You find yourself on a cold, deserted, darkened New York street late at night. You’re blocks away from any traffic and surrounded by old decrepit buildings with no signs of life.
Suddenly you’re not alone. Pacing behind you are two shabbily dressed men who stop and start when you do. You have no phone or other way to call for help.
What do you do?
Here’s what I did. I call it creative self-defense.
I stepped out of my hotel into a cold crisp New York City night in December. The plumes of car exhausts to the exhales of scurrying pedestrians left traces of life everywhere.
I was in town for a friend’s annual Christmas party. She’d just moved in to a new loft that was remodeled from an old warehouse. This industrial area was going through a gentrification process designed to create an upscale series of old warehouses into multi-million dollar residences. Hers was one of the first completed.
A group of us hired a car to take us there from our hotel. The streets surrounding her building were empty of pedestrians and even cars. Usually anywhere in New York City where there’s a parking spot it’s grabbed up right away, but not here.
We arrived at her address and I marveled at what was being done to beautify the building, and later the others, in the middle the deserted urban squalor.
Later, my friends wanted leave before I was ready to, so I told them to take the car and I’d grab a cab.When it came time to go, I thought I’d just walk down to the next major street to get my ride.
When I stepped outside from my friend’s warm and beautiful home I realized how bleak everything else was. I’d also misjudged the distance to the next major street. Many blocks away I could see the streaming car lights flowing through the distant intersection. Oh well, I thought. I love walking in New York City.
Only about every fourth street lamp worked. All bundled in my heavy overcoat and scarf, I marveled at how the crunching snow beneath my feet echoed through the deserted buildings. It seemed strange that these were the only sounds around me, magnified by the frozen air in the middle of this city of sound.
But then another sound intruded on my solitude as I noticed the magnified sounds of more footsteps. I stopped to listen, and heard a few more heavy crunches before they stopped. I knew these weren’t my echos. I walked a several yards then heard more crunching that sounded like it came from behind me. I stopped suddenly and heard two more crunches, then silence, except for distant sirens.
I stole a glance behind me as I began walking again. There, on the other side of the street, about a half block behind me, under one of the few working street lamps, were two men dressed in what appeared to be old army fatigue jackets. They didn’t look like any of the party goers I’d just left.
As I walked faster, they walked faster. I slowed down, they slowed down. The nearest active intersection was at least another five blocks away.
There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. No lights were on in any of the buildings and going back was not an option. I let out an involuntary groan. At that moment, and upon hearing my sound, the two men stopped.
Without thinking about it, I made another loud, but now an agonizing groan. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see they’d stopped again. I abruptly faced the building closest to me and began yelling obscenities toward it.
Crazed yelling erupted from my mouth and I began flailing my fists, fighting off imaginary enemies, cursing and yelling that, “You’ll never take me alive you (expletives!)” I pretended to have a knife as I slashed out at my invisible advisories, all the while glancing at my two very real potential threats, who were now frozen in place, watching my theatrics.
I could see them looking at one another and then talking and glancing over to my side of the street as I continued my tirade.
Suddenly I stopped and turned to look at them as though seeing them for the first time. Focusing on them now, I yelled more obscenities as if they were the continuation of my imaginary battles manifested right on the street. They paused, looked at me for a moment, then turned scurried off in the opposite direction.
Taking no chances, I continued my rant as I aimed myself toward the safety of the busy street. By the time I reached the intersection my voice was so weak that I could hardly yell, TAXI!
I was never so happy to find myself in heavy city traffic.
NOTE: You were born creative. Everything new thing that you do comes from your core of creativity. Those who say, “I’m just not creative,” couldn’t be more wrong.
Like any natural gift, you can improve on it. You can heighten any or all of your senses with training. When you combine your intuition with your creativity the possibilities are endless. This is how you can get “the edge” in life.
My experience on the streets of New York are just one example, and it’s not even an extraordinary one. We are constantly presented with opportunities to advance in life and the way we increase our personal power is through exercising our creative process.
The Wizard’s Edge is designed to heighten your natural intuition and combine it with your creativity. You can find out more about it by clicking here.
http://TheWizardsEdge.com
Tags: business problem solving, creative problem solving, creativity and innovation, how to use intuition, Innovation technique, intuition training, law of attraction, learn how to use intuition, overcome everything, overcome fear, overcome rejection, problem solving strategies
