The other morning, I led a doctor through my Meet Your Muse exercise to help her access her inner guidance about which book to write first—the one for other doctors or the one for patients.
Her muse was clear—the one for patients. Before she left the scene, I invited her to ask whether her muse wanted her to know anything else.
“I see a stethoscope. I thought I’d create health education for people and leave my medical practice over time because the system is so broken. But I suppose my muse says I will keep a private practice.”
I’m careful not to project onto other people’s imagery, so I said, “If this were a daydream of mine, the stethoscope might symbolize the message to listen to my heart. Does that resonate at all?”
She smiled broadly and laughed. “Of course. That feels right.” She felt delighted by this personal and apropos symbol from her muse. She continued, “I recently stopped taking two major types of insurance because what they pay me cannot sustain me and my team—my assistant, the office, the billing service. But my colleagues look at my actions and think I’m crazy. They say, ‘You have a successful practice; how can you limit it so much? How will you survive?”
On Looking Crazy from the Outside
The doctor added, “I always think outside the box—with my patients and practice. I see a broken system and can’t just do things that way.”
I smiled and shared with her that when you’re a visionary with a mission to offer leadership in an industry, what you do will likely look crazy initially, but it will suddenly look normal in twenty years. You’re just ahead of the pack.
I know that many of my readers are like this doctor. You’re doing things differently. You’re breaking new ground, seeing new opportunities and ways of doing things that others can’t see yet. It may feel lonely and weird and scary. You may even believe people saying, “You’re crazy.”
But know that as a visionary, the world will look different to you. And your purpose will require you to do stuff that doesn’t make sense from the outside. People may judge you, call you names, and invite you to question yourself.
Trust yourself. Listen to your heart. Maybe your muse has a stethoscope for you.
And write that book! Your way. Help the world catch up to your vision, wisdom, and gifts.
After we did our breathing and movement warm ups, everyone began writing. It was inspiring to witness the concentration and focus revealed on each face as people wrote. After 40 minutes of writing, I asked whether the group wanted more time.
What struck me was 
If you’re not writing a book, you can still connect to the muse for any kind of creative guidance, such as how to:
Breathe: As a qigong practitioner, I do lots of deep breathing. Deep breathing naturally helps us let go of stress, resets the nervous system and opens us up to the expansive universe of creativity.
Read Something Inspiring–and Short: Read a favorite poet (
The book is the horse, is the snow, is the warm sun.
While speaking with a client about her audience, I had a sense that the audience for her book was different from the audience for the high-end program she was developing.
For more help in clarifying your vision, goals, audience, as well as the content, tone, structure and features of your book, consider my self-study program, Quick Start to Kick Start Your book.