Creator Mode: A Different Operating System for Life

Understanding the orientation from which we meet life

If life can feel more like an adventure than something we continually manage, an obvious question follows:

Why don't we experience it that way more often?

I think much of the answer lies in the orientation from which we are meeting it.

Imagine receiving a message:

Can we talk?

Nothing else.

One part of you may immediately think:

What's wrong? Did I do something?

Another:

I need to prepare. How do I handle this well?

And another:

I wonder what this is about.

Same message.

Different internal organization.

Different energy.

Different experience.

This is what I mean by orientation.

Three ways we meet life

I think of three broad orientations as Survival, Strive, and Creator Mode.

They aren't personality types or permanent states. We move among them constantly.

Survival

The underlying question is:

How do I stay safe?

We may worry, withdraw, freeze, avoid, control, accommodate, or scan for what could go wrong.

Something in us is trying to protect what matters.

Strive

The question becomes:

How do I make this work?

We plan.

Perform.

Achieve.

Fix.

Manage.

Prove.

Push.

Strive can accomplish extraordinary things.

But sometimes underneath it is a hidden bargain:

If I can get this right...

If I can figure this out...

If I can create the outcome I need...

...then I can finally be okay.

Creator

Creator Mode begins somewhere different:

How do I want to meet what is here?

It is an orientation rooted in relationship with the deepest, wisest, most loving presence within us.

I call this Self.

Self is always present, even when something else has moved to the foreground of our experience.

From Self, fear can still exist.

So can ambition, determination, planning, and achievement.

The difference is what is organizing our experience.

Fear can be heard without becoming the whole story.

Striving can become a resource rather than a master.

Achievement can become expression rather than proof.

Energy follows organization

This leads to one of the central principles of Creator Mode:

Energy follows organization.

Whatever is organizing us recruits our attention and energy.

When we're organized around avoiding rejection, we monitor people's reactions.

When we're organized around getting something right, we analyze and second-guess.

When we're organized around controlling an outcome, we anticipate, manage, and rehearse.

None of that makes us wrong.

Often, something in us believes that attention is necessary because something important is at stake.

But it requires energy.

And when significant energy is devoted to protection and pressure, less is available for curiosity, creativity, connection, discernment, presence, and aliveness.

This is why Creator Mode isn't simply a mindset.

The deeper question is:

What is organizing me right now?

Creator Mode isn't about staying in the “right” mode.

Life will frighten us.

We will protect.

Something will matter and we will strive.

The practice is recognizing what is organizing us and allowing our awareness to widen enough to remember what else is here.

And one of the simplest ways to begin noticing our orientation is to ask:

Where is my energy going?