The Book of Doing and Being

Book excerpt: With clarity, humor, and insight, award-winning filmmaker Barnet Bain guides readers to unlock the raw power of the creative self. Sharing creativity principles and practices at the leading edge, The Book of Doing and Being offers a life-altering map for stepping beyond what we already know and into a dimension of imagination from which innovation is born. Known for his inspiring movies and documentaries, as well as his popular creativity workshops, Barnet Bain makes available his teachings for the first time in book form. Discover how will and action come together with imagination and feeling to form the very foundation of creativity by working with this treasury of more than forty transformative exercises. Each one is designed to spark new creative connections by challenging our usual ways of thinking, feeling, and perceiving. These lessons, tools, and techniques serve to unlock great reservoirs of creativity in every individual, whether it’s jumpstarting or completing a project, launching a new business, creating a work of art, experiencing more fulfilling relationships, or making other dreams come true. Bain’s motivational guidance includes: rewiring your brain to unleash ultra-creativity; finding freedom from self-criticism, perfectionism, and other obstructions to productivity and creative expression; harnessing the two forces of creativity: inspiration and action; discovering your emotions as the doorway to creative aliveness and ingenuity; and heeding the call of your Real Work, regardless of age, education, or experience. Step by step, you will make the discovery of a lifetime: how to stop being ruled by your past and start consciously creating your present and future. You will be surprised and energized—by your next creative impulse, the next idea that excites you, the next experience that moves you—and you will live a creative life.