A good many of my most spectacular workings have involved dramatic expansion of creative talent. Unless we make a living in overtly “artistic” fields like music or sculpture, we tend to overlook the key role inspiration plays in our good or ill fortune.

For example, entrepreneurs who experience repeated financial failures, teachers frustrated by students’ inability to learn, job-seekers facing one rejection after another understand - correctly! - that they are mired in serious bad luck. But few attribute their misfortune to a persistent lack of creative insight, when this, in fact, often lies at the very root of their predicament.

Inspiration determines our every decision, large and small. Whether we are planning a vast enterprise or simply picking out which pair of socks to wear, creativity plays a leading role. If the wellspring of our creativity in a certain area of our lives dries up, then the choices we make there will probably be wrong - and the consequences decidedly negative.

Let me provide an illuminating case in point. Some years ago a student of Eastern martial arts sought my help. Despite thorough training, he lost almost every match that he entered. Advice from mentors and colleagues alike proved absolutely futile. Convinced that he had been targeted by a powerful curse, happiness slowly drained from his life. This gnawing sense of failure, in turn, set up a vicious psychological circle. A gradual decline in his motivation and ambition led inevitably to a destabilization of his life-force - his Qi - and a consequent erosion of the aggressive “edge” so necessary in any combative endeavor.

There was no question that he was indeed being overwhelmed by bad luck. But just as every river has a source and every life form arises from a single cell, every run of good or ill fortune emanates from a primordial foundation, an invisible template of psychic energy. What was his?

The moment I forged a strong connection to his psyche, I immediately saw how the structure of his “knot of failure” hung together in a self-sustaining pattern of negativity. Although he knew all the right moves to make in a match, he had somehow lost the instinctive inspiration to rapidly string those moves together in a novel way that would not only counter but actually surprise and disorient his opponent. In short, to win matches he needed a massive infusion of creativity!

He tasted victory in several matches only a week after I restructured the constricted energy pattern that had closed off this critical avenue of lightning-fast martial inspiration. As I continued to open, reinforce, and refine the personal power dynamics underlying his performance, his losing streak turned into a winning one. Because he was able to relax into newfound success, his overall happiness - his joie de vivre - expanded like a fresh flower bud after a summer shower. He remains a formidable contender today.

Sparse or faulty creativity does not underlie every case of bad luck. Nonetheless, it is an extremely significant element that is frequently neglected or overlooked entirely. We must remember that intimate relationships between inspiration and luck are by no means confined to traditional artistic endeavors!