet, I hope, but God, it does feel like it sometimes. It's scary. And I loved I use that matrix just to

Mykel:

Yeah,

Miranda:

I think this is the P blue pill. It's pick the

Mykel:

that's right.

Miranda:

Let's live a full whole life. And it's interesting that you said it like the last 10 or 15 years, because for me, I felt like we had this real industrial age eighties, nineties, early two thousands. Where, it really was, everyone was in the workforce incredibly competitive. You work with people that are 10, 20 years older and you really do feel like a different corporate culture and they feel like there's a much better balance with people. I think getting to To express themselves a little bit there's a bit more flexibility than it used to be. And there's a lot of rigidity back in the eighties and nineties and there, there's sort of that, and then we had separation between work and life. That feels like we merged the two together in the two thousands and we're trying to separate them apart again now and have a work life and a life. The creativity is, potentially what's what's Is there a possibility that people are filming journey, journey? Where it's like reclaiming who we're what we're reclaiming who we we're at home. and that offers a level of creativity. And I think I think about your book was that you gave us that opportunity to say, this is how creativity can impact your life, but this is how creativity can also impact your work. And that it's important to have it in both, right? Like I think a lot of a lot of people just creativity as is. be, some art or some painting and absolutely loved what you said Said around that art and that fear.'cause we we try try something once or twice and we give up and I and I think about our kids and look, you pay for pay for a term And if the kid's like I don't want to do. So you know, session two suck it it up, You're going for for the term, we don't let our kids stop, learning, let stop learning. We stopped so we might do a bit of Duolingo and that language didn't vibe Or we might pick up pick up at piano. I know what? Always wanted to learn piano I'll give without Or painting, crafting. It's if I'm not Picasso by the by the second, maybe that's not not for me. you know, it's Taken me quite a journey. and I know for a lot of A lot of people just to go, it actually doesn't matter the what it what it looks like about about what out of it when you do it. And for me it do, it me. It's ability ability to rest of my brain help me try to solve. work puzzle. It's this ability to express myself in creative ways and to learn that I can't paint and make that look good, it actually doesn't matter.

Mykel:

What you touched on there though is, I think a really important part for people is almost to lose the word creativity and see it as self-expression. Again, creativity is like ring fencing. This idea, it's an act that you do. It has an outcome where self-expression is fluid and responsive and alive. And if you are expressing who you are in every moment, it's different and it changes and it moves and it grows. And so you might have a creative problem that you are trying to solve or you're working on at work, or you might need a break from that type of work. And yeah, you just want to play with some paints for a while or jam it out on a guitar. Fine. But your expression, the thing that sits behind that, the most essential part of who you are, which is how you're showing up and how you're bringing yourself to the moment that's the real thing that we've lost where we're dulling and we're numbing and we're diluting and we're reducing and we've lost connection with that. And we now have a world that is on steroids. That is making it harder and harder for us to feel and stay connected to, and therefore to value and act upon these impulses within us that are primal and natural and organic and authentic. For example, our food is full of chemicals that numbs us out. the content we consume is all just there designed to keep us hooked in. It's Netflix, whether it's, social media, Instagram content, whatever it is, it is not designed to really empower us. It's designed to keep us glued so that they can make money from advertising. We have, oh God. I mean, pick a frame, pick a contextual frame. The world has never been as noisy as it is now.

Miranda:

Yeah, a hundred

Mykel:

All of it is preventing us from hearing that those little impulses, these wild impulses to play within us, that is stopping us from really feeling not just the benefit of what it is to be alive and to know who you are, and to play with the world and whatever's in front of you, but also to give your gifts and services of something greater than yourself. Because we didn't come here to grind and scroll and pay bills and die. We came here to bring something to life that only we can, that will make the world a more vibrant, vital, inclusive, magical place. And yet most of us are not doing that or even entertaining that idea because somewhere along the way we lost that connection. And now we live inside a story that we're A, not creative, or B, not like them, or, I couldn't do that. Or rah. And so then the world misses out on all the gifts that only you could give. Which is really a huge tragedy.

Miranda:

That is a huge tragedy, but I just loved how you put that. I'm like, here's your next book, self-expression.

Mykel:

Mm-hmm.

Miranda:

Good, and you're right. If I reframe it like that, it actually is everything you do. And I found that with your book. When I read the start of it, and I did the creative manifesto.

Mykel:

Right.

Miranda:

it. I actually was driving, so I spoke it into a voice recorder and then typed it up when I got home, signed it. But I loved that you did it, and I found that at the start of the book, I was like, I am somebody who wants to be creative and tries to make time for it. I was reading through your book, I'm like I actually think I might qualify as an everyday creative, I didn't see it that way. creativity in the workforce and that generosity creativity, putting it out there. So if we change that lens to self-expression and it's wearing something that's a bit fun, it's changing your format to be a bit fun, maybe putting some cool backgrounds like you've got for us today with a bit of neon making, I dunno, is there Is there other ways that you put that out in the world?

Mykel:

Single possible, way possible. And even what you mentioned was they were outcomes, but it's it go, it goes before that. So yes, the jumper that you choose to wear, but in this conversation you are expressing yourself and so am I. And so you're making creative choices that are instinctual and the moment that either one of us decides to get a question right, the energy and vitality will go out of this conversation. Because we're trying to we're stopping ourselves from expressing ourselves, and we are now seeking a particular defined outcome. And that's, and then yeah, we lose the magic of what could be created in the moment. Nature is the best expression of this, and the arts come a very close second. But if you look at nature, it is so intelligent. It is so efficient. It is so, it, it ticks every box in terms of an industrial lens in terms of very little, this production line of ensuring growth, which is what the world is obsessed by. And yet it also has beauty and it has it trusts and leverages emergence. It's not just working from a blueprint or a framework or something static that was created four years ago. And we go back to it and go, hang on. We're not on the, we need to stay on the plan. Yep. It changes every second of every day. Just like you and I change every second of every day, every seven years, we've got entirely new cells in our body. We don't have the same skin, the same organs, the same anything. Even our bone structure changes. So yeah, we need to get back to absolute presence, responding in real time playing instead of living in these frameworks and models and blueprints and goals and aspirations and desired outcomes. And it has to look like this. Otherwise it's a failure. It I'm a failure and instead playing with the moment. And this is, I mean, it happens all the time at events a lot. I just got an email before jumping on with you. There's a company I've done a lot of work with in the last three years and, yeah, a lot of really great events, but then and different, offsites and whatnot. But there's one particular program that continues to shine a big light in that company and have huge impact. And then unfortunately, some of the people that were there from the beginning of that have moved on. And so there's a new group of people that are now working with me on this program, and they just, every week or two, they're like, can you please give us exactly what you're gonna do in this session? And I'll say, okay, sure. However, I need to reiterate to you that what I'm doing is creating a container. And yes, there's an architecture to that. There's a lot of expertise and experience that I've built over time. But what we want to do is create a container for emergence, for creativity, for self-expression too, to unfurl. And that will be much more vital and alive with those people in that place at that time. If we go in with, here's the exact thing that we've defined four months prior and all those people have changed since that day that we designed this four months ago, then it's dead. It's dead in the room. So yeah, there's a lot of unlearning that we have to do as a culture to not be afraid of being 100% in the moment Trusting and leveraging everything that we've got and who we are instead of thinking and outsourcing our edge, or outsourcing our intelligence and outsourcing our instinct in service of a static predetermined plan that's outrageously irrelevant.

Miranda:

Wow. I'm just like, whoa, you've taken me on a whole nother level of unlearning that I'm just like what, how, what?

Mykel:

Yeah, it's a journey.

Miranda:

Yeah,

Mykel:

Yeah.

Miranda:

I'm, I make product and so there is certainly a process map to that, and every meeting has to have an agenda. and so I'm just like, what if, and we know what the outcome is, and when you've got a group of people that you do, need a certain amount of outcomes, et cetera. But if we go, Hey, we need X by the date and we need to get this done by this period, want to check in once a week, just keep it loose, you still get the desired outcome?

Mykel:

hundred percent, you'd get better. So when I first started, when I transitioned from being a musician into speaking and working with organizations and stuff like that, the first ip, my first kind of core message and premise that I would bring to the world was called Artisan Thinking. You as a product designer must be well familiar with design thinking iteration experiment, empathy, get in partnership your consumer or the end user and learn and iterate and then produce this thing for them. What that doesn't take into account is you And artisan thinking is that the maker matters just as much as what is being made. How you show up, not only as how the end user, they're changing and evolving over time. So the product, yes, you need to be responsive to that, but also you are changing the people that are making it. And the process of how you make it is also changing. And so if you are, to be at least just cognizant of that and to come in inside of a context of how are we feeling today? And what's going on for us today? Is there anything we need to look at, address, personal lives, whatever that might actually inform this product. Instead of saying, no, we need to keep that out and we need to stay attached to this way of working. That was defined three years ago. Exactly. Because the irony is this stuff is happening anyways as, as hard as we try. We are not robots, we are not algorithms, we are not machines. And we bring all of that beautiful, emotive, sensory dynamic unexpected, frustrating, unpredictable drama of being a human being into our work. And it comes in the relationships and it comes into, yeah, what we produce. So seeing that not as a burden or something that we need to design out of the design process and actually allowing that to in inspire and inform how we make things will only make the product more exciting. And you can see this even in a very, on a kind of micro scale is where you love the story behind a mug that you buy from someone because you go to their cafe or something like that, and then you find out, oh my God, this is actually, my great grandmother taught me this on this wheel, and da. And there's a little imperfection in that mug, and that becomes your favorite mug, not because it's just a mug that you put tea in. But because now of this story, because there's emotion behind it, because it's not perfect. Suddenly becomes a whole lot more special to us. And that obviously doing that at scale is a bit different if you're producing things, for loads of people, et cetera, et cetera. But still if you can put the values and the people and the story and the self-expression and the emotion of creating that product into that product and into the story of selling that product way more compelling and far more meaningful to the people that'll buy it.

Miranda:

No, absolutely. I love the idea and we focus a lot on the power of moments and the fact that people do their memories of these great events in the things that we make and stuff like that. But the storytelling of the artisan, I love that. that's a whole nother level of cool.

Mykel:

And even, the moments that you are, that you would be talking about and trying to design for with your market, what about the moments of making them. What, how are we defining these in the workplace? How?

Miranda:

as and efficiently as possible, as

Mykel:

right.

Miranda:

real fun.

Mykel:

That's right. And yet, like so much of life for 60,000 years in this country, we've had this cultural architecture. We've had these ways of holding humanity together with whether it's rights of passage, there is ceremony, there's ritual, there are ways that we marry, across culture. There's right story, wrong story, all this stuff. There's law LORE

Miranda:

Yeah.

Mykel:

has kept us holding this beautiful way of being for thousands and thousands of years. And modern modernity or modern life, particularly western life being so industrialized or commercialized, digitized, et cetera, et cetera. We've lost that. And in the workplace, every it's like it is ripe. Rife of moments that could be made into rituals, ceremonies, transitions, thresholds, et cetera, et cetera. You have a new employee, we have an onboarding experience. Cool. So they get a little journal. They have to watch seven videos that were made two years ago and the first day, oh, we're just gonna get to know everyone that lasts for about 40 minutes. And then it's straight into, here's all the projects, we need them yesterday. Or someone leaves, and maybe if you're lucky, they might get a card that goes around the office, but people rarely go into the office anymore anyway. And maybe Friday night drinks, a few people will show up. A lot will cancel because they've gotta get home to watch an episode of whatever. And yet, arrivals and departures are. Huge You are closing a chapter of your life for the individual that perhaps is leaving, but also a significant member of a team, a tribe, a community is leaving. How are we, celebrating and honoring both the grief and loss of losing someone, but the opportunity and potentiality of where they're moving next. And then what that leaves for us as a team. La. Oh yeah. Can you make it Thursday night? Yeah, we're just gonna put a couple hundred bucks on the bar. That's such a waste, again, coming back to just like our self-expression, this doesn't require sitting in a boardroom and designing. Onboarding experience. It requires people that are willing to see and sense the moment and to make something beautiful out of it. So if your work has a really crappy onboarding or offboarding experience rah, and you are there in the moment and you know it, and you don't need to tackle that right now. You can actually just say to the person, Hey, is there anything that you know you'd love to share About your time here? Do you want to just go for a walk around the block and I'm gonna ask you a series of questions and let's just get you like, complete and resolved on your time here. Or maybe I'll take your work for half an hour and you go write a letter and then you and me were gonna make it into a paper airplane and then fly it off the top floor, and then we'll go and pick it up because we don't want to litter, but. Like you can be that person in the workplace that brings this a bit more meaning and a bit more humanity to things. And know that I'll get a bit deep. Know that when you do that, the universe smiles and winks and runs towards you with all kinds of serendipity and all kinds of electric, magnetic, extraordinary things that then you'll go, you would not believe what happened when we got to the top floor and we went to go and fly this thing, A bird come and landed next to us and then da dah. And then we saw someone else come up at the same time and they were blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened,

Miranda:

Well,

Mykel:

then life becomes this rich, vibrant, vital, astonishing experience. Moment to moment.

Miranda:

and all you're doing is gonna the top floor and flying an airplane, the story and The

Mykel:

that's right.

Miranda:

and the environment brings the rest, which is that serendipitous moment that you'd keep talking to or the

Mykel:

That's right.

Miranda:

sorry.

Mykel:

Yeah. Yeah. And it all, and even tracing that back, where does it come from? It comes from the moment that you feel an instinct. Feel this tiny whispering impulse that something's not right, or something wants to be born and you trust it and you allow it, and then you act on it. And you just take a couple of steps and the universe will take 500 towards you and then something magical will happen. You don't need permission for that. You don't need approval. You don't need to study, you don't need a certificate. You just need to start listening to that voice, trusting it, and then acting on it. And then suddenly life just comes.

Miranda:

I love it. That is That is so And cool. And that, that anybody can do. anyone can take that into their work, into their world and I've been very fortunate with the onboarding and offboarding place in my workplaces, but every other day. know, it's, it is those meetings, it is that freedom of process to seize that day and take those opportunities.

Mykel:

Yeah,

Miranda:

a lot about generosity, if we think about this as self-expression and not creativity, how could you not want to celebrate somebody in the moment? How could you not want to make things a bit more fun,

Mykel:

exactly.

Miranda:

work, and take that meeting with 20 people value their time have a bit of fun with those their time.

Mykel:

Yeah. Can I say two more things on that You've got me going now.

Miranda:

Please. loving this.

Mykel:

So there's, I'll try and remember both, but, so the, if you think about ideas or you think about our, we're talking about our unique self-expression, right? But then there's this collective expression. There is life, and life only wants to create more life. A forester wants more abundance, an ocean wants to make more waves in partnership with the wind. It's this beautiful dance of like, how do we keep making music with what's around us, new sounds, new melodies, new songs, et cetera, et cetera. If you get a gift of an idea in a moment, in a meeting, or you get a sense that someone's been overlooked and that they've been diminished, and you're like, Ooh, that's come for you. Because life wants that to happen. And if you deny that, you are denying the abundance of life, you're denying, you know, recognizing that person, making sure they're okay or celebrating them, or a wild, crazy idea, that might not be the one that your team. Executes on, but might lead to the next one. That might lead to the one that you actually do. So by stopping, by blocking the expression of our collective conscious of the universe writ large we're stopping this vitality and abundance that life is here to make. It's so foreign and unnatural and

Miranda:

Where the damn

Mykel:

and yeah, it's hilarious. And, terrifyingly sad at the same time. Like, what are we doing? And then also, in addition to that, if you become that person that starts to do this, that starts to trust. And over time you build more confidence with this. And then you, it's not as scary. So then maybe you do start posting something online, or then maybe you do raise your hand a little more in meetings, and then you get to a point where you stop raising your hand you just start jumping in.

Woo. How are you all feeling? Oh my gosh. I hope you loved that. There was so many great takeaways from this discussion, and there is so much more to come. In our next episode, we will dive into how to turn this into practical tips to get more out of your life at work and at home. Some of the key areas I would love you to remember from this episode. Creativity should feel like play, not pressure. Creativity really ignites when you stop defining it as some rare, elusive talent that you have to prove yourself instead of just a muscle that you need to regularly use and train. No one expects you to look like Arnie because you go to the gym, nor should we expect Picasso level skills because we create and another thought that I had as we were talking, an interview with Brene Brown in Diary of a CEO suggests that people are prepared to live without joy because they fear vulnerability. And if we think about what Mike's just been talking about over liveness and just wanting to get out there and live a full experience, it's crazy that we don't want this for ourselves. And I think in a lot of cases we don't know that we don't want this. He spoke about the fact that a lot of the time people need to experience a creative session or a big creative output to acknowledge what they're missing. Brene went in to say the fear of not being good enough of being sucker punched by somebody else's judgment or disappointment is so visceral that we just don't let ourselves feel joy. We hold ourselves back and not knowingly. I think this is a truly subconscious thing, but I'm just, ugh. I know this is not how our listeners want to live. We want to live a full, whole successful life. We want to be happy, and it really doesn't matter what other people think. If we can come away with those conversations where we do feel a little bit like, oh, that didn't land, or Oh, that felt really vulnerable and uncomfortable, what do we get out of it? Can we feel more joy? Can we feel more love? And that's really all that matters. We want full, whole don't let your lived experiences or those you love get wrapped up in this great numbing, the matrix example, right? So for this action challenge, I would love you to acknowledge that we do hold ourselves back because of fear, judgment, performance, anxiety, perfectionism, and a whole lot of learned stories that we've told ourselves. I do all the time. I know that it's really hard. We are so conditioned. For acceptance. And the things that we'll do to do that are kind of scary when you actually start to consciously think about them. So instead think of this creative thing we're talking about as your ability to grow bigger with your self-expression and aliveness, and think about how you can notch the dial up of who you are how you want to show up in the world for yourselves and others. Unshackled, unlocking. Something that was always there. Finally, let's keep trying to play without purpose at least once a day. Trust those impulses. No editing, just collecting. And I know that's a hard one. There is so much about purpose and efficiencies and trust me, I'm with you I will be hard placed on that journey, trying to play without purpose because at the end of the day, it is going to unlock a bit of mental strength to help build resilience, to help build problem solving and, find those creative outcomes. So you can put a little bigger, bigger picture purpose in there. All righty. I better wrap this up, but a huge thank you again to Mike for making this episode one to remember. What a legend. Thank you again to all of our beautiful listeners for tuning in, and I do hope you come back for the next episode. Dropping next Thursday. We'll put all of the curated content we've mentioned in the episode show notes. You can check them out at any time and dip into the stuff that resonates with you to take small actionable steps for your own success journey. For more inspiration, do check out our socials on Insta and LinkedIn. A huge thank you for listening and sharing this with any others to help elevate their own lived experiences and maybe get them on the creative journey with you so you've got a buddy. We appreciate you all so much until next week. Take care and let's elevate with grace I.