Chances are, you are not who you want to be. Chances then are that you have an inclination to move, somehow toward who you would want to be.

I've read about creative tension. It's like a rubber band stretched between your two hands. It wants to bring your hands together.

Bring your hands together and there'll be no tension at all. No inclination to change your state. No drive.

Pull them too far apart, and the rubber band will snap. Unrealistic expectations that inevitably disappoint.

That's as far as I know.

Here's what I don't know for sure.

What if you were not only the two hands, but also the rubber band? I suggest that the rubber band is your strength of character, your capacity to change. When you want to change, you are following a force (I simplistically leave out all external factors) from within. I.e. the primary force is the tension in the rubber band.

Why do I describe it as strength of character and capacity to change?

Every rubber band has a physical limit to which it can be stretched (under a given set of conditions). Overstep this boundary and it will snap.

A rubber band can only create tension if it has a tendency to return to its unstretched state. It is true to itself. A rubber band that does not pull together would leave the two hands hanging limply from whatever position they happen to be in.

Another interesting parallel to draw from this analogy. The rubber band pulls in ONE direction. It also pulls BOTH ways. It pulls the right hand toward the left, and the left toward the right. Sounds contradictory, doesn't it?

(The best thing about writing is that you can take as long as you want to think out your next sentence and your reader will think the stuff just gushed out from your head. I took ten minutes to think before I continued this.)

The rubber band pulls in one direction. INWARD.

!*yikes, z monster attack*!

(Sorry guys, gonna KO now)