Top 22 Quotes & Sayings by Michael Ray

The most important thing you can do individually and organizationally is to pay attention to your own creativity. Sports psychologists call this muscle memory or paying attention to your perfect performance. In your own life you can notice when you do something that works right for you and celebrate it. The more you do this, the greater the probability that you will act creatively in future situations.

If there is one characteristic that signals creativity in business, it might be follow-through.

Often when people are claiming that they are not creative, they mean that they are not artists, writers, athletes, or any other media types demonstrating creativity. Or they know someone who always seems to have a lot of ideas and know that they can't match that. We all have a tendency to idolize those who create what we see in the media. I think it's better to use these people as models rather than idols, especially when these people have aspects of their lives that are similar to us. Then we can take their inspiration as we go on to be creative in our own way in our own lives.

If you live for the highest goal, you are living a life of the spirit-whether or not you consider yourself to be on a spiritual path. If you consciously notice the larger aspects of life, always consider whether what you are doing coincides with these aspects, never forget the times when you were enlivened by the power of the highest goal, use those memories in new situations, and act with the knowledge of the support you have and the journey you are on-you will be living for the highest goal.

Yes I can list all sorts of organizational forms and cultural issues that can get in the way of our accessing our inner creativity and bringing it out in our world. And we can use all kinds of approaches that can transform the organization. But unless we have developed a sense of our Self (who we are at core, at our highest) and our Work (the purpose of our existence, the gift that we have to give to the world) and use that to deal with the inner obstacle, we can't sustain creativity in the face of the chaos of the world.

In order to deal with the chaos that exists in the world today, you need some grounding. That grounding best comes from knowing who you are.

I believe that if one can understand one's false personality or ego, then they can develop self-awareness and the manifesting of that self-awareness is leadership. Such a leader sets up the mechanisms within which creativity can flourish, and managers turn this into innovations in the marketplace and society. But it's never as clear-cut as I'm making it sound. It's much more dynamic, chaotic and fascinating in the way it plays out. That's why people have to operate more from their inner essence; it's the other constant that copes with the legendary constant of change.

I think that that phrase from the Bible is one of the best definitions of "creative." When you are creative, you are in the world in the sense that you see what it is and know its problems and possibilities. But you are not of the world in the sense that you are not caught up in external things and are coming from your inner resources to create approaches that are yours alone and have potential to change the world.

What is a barrier to one person to creativity is a springboard for another. And the thing that makes the difference from one person or another is how they deal with and are affected by their inner voice of blame and criticism, so-called the VOJ or Voice of Judgment.

The more I do this creative work teaching the "Personal Creativity in Business" course at Stanford the more I realize that business is about people in groups being creative in their own way. If business creativity does not allow individual development, then it isn't sustainable. But if business creativity means people bringing out their best and developing that, then amazing things can happen - not only for the business but also more importantly for the individual and the surrounding community.

Today only happens once in a lifetime. Make the most of it.

When you are living with the exhortation or live-with "Be in the World But Not of It," you experience your connection with all and the possibility of co-creativity and collaboration with those around you. You see an oneness in the world as opposed to warfare, even with those who are your enemies. You are not of the world of conflict, even though you have the strength to deal with it and turn it around. You have compassion in the sense of seeing the highest in yourself and then seeing that in others.

The less judgment the more curiosity, and the more curiosity the more creativity.

Everyone is creative, but me and my colleagues are using a different definition of creativity than is implied when people say they are not creative. We believe that people are being creative if they are bringing out their highest inner resources to improve their lives and those around them. Those who are living from their core, and doing what they are destined to do, are being creative, no matter how mundane their work or profession might seem.

You must set up measurement of results and celebrate small victories as you go along. I have observed that any creativity initiative gets about an eighteen-month grace period. If there aren't any tangible results in a year and a half, despite the strongest commitment, someone in the organization is going to start questioning the whole program.

Paying attention at every moment, forms a new relationship to time. In some magical way, by slowing down, you become more efficient, productive, and energetic, focusing without distraction directly on the task in front of you. Not only do you become immersed in the moment, you become that moment.

People have enough ideas. The real question is "Which ideas are you going to use?".

Which I think is great. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people.

In my courses I encourage people to bring their creativity to bear on six personal challenges - discovering purpose and career, dealing with time and stress issues, developing and maintaining good relationships, achieving personal/professional balance or synergy in life, finding true prosperity, and bringing one's own creativity into the business and life. Unless people are continually dealing with these challenges, they are not bringing out their best and are not of much use to anyone, particularly themselves and their organizations.

Executives run organizations. In business, we need executives who have clarity, people who are in touch with themselves. Then, in leadership and management positions, they can be good role models and leaders. The people I know who have really moved their organizations are scrupulous role models. They are so clear about honesty, integrity, openness, mutual self-respect, dignity for the individual, and creativity, that they don't deviate from these principles at all in their behavior.

Someone once said that innovation is a done idea. I agree. I believe that creativity is the individual development and conceptualization and that innovation in an organizational sense is implementing ideas and intentions that come from that creativity. So in a sense, creativity is more a leadership function and innovation is more a managerial function.

Living with the exhortation "Be in the World But Not of It," stimulates the best of your analytical skills, deepens your intuition, eliminates destructive competition, develops your skills and creativity serially and painlessly, and develops concentration, efficiency, accuracy, and humor. And that's what a creative life is all about: making it a work of art.