Inspiration Archives: Mark David Gerson

Perhaps the most important principles I've learned through the years are the ones that inextricably link life and creativity, the ones that keep me open to the infinite, that help me surrender to the unknowable, that push me beyond the bounds of what I can imagine.

I've also learned to be open to the synchronistic and the miraculous, to the numinous and the unseen. I've learned that not everything plays out as I expect. I've learned to trust my intuition above all else...even when that intuition doesn't appear to make sense.

If I were a tarot card, I'd be The Fool, that questing soul who steps off the cliff in complete faith that he'll sprout wings on the way down.

I'm also the main character of my novel, who embarks on his journey knowing little more than the next step. That's, in fact, how I wrote the book: one word at a time, one day at a time, knowing nothing of where the story was taking me, trusting the story to be wiser than I was. It's still wiser than I am.

There's little in my life today, for example, that I could have predicted, planned for or tried to attract, because there's little in my life today that I could have imagined, little that I even knew I desired. That includes the big things: teaching...becoming a parent...publishing two books.

I believe that in both life and creativity, we're called to be flexible, adaptable and anchored in the moment, recognizing that what works today may not work tomorrow. We're called, too, to make the highest choices we can and to move beyond what we think from our head into what we desire from our heart.

That doesn't mean we'll always get it "right" - whether that "it" is a work of music, writing or art or a work of life, whether it's how and what we write or how and what we live. In life and in art, it's important to recognize that our human imperfection is what makes us divinely perfect.

When we live our lives creatively - even if we're not involved in a traditional creative pursuit - we're better able to touch that place of passion within us that always fires our joy, our success and our prosperity.

It's this spirit of creative transformation that governs how I live my life. It's also the primary principle I apply to my teaching, coaching and mentoring - to all my work. And so it doesn't matter what kind of client I'm seeing, what I'm speaking about or what I'm writing because my goal is the same: inspiring people to empower themselves to access, acknowledge, experience and express their highest potential and mastery.

If I had one piece of guidance to offer, something that's worked miracles in my life, it would be this: Trust in your innate wisdom, your limitless courage and your infinite potential. Don't let convention or your perceived limitations fence you in. Trust...leap...and surrender!