Just because you’re not a member of Mensa, or need a bill splitting app to work out who owes what, doesn’t mean you won’t outperform a brainiac – whose interpersonal skills may limit the potency of IQ. Being ‘smart’, it seems, is more about recognising when and how to harness your strengths than merely riding on the coattails of genetic fortune. More important than innate, measurable strengths such as spatial acuity, perhaps, is the belief that you can improve the way your brain works – or having a ‘growth’ versus a ‘fixed’ mindset – which is now a formal focus within schools worldwide. This month in muse we analyse the true nature of what it means to be 'smart'.

What even is love? It’s not quite the ontological foray I’d imagined - you know the Ancient Greeks imagined types of love as part of a life science? – but a feature on love’s constitution does shed light on stages of love, why we fall in it and whether we stay there. Of course, for all the factors that figure in attraction and compatibility (check out Sarah McMahon’s column on why we choose the partners we do, p. 32), being able to love demands the prerequisite of feeling loved, or at least lovable.

If you imagine change as a mandate coinciding with the start of the calendar year (look for the word ‘transformation’, and possibly a tantalising timeline such as 12 weeks), keep enjoying that d’affinois. As motivators, prescribed ideals do a lousy job. While they may seem like ‘towards’ goals – and you may feel like you really want them (don’t miss the feature on the genesis of self-talk) – they’re veiled bids to flee something unsatisfactory. As positive psychology expert Suzy Green’s column on stages of change suggests, in appraising and pursuing change, you need a good ‘why’ – and someone else’s idea of how you should be pales against intrinsic motivation or true desire. Sarah McMahon expands the idea in her column on body image – because weight loss is one of the most common cultural prescriptions issued this time of year.

Escaping the daily grind has been imagined as a universal ideal cemented by Marxist texts and Lotto ads promising the perpetual bliss of kicking back in the Bahamas with an endless supply of mojitos (after telling the boss where to shove it). Yet in reality, long-term respite would likely meet similar restlessness to that experienced by the many retirees who return to the workforce as mentors or take up volunteering (although the proposed respite fatigue may be obscured by a perpetual hangover). When it comes to escape, less is more – and not just because, by definition, escape is made possible by a dominant opposite. I’m reminded of philosopher Henri Lefebvre, whose La production de l’espace celebrates worlds within and around the phenomenal architecture we ostensibly occupy. We may realise exciting new worlds within the familiar according to Lefebvre, who conceives of space belonging to three spheres and proposes ‘defetishising’ it to change the perception of it from inert and predetermined to alive and dynamic and produced through everyday experience.

Neither woman featured in this month’s Up Close – Ruby Rose and septuagenarian supermodel Lauren Hutton – has had a smooth or predictable path, yet in hindsight, each tangent and mishap seems integral to who they are and why they’re celebrated. Rose’s story of becoming a poster person for empowered sexuality reminds us that while social norms inevitably inspire comparative self-appraisal, they have no a priori bearing on our individual validity – postal vote notwithstanding. In this context, we ask celebrant Dorothy Shorne how marriage has changed during her two decades of knot-tying and how she sees loving unions evolving in the future. In the vein of culturally-informed proclivities, three futurists discuss how they know what we want before we do. Prescience, coincidence or contagion effect?

While some argue that the fragmentation of media has democratised news, permitting a novel diversity of voices, the proliferation of blogs through which anyone can proclaim expertise (remember Belle Gibson?), and clickbait (headlines designed to seduce you and your mouse into propping up the new advertising metric) have made divining the provenance of information more, not less, treacherous. Just add downsized news teams compelled to run press releases verbatim (prudent time to admit that I took some of the quotes in the mindfulness piece straight from a university press release and remind you that to really comprehend scientific studies, we need to know something of funding sources, study design and what hasn’t been reported). In that vein, omission of fact often imagined as dishonesty is vindicated on p. 92, where the PR in charge of releasing information on the tragic day of the Lindt Cafe siege discusses complex and delicate considerations that challenge the public’s ‘right to know’. Such socially responsible non veritas may earn the label ‘positive truth negative’, which we guess, in sum, is the point of muse – not to strive for neutrality, but for a balance of opinions and perspectives. To let people tell their stories and invite us all to walk in another’s shoes.

In the September Edition of Muse - the creativity issue - we talk to Australian Ballet dancer Alice Topp, who says her accidental encounter with choreography helped her to find a voice she didn’t know she had while helping her to make sense of the world. It also piques the creative paths of fashion designer Jasmine Gescheit, artist Veronica Cay and digital entrepreneur Amber Renae. But the creativity issue isn’t about art (although one might argue that life is art). Rather, it’s about expression and innovation. It’s about not knowing – which may be the greatest licence there is to explore, discover and learn. They’re themes reflected in the feature on contemporary imaginings of Freud’s talk therapy, which attempted to curate mental content. When it comes to creativity, psychoanalysis gives the Sistine Chapel a run for its money. Of course, it’s another language for French artist Marcel Duchamp’s take on art as co-created by artist and viewer. In that vein, I hope you’ll accept the invitation to create this issue with me. I look forward to hearing (or seeing) what creativity is for you.

This issue of muse explains how success is not a commodity, subject to a ferocious game of musical chairs, as the so-called ‘career ladder’ suggests. Nor will it run out while you’re doing something for the love of it. What it will do is dare you to define it, which may well reveal to you that you’ve already made it.

In contrast to the notion of a linear trajectory from objective to outcome and the adage ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’, How To Transform Your Mistakes looks at how to embrace failure and leverage errors, which are so often sheep in wolves’ clothing. In a similar twist of self-determinism, our story on luck discusses fortune as a product of skill and choice – although synchronicity does get a look-in. Perhaps the greatest predictor of success is how we manage expectations, since setting feasible targets favours motivation, perseverance and shaping others’ perceptions of how we’ve done (think client KPIs and joint bank accounts). For a communication upgrade, don’t miss the feature on harnessing the power of voice and body language. What we loved most about compiling this issue was hearing how other women define success – from escaping an arranged marriage to being a happily married CEO, to a plussize model living with multiple sclerosis, a Muslim businesswoman and a cafe owner pioneering tourism in an area devastated by loss of primary industry.

The happiness issue of muse magazine is neither about promising rewards unrelated to the thing possessed (longer lashes, self-esteem) nor perpetual positivity (don’t suppose something can exist without its opposite). Rather it’s about finding ways to accept those poles and recognising their role in optimal function or ‘flourishing’ – which may be the best definition of happiness yet. Suzy Green gives an excellent overview of its place in positive psychology.

It’s about the myriad ways to imagine what happiness is – and isn’t – and making time to get clear on what it means in the context of our lives (there is a term ‘toxic positivity’, which speaks to ideals divorced from the lives they promise to improve). It’s about calling the bluff of oxymorons peddled by cultural norms (go on, be authentic, but don’t transgress the ‘good vibes only’ t-shirt), reclaiming the term and creating your own recipe. Importantly, amid the barrage of self-help books, it’s about recognising that happiness – as defined by dominant paradigms – is an uneven playing field, as Nadine Cameron writes. Comparison is not only futile but can be prohibitively invalidating.

Welcome to the launch issue of Muse magazine. 

The idea behind Muse is for it to serve as mirror, metaphor and mentor, reflecting your experience, concerns and aspirations without inciting comparison with unrealistic ideals (pardon the tautology, but I have this thing with consonant rhythm). It would be nice to think it could gently guide by reminding you of your inner strength rather than telling you how to live/be/wear your skinny jeans. I’d like to think that reading the magazine could be a bit like sitting down with a bunch of good ideas and mug of white hot chocolate (just me?) And with my remaining wish, I’d like it to serve as a springboard for discussions about mental health topics often buried by misconceptions and shame.

March 2018

February 2018

January 2018

December 2017

November 2017

October 2017

September 2017

August 2017

July 2017

June 2017

Anchored by inspiring personalities and framed by modern culture, muse combines revealing first-person stories and leading expert commentary in psychology, self-help and personal development in language that encourages contemplation and discussion.

From finding purpose and creating a healthy online identity, to changing thought patterns using neuroplasticity and the impact of attachment style on adult relationships, this unique monthly magazine is mirror, metaphor and mentor.

Curious. Empowered. Intelligent. Self-aware. The muse is committed to creating and becoming her best self through contemplation and conscious action.

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