Chapter 10 of SC's book on motivation "Welcome the unexpected" deals with being creative. He says most of us don't see ourselves as creative. Because we mix it up with being original. Which in reality has nothing to do with being creative. It's more about being and doing the unexpected. A great piece of music or art or film or meal or outfit isn't original. As it uses what's available to create a great piece of etc etc. It's the way you choose to put those bits together. Now suspend your belief that you are not creative for a moment and accept that the seeds of creativity do actually exist within you. Slowly you can start to come up with all kinds of different solutions to the challenges life puts before you.
It's probably the shortest chapter in the book and I believe it to be the most potent. The answers to your biggest questions lay within you. When you go to your Doctor and explain your symptom(s) he's going to have to take an educated guess as to what the problem is, because it's difficult to put into words how a pain or an ache feels and we hardly ever add any background info. "I have a terrible pain in my lower back" and stop there, leaving out " I spent the weekend digging the garden, something I haven't done in 20 years." If we are confused about why we have a problem with something, then the person we turn to for help will need to be a genius. Which we believe they are, because we want them to be but genius's get things wrong just like we do. Get creative and find what lays beneath a problem.
In other news........ Things have been very up and down recently. I am back to hiding away. Not depressed or down. Just hiding and avoiding things. As I've written before, it's funny how answers seem to spring from the strangest places when I'm dealing with a difficult situation.
A friend has been playing with the idea of furthering her work skills. She's been interested in Dyslexia for a while now and I have been her guinea pig. She made some inquires about doing a course a year ago but it involved a chunk of money she didn't have. Recently her boss told a group of them results were not good and if they couldn't find ways of improving profits they may need to slim the workforce. She told her boss about the course and how it could have an impact, hey-ho the boss said "sign up I'll pay." So the first part of the course arrived in the post and she took herself off to the library and picked up a few books. A few days later when we met up to visit an antiques fair, over coffee she told me I was a genius. She had come to this conclusion after reading through her coursework. Oh how I laughed (on the outside, whilst thinking, could that be true, on the inside). While I accept that I have developed paths to get over my Dyslexia, it's no more than we all develop ways and strategies to overcome obstacles. Still it was meant as a compliment and I received it as such. It did set me thinking though. An ant looking up at a rock thinks "how will I get passed that" whilst an Elephant wouldn't give the rock a moments notice. Except maybe to think "why is that ant looking at that rock?" In future I should view my problems from up high. As a Genius and not from below as a Dunce.
So something read from a book and a compliment from a friend arrive just as things are dipping down to somewhere I'd rather not go. When this has happened before, I rightly or wrongly assumed I was depressed and treated it as such. What if it isn't. What if my engine doesn't fire that well on petrol? my sails don't fill with the wind because my rigging isn't set that way? I have always thought of myself as creative but I'm not using that creativity as well as I could to find a solution as to what bugs me most. Well that's not entirely true. I have recognized that I'm not feeling down or upset just confused and I have mixed those feelings up in the past. I am also very aware that the gap between solutions and excuses is a very faint and thin line. One I've crossed several time before. So from now it's not a step back but a step up.
When I'm coming home from London I pass a farm that's no longer a farm. It's a pub, restaurant, collection of small craft style shops and it's fields no longer grow hops and barley but play host to car boot sales and meet-ups for owners of exotic cars and the like. Yesterday I was earlier than normal so thought I'd have a look round. The little shabby-chic shop was full of brand near old stuff and signs to hang in your kitchen "Laugh, smile, dream big and do your own washing up" stuff that doesn't inspire me that much. The owner, sitting at her desk smiled and said there was more upstairs and I smiled back and took to the stairs not wanting to upset her and feigning delight at the prospect of more new old stuff and "life could be worse," signage. Upstairs however was sign free and full of old old stuff and for the next fifteen minutes I was like a pig in poo. In a dusty corner I found an Art Deco chrome floor lamp, with it's price tag discretely tucked away. I reached for it, expecting three numbers after the £ sign but nooooooo £28. Thats 35 Euro's or $45 to most of you. I pushed my glasses from their perch on the top of my head to the top of my nose and checked again. Still £28 no faint marks or bad penmanship that could be anything else than £28. Although being the only customer in the shop I dragged the lamp everywhere I went. Like a dog with a bone. Finally ending up at the desk and the owner. I smiled while inside my head the "disappointment department" was gearing up for "No, I'm sorry that's a mistake" instead "That's £28 please." I gave her one more chance to shatter my dreams "£28?" "Yes, it's probably worth more but I need to clear some stock." No doubt there was a container already despatched from China. Stuffed full of new old stuff and a sign for every kitchen in Kent, heading right for us at that very moment. To aid her in her quest to make space, I removed the cash from my wallet as fast as a drunk trying to put a key in a door. The "disappointment department" was screaming "calm down you fool." Minutes later I found myself in the car park. Pushing five foot of 1930's chrome lighting into my car and leaping across the bonnet like Starsky, or was it Hutch. In an effort to put as much distance between "Shabby Chic heaven" and me and my new lamp as possible. As I sit here alternating between typing and polishing the faded chrome I should add that the £28 was part of the cash I got out to pay a parking fine with. Welcome to my World.
Onwards and upwards in pursuit of fulfillment :-)))
It's probably the shortest chapter in the book and I believe it to be the most potent. The answers to your biggest questions lay within you. When you go to your Doctor and explain your symptom(s) he's going to have to take an educated guess as to what the problem is, because it's difficult to put into words how a pain or an ache feels and we hardly ever add any background info. "I have a terrible pain in my lower back" and stop there, leaving out " I spent the weekend digging the garden, something I haven't done in 20 years." If we are confused about why we have a problem with something, then the person we turn to for help will need to be a genius. Which we believe they are, because we want them to be but genius's get things wrong just like we do. Get creative and find what lays beneath a problem.
In other news........ Things have been very up and down recently. I am back to hiding away. Not depressed or down. Just hiding and avoiding things. As I've written before, it's funny how answers seem to spring from the strangest places when I'm dealing with a difficult situation.
A friend has been playing with the idea of furthering her work skills. She's been interested in Dyslexia for a while now and I have been her guinea pig. She made some inquires about doing a course a year ago but it involved a chunk of money she didn't have. Recently her boss told a group of them results were not good and if they couldn't find ways of improving profits they may need to slim the workforce. She told her boss about the course and how it could have an impact, hey-ho the boss said "sign up I'll pay." So the first part of the course arrived in the post and she took herself off to the library and picked up a few books. A few days later when we met up to visit an antiques fair, over coffee she told me I was a genius. She had come to this conclusion after reading through her coursework. Oh how I laughed (on the outside, whilst thinking, could that be true, on the inside). While I accept that I have developed paths to get over my Dyslexia, it's no more than we all develop ways and strategies to overcome obstacles. Still it was meant as a compliment and I received it as such. It did set me thinking though. An ant looking up at a rock thinks "how will I get passed that" whilst an Elephant wouldn't give the rock a moments notice. Except maybe to think "why is that ant looking at that rock?" In future I should view my problems from up high. As a Genius and not from below as a Dunce.
So something read from a book and a compliment from a friend arrive just as things are dipping down to somewhere I'd rather not go. When this has happened before, I rightly or wrongly assumed I was depressed and treated it as such. What if it isn't. What if my engine doesn't fire that well on petrol? my sails don't fill with the wind because my rigging isn't set that way? I have always thought of myself as creative but I'm not using that creativity as well as I could to find a solution as to what bugs me most. Well that's not entirely true. I have recognized that I'm not feeling down or upset just confused and I have mixed those feelings up in the past. I am also very aware that the gap between solutions and excuses is a very faint and thin line. One I've crossed several time before. So from now it's not a step back but a step up.
When I'm coming home from London I pass a farm that's no longer a farm. It's a pub, restaurant, collection of small craft style shops and it's fields no longer grow hops and barley but play host to car boot sales and meet-ups for owners of exotic cars and the like. Yesterday I was earlier than normal so thought I'd have a look round. The little shabby-chic shop was full of brand near old stuff and signs to hang in your kitchen "Laugh, smile, dream big and do your own washing up" stuff that doesn't inspire me that much. The owner, sitting at her desk smiled and said there was more upstairs and I smiled back and took to the stairs not wanting to upset her and feigning delight at the prospect of more new old stuff and "life could be worse," signage. Upstairs however was sign free and full of old old stuff and for the next fifteen minutes I was like a pig in poo. In a dusty corner I found an Art Deco chrome floor lamp, with it's price tag discretely tucked away. I reached for it, expecting three numbers after the £ sign but nooooooo £28. Thats 35 Euro's or $45 to most of you. I pushed my glasses from their perch on the top of my head to the top of my nose and checked again. Still £28 no faint marks or bad penmanship that could be anything else than £28. Although being the only customer in the shop I dragged the lamp everywhere I went. Like a dog with a bone. Finally ending up at the desk and the owner. I smiled while inside my head the "disappointment department" was gearing up for "No, I'm sorry that's a mistake" instead "That's £28 please." I gave her one more chance to shatter my dreams "£28?" "Yes, it's probably worth more but I need to clear some stock." No doubt there was a container already despatched from China. Stuffed full of new old stuff and a sign for every kitchen in Kent, heading right for us at that very moment. To aid her in her quest to make space, I removed the cash from my wallet as fast as a drunk trying to put a key in a door. The "disappointment department" was screaming "calm down you fool." Minutes later I found myself in the car park. Pushing five foot of 1930's chrome lighting into my car and leaping across the bonnet like Starsky, or was it Hutch. In an effort to put as much distance between "Shabby Chic heaven" and me and my new lamp as possible. As I sit here alternating between typing and polishing the faded chrome I should add that the £28 was part of the cash I got out to pay a parking fine with. Welcome to my World.
Onwards and upwards in pursuit of fulfillment :-)))
I think people develop coping skills best when they're allowed the space to do so. Trying to force a person to change, improve, BE something or someone they aren't often harms them far more than just letting them grow.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would love to see a picture of the lamp, Genius. :)