Every morning Steve Jobs looked in his bathroom mirror and asked himself,
“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”
If the answer was “no” for too many consecutive days he knew he needed to make an adjustment to his life.
Creating a personal vision is often the easiest part of becoming who you want to be. I don’t mean to diminish my post last week. Crafting an inspiring, achievable vision is worth the effort and a critical part of the personal growth equation.
But, there is the other side of the equation; understanding current reality. Being able to evaluate your current life and make the necessary adjustments is critical to personal growth. Steve Jobs was an expert at this.
Peter Senge’s work on personal mastery and in particular, creative tension, helps break this down. Creative tension is one of the key concepts that continues to profoundly shape my life and leadership. Senge says this in The Fifth Discipline,
“the gap between vision and current reality is a source of energy. If there is no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. Indeed, the gap is the source of creative energy. We call this gap creative tension.”
Let me restate this in my own words. We all have a personal vision whether it is clearly written down or not. To have hopes and dreams is to be human.
And likewise, we all experience a current reality that is our lives (our daily actions, relationships, work, and things we give our attention). There is always a gap between who we are today (current reality) and who we want to become (vision); between the life we are living and the life we want to live; between who we are as a leader and who we want to be.
A “right sized” gap generates creative tension - a tension that energizes us. We create a right sized gap by setting an achievable vision based on an accurate view of our current reality. A vision that stretches us without breaking us. Generating negative tension happens to many of us when we either set unrealistic goals or have an insufficient understanding of current reality. Here are two ways we create negative tension, not creative tension.
Unachievable vision: Setting a vision of losing 20 lbs. in two weeks is probably not an achievable vision. Can it happen? Possibly, if you fast for a large chunk of the two week weeks. However, it will be very disruptive to the rest of your life. Is that gap providing creative tension? Probably not. Inspiration will likely turn to frustration. A vision of losing 20 lbs. over 3 months would be more achievable and more likely to lead to creative tension.
Insufficient understanding of current reality: You set a vision of improving your listening skills measured by your team giving you the highest possible listening scores in 360 feedback. You believe this is achievable because you consider yourself a better than average listener. When, in reality, your team experiences you as a very bad listener and believes it is one of your greatest weaknesses. The vision is a worthy one, but most likely unachievable because you have a very inaccurate view of your starting point (current reality).
I have been guilty of both missteps plenty of times. Either scenario can lead to giving up on your vision, experiencing frustration, and losing the people you are leading.
To be clear, it can happen in reverse too. You can set an easily achievable vision that creates little tension because it requires little effort. In this case, you might feel temporarily successful, but not creative, and over time disappointed at who you are becoming or what you are accomplishing.
Individuals who live with self worth are constantly seeking to create creative tension in their lives. That tension is the energy that fuels personal learning, growth, and accomplishment. Feeling creative equals feeling alive. Sometimes people call this “flow” or being in the “zone”. When we feel alive we will make our greatest contribution.
Here are a few thoughts on how to generate creative tension in your life.
Set an achievable vision: When you are inspired, energized and are eager to start working on a vision, you are off to a good start. If you don’t experience this energy, it is probably not the right vision.
Self awareness is key: Make a consistent effort to understand your current reality. How do you regularly assess your current reality in your life and at work? Do you have enough friends, family and colleagues who speak into your understanding of your current reality?
Creative tension is an art: Like personal growth and leadership, finding creative tension is an art not a science. We all have different tension points. Clearly Elon Musk stretches creative tension to the maximum, further than I can. It takes experience and reflection to know the point when you cross over from creative to negative, from inspired to deflated.
Understanding your inflection point: What are some ways to know when you have crossed over from creative tension to a negative tension (either your vision is too aspirational or not aspirational enough for your current reality)?
You are not inspired by your vision. You rarely have moments of excitement visualizing the picture of success.
You consistently have low energy. Achieving things that matter is hard. Nothing replaces hard work. The distinction I would make is, if while doing the hard work, you never get energized, you need to make adjustments.
The people who know you best tell you that you are missing the mark; under-achieving, lacking self-awareness, or you are not energizing to be around.
You are constantly revising down the vision.
Creative tension is a gift. The more we live with creative tension, the more we will become our best selves and live lives of contribution.
Reflection of the Week: Are you living and leading with creative tension? If not, what adjustments do you need to make?