Write your way forward

Here’s a fantastically effective way of gaining all sorts of insights about yourself. It’s adapted from the book ‘The Artist’s Way’.

The exercise is deceptively simple. It’s called ‘morning pages’ and all you need to do is sit down each morning with a pad of A4 paper and a pen. Make it your favourite pen and, if you don’t have a favourite, seek one out - a good pen on quality paper is a wonderful way to write. Put away the laptop - thoughts connect better when they go via your hand and loop back into your mind.

Now, at school we’re usually told to plan what we want to write - have a structure, and follow that structure through so that the essay is properly balanced and includes all the key points. That’s a great idea when you’re writing an essay.

This is something different. So, now that you haven’t written your plan, all you need to do is start writing.

And keep writing until you’ve filled three sides of A4. What I find with this is that the first half a page is nothing - I write insightful comments such as “here I am, writing my morning pages, wonder what will come up for me today, nothing much on my mind so far, still better keep writing ...”

Which is why it’s supposed to be at least three pages. Because, after a while, your unconscious mind pipes up and starts to direct your words towards what really needs thinking about. Maybe there are some decisions to be made, some content to create, or maybe you’ll find yourself in completely uncharted territory and come up with all sorts of unexpected stuff. I discover things I didn’t even knew I thought until I was writing them down.

This writing is not for reading. Once done you can throw it away. The insights will stay with you, and what might be - if they were read back - ungrammatical ramblings can be discarded.

I decided to take the exercise a stage further. I needed to make some decisions about future projects and, ideally, make those decisions soon. So I decided to just keep writing until I at least had the shape of my plans and at least some idea of the content. 

It took a while and in the end I had a whole load of ideas, which all connected. This is an exercise that is well worth a go - you don’t have to be a ‘writer’ and you can adapt it to your own purposes (although I recommend sticking to the ‘rules’ initially so you can at least get a feel for the process). 

Although the book has the word ‘artist’ in the title you don’t need to be one of those either - just someone seeking same clarity of thought and a sense of where to go next.

Useful Knowledge to Know

Chloé Déchery's performance of 'Useful Knowledge to Know' was excellent last night (Aberystwyth Arts Centre). She explores the possibilities of different forms of communication - verbal, physical, via multimedia and finally using a combination of all to reach towards a new model of communication.

What fascinated me was they way she used anchors, carefully placed and very carefully fired in just the right moments, to build her story, to add juice to her communication, and to involve the audience (no, not 'audience participation time' and that sinking feeling those words can trigger - more very clever ways of getting the audience thinking about several aspects of life and objects we often take for granted.)

Great performance, catch it when you can.

Time to Tick Over?

Time to Tick Over?

A few days ago I wrote a short blog entry about the strange (to me) lack of availability of wind-up watches. Which planted the phrase ‘ticking over’ in my mind I guess.

The day after writing that I was working with a client and described a state she was experiencing as ‘ticking over’. Specifically she was speaking about her attitude to her business and her future options.

When people look to the future they can sometimes see the options in polarised terms. In her case, it was either grow her business by going flat out for every opportunity verses no longer being interested and closing the business entirely.

Neither option was fully appealing. What did get her excited was ticking over (you might call it the status quo or business as usual.) That’s the right solution for her, right now.

Part of me felt that I was ‘supposed’ to be inviting her to move away from her comfort zone and take some action. That's my job isn't it?

Yet sometimes it’s good to allow ourselves to just tick over. Because that’s not the same as drifting in neutral - when we’re ticking over we might be thinking, reflecting, planning ... perhaps just waiting for the next move become clear.

Being driven is often appropriate. Yet sometimes it’s not. That’s cool isn’t it?

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Alernatively you might just want to read the article so it's above - 'Time to Tick Over?'

Or you might be able to have a look at the archive, assuming I'm able to install the code in the sidebar ...

Are you a master of influence?

Malcolm Galdwell writes that people who are true masters of their craft frequently have at least one thing in common - 10,000 hours of learning and practice.

What some people miss about this is that you can clock up your 10,000 hours in a variety of ways. It might be a formal course followed by structured practice, or your hours might consist entirely of informal learning and practice. The point is if you put in the hours you get the results (think about The Beatles in Hamburg - hours each day gigging to semi-interested audiences, although their best work was in the studio. Perhaps because they took the time to learn their craft first?)

When it comes to using influence and persuasion how can we clock up the hours? There are courses out there (if you're seeking one, mine's not done yet so I'm happy to recommend this from my colleague Jamie Smart. (Aff.)

The thing is, maybe you're already a master of influence? It's a bit like communication, we cannot NOT influence. So perhaps if you've been alive for more than 10,000 hours you're an expert. Just a thought.

Of course, you probably need to study anyway, to know more about what you know ...

Do or do not?

A sign in a music shop, in front of the product: “Please Do Not Play The Drums.”

Not a great suggestion when they have drum kits to sell. Okay, they meant that specific set were not to be played (or rather, in many cases, ‘hit’) in the shop. Even so, the message could be processed as, in general, don’t play the drums. Career advice. Play the guitar instead, or take up photography.

What might you be suggesting to your customers and clients that you don’t mean?

(Thanks to NLP Life Training for sharing a photo of the sign, and there’s more NLP analysis of it there).

How do you describe yourself?

The words we use to describe what we do in life are important.

In an interview published yesterday, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones were described as ‘belters’. The interviewer, Simon Hattenstone, was corrected by Dame Shirley: “Belting is disrespectful, you know. Only my kind of singer is accused of belting. You don’t say that opera singers belt. I don’t belt. That’s just my voice.”

He asked: does Tom Jones belt? “He sings. He’s a singer. Amateurs belt. We’ve both learned our craft and we don’t deserve to be accused of belting.”

I think she was right to pick up on that. Language matters.

How do you describe what you do to yourself and others? Is your description a proper reflection of you?