Your Changing Direction

“Creativity is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt.
It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits.”

(Edward de Bono)

I suspect that few people would disagree that Walt Disney knew a thing or two about creativity.

Robert Dilts is a developer, author, trainer and consultant in the field of Nero-Linguistic Programming (NLP). One of the things he investigated was how Walt Disney was creative. As this was done after Walt Disney had dies he had to use things like writings (including some by Disney) and talking to people who had known the man himself.

What I’m about to write is my brief summary of what Dilts concluded (With my apologies to the author . For the original source, read Strategies of a genius, vol.1    Amazon.co.uk link  Amazon.com link)

The Walt Disney Creativity Strategy follows a specific process. The first stage is “the dreamer”. This is the stage of thinking big with no limitations or boundaries. The second stage is “the realist”, taking the ideas from the “dreamer” stage and looking at the practicalities.

The final stage is the critic, the time to test, evaluate and look for things that go wrong. Potentially this forms a cycle for things to be refined by going back to the dreamer etc until the critic is redundant.

In my work I often see people that get stuck predominantly using one of the above stages and not the others. Maybe it’s someone who has big ideas but never takes any practical action.

Perhaps it’s someone who jumps straight to the practical stage without dreaming big – for example, they would never have considered that anyone would offer payment for the following jobs:

Being a hermit: 40 days and nights shut away in a Manchester museum

Being paid to work just 12 hours a week on a tropical island with full board (for UK TV viewers find out more about this story on “The Best Job in the World” Thursday on BBC1)

Or 

The domestic American airline that wanted to employ someone whose sole job was to fly around the country using the company flights and to write about their experience.

While these jobs, to my knowledge, have all been taken, they have all been advertised within the last 12 months. They may not be as common as some other roles; equally someone is now being paid to do the job.

Or perhaps it’s “the critic” that jumps straight in – can you imagine a writer crafting a piece if they were attempting to edit what they were writing before it even reached the page in a first draft?

As always if what you are already doing works for you then great. If it isn’t working then I offer the following definition from Einstein “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

This week I invite you to do something different and play with the following. You may want to pick something you already know you want to get creative with or something where you are stuck and what you were doing hasn’t worked.

You’ll need a pen and paper to play with this. You’ll probably find this easier if you physical move to a different position for each stage. Depending upon how much space you have this may be as small as changing how you are sat, or on a much bigger scale changing rooms altogether J.

If you realise at any stage that you have drifted into another stage prematurely, just shake it off (physically if it’s easier) and return to the stage you were in. The other one will get its turn, when it will be most useful.

1. The dreamer stage. (Remember to pick how/where you want to sit etc for this stage)

This is the stage of no limitations. What in an ideal world you’d love to be doing in this situation?

Some questions to help with this stage:

· What inspires and/or excites you about this?
· If money was no object what would you do?
· If you had all the time in the world, what would you do?
· If it didn’t mean anything about you if you didn’t get what you wanted, what would you go for?
· If a fairy godmother were to come and wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?
· What would be even better then that?

Keep going with this until you have at least 20 things written down, especially if they seem absurd!

2. The practical stage. (Remember to pick how/where you want to sit etc for the practical stage)

Pick at least one thing from your list that appeals to you. Perhaps if you want a bit of fun something that your immediate thought was that’s insane. We’re just playing with this and doing something different – you can always choose not to take action when you have finished. 

If what you have picked was possible, what would you do to make it a reality?

Questions that may help at this stage:

· What information would you need?
· What skills and beliefs would help?
· What’s the time frame that would work with this?
· Would other people be involved?
· What finance would be involved?
· What energy would you have?
· What would be the very first practical step?

3. The next step is “the critic”. (Again, remember to change to a third position to do this stage.)

Evaluate what practical answers you came up with at stage 2.

Questions that may help at this stage:

· What could go wrong?
· How does this look with the big picture?
· How does the small details look?
· How does this look to a customer/boss/other people involved in this situation?
· How can you make this better/ stronger?

4. If appropriate take your answers in the third stage and return to stage 1, the dreamer and cycle through the process until the answers you have from the critic are ones you want.

5. If you then want to choose to take action, feel free.

6. You may have noticed that some roles were much easier then others. That just suggests that you’ll use the one you’re comfortable in most often. Next time you notice that a bit more creativity would help, become aware if you had been using the dreamer, the realistic or the critic and see the difference with using this cycle.

Have a wonderfully creative week

Love

PS July sees Michael Neill run a month long interactive program about “creating the impossible”. To take part in the program you’ll need something that:

“1. You must believe you have a less than 50% chance for success in the 30 days of the program.

2. You must be so passionate about what it is you want to create that you will be glad of any time you spend invested in creating it, regardless of how things turn out!”

The program includes:

“· A downloadable jumpstart workbook on the 1st of July 
· Audio messages each day throughout the program that will encourage and guide you towards the creation of your “impossible” project. 
· Each week, there will be special “action days” where you can go online or phone into a tele-bridge and use the energy of the group to get yourself into action and build momentum towards making your dream a reality. 
· You will be allowed access to a private online forum throughout the month, which Michael will be an active member of helping to answer any questions you have and unstick your stuckness if you find yourself struggling to move forward! ”

There are 3 ways you can join:

1. If you are a member of Michael’s Solution Café you can sign up for free.
2. If you are a member of Steve Chandler’s Club Fearless
you should have already received information about how to sign up.
3. If you are not a member of Solution Café or club fearless you can sign up for $99 here

One of the elements I use in my one to one work is coaching. I was delighted to hear earlier today that this site, Your Changing Direction, has been included in a list of 100 Best Life and Career Coach Blogs, under the Best Audio and Video of Life and Career Coaches.

To visit the full list of 100 blogs click HERE

To visit links to a selection of audio versions of the Your Changing Direction messages, click HERE

“Let it go, let it go, let it go
‘Cos it’s out of my control
Let it go, let it go
Don’t have to have it all
Grips so tight it shatters the only thing that matters
I only got one life
Heaven knows what I’m stressing for
Just let it go”

(Lyrics from Will Young’s “Let it Go”, written by Eg White, Jeremy Gregory and Karen Poole)

I’m told that today (June 23rd) is “Let it go day”. So it seems an appropriate time to write something about letting things go

I thought I’d share just a couple of the ways that I know to make letting go easier.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as accepting that the meaning that you had given an event is not necessarily true.

Maybe it’s a generalisation that because something happened once it will always happen. What if, there was no bigger meaning then it happened once?

An example of this is:

“because I ‘messed up’ speaking in public before when I forgot a line in a school play, it means I’ll always mess up public speaking.”

There are things you can learn to make speaking in public easy. (See my PS for a recommendation.) What if, there is no other meaning to that past event apart from you once forgot a line?

Sometimes it’s about letting go of mind reading what someone may or may not have thought.

For example, maybe you think a work colleague doesn’t like you based solely upon the fact that they didn’t come and talk to you at a busy social gathering.

While they may not like you, it’s also equally possible that they didn’t speak to you because they didn’t see you, they were stuck in a conversation they couldn’t get out of maybe they thought that you not talking to them meant that you didn’t like them …

What if, you let go of guessing and making up a reason, and let it just be that you didn’t talk to each other at the event?

If you are playing with this particular technique and you notice that you are getting caught up in a story behind an event etc, firstly congratulate yourself for noticing.

Then ask yourself the following: what if you allowed yourself to let go of that story?

You may find that when you let go of the reason behind you are inspired to take some action.

Sometimes it’s about letting go of a feeling.

For example maybe you want to want to let go of the feeling of disapproving of your body.

The following is loosely based upon the work of the abundance technique:

1. Notice where in your body you are feeling that feeling – e.g. in your stomach, chest maybe even your throat.

2. Imagine that you can open a door above that feeling

3. Open that door and let that feeling out

4. Notice the colour of that feeling as it all leaves your body

As today is let it go day, I invite you to let go of anything that is holding you back. It’s just for the day – if you want you can always pick it up whatever you let go off again at the end of the 24 hours!

Use either of the ways I mention above or one of your own. If you are then inspired to take action by all means feel free to do that.

Have a lovely freeing week

Love

Jen

PS If you want to learn more about developing your public speaking skills (including banishing any fear) then I highly recommend Jonathan Altfeld’s course coming up in London in a few weeks (With dates being scheduled periodically around the globe.)

Click here to read more about what I have to say about the course and for a special offer for my readers.

Did you know that next week is Freedom from Fear of Speaking Week?

It seems an appropriate time to mention Jonathan Altfeld’s public speaking and presentation skills course.

With London dates in July and US and Australian courses in October, this is a course I highly recommend if you want to increase your confidence and be more compelling when speaking in front of people.

I make it a principal of only recommending products and events that I have already tried and consider a quality product that gets results. If you are looking for a course to develop your public or group speaking then I highly recommend Speaking Ingeniously with the trainer Jonathan Altfeld.

I attended such a course a few years ago (under the previous title of holographic communication). There was a broad range of experience within the group attending. From individuals who literally shook at the idea of speaking in front of the group, to trainers and speakers who would professionally daily speak to groups.

Using just the right mix for everyone in the group Jonathan quickly dealt with any nerves that any of the group used to have and provided a course that blended techniques and exercises with individual coaching.

Jonathan Altfeld is a highly skilled communicator and trainer whom it is an absolute pleasure to watch at work. He cultivates a learning environment which nurtures and develops the skills of every ability within the group. The journey which Jonathan easily guided us through creates epic transformations, no matter what experience the individual started day 1 with.

Using a combination exercises and group work, lessons and skills easily emerge which can be utilised not only in public speaking but in the far wider concept of everyday life.

The amount of time Jonathan spent with the group went far and beyond the call of duty, it wasn’t at all unusual for Jonathan to join the group for meals or in the bar and carry on covering subjects more informally.

Plus as a special bonus to Your Changing Direction readers Jonathan is offering a free copy of his Truth Detection mp3′s with your booking. To make sure you get your copy make sure that you quote my name (Jen Waller) and ask about the bonus – If you let me know as well I’ll double check that you get your bonus

Click HERE for full details about the course including video clips showing the change in previous participants.

Your Changing Direction has made it through several rounds of the the Best Coaching Blogs 2009 contest. It is now in the semi-finals.

Thank you for everyone who has already voted so far. Please take a moment to vote Your Changing Direction into the finals by clicking the logo above or HERE. Once there, click on the up arrow above the listing for Your Changing Direction.

Many Thanks

Those who “follow” me on twitter may have watched the following clip I posted at the start of the week.

It’s a clip that appealed to me partly because I find the idea of a song and dance routine breaking out in such a normal every day setting somewhat amusing.

However, as I sat and watched a drama unfold all because of the need for a napkin it also occurred to me that the story that we tell ourselves about an event can have a big impact.

You may have noticed for yourself that the same facts can happen to 2 different people and you can get two different response. You may even have noticed that exactly the same thing can happen to the same person and they respond differently on any different days.

There can be many different causes and reasons for that reaction. The story that we tell ourselves about that can play a big part in our response, either with what action we choose to take and/or how we feel.

This week I actually invite you to play and make a drama out of something in your life. See the difference each of these stories makes for you, if you then decide to do something different then by all means do so.

1. Pick something or an area of your life that you’d like a new perspective on/ something you were stuck on and/or you’d just like it to be different.

2. Write a drama (it can be as short or as long as you like but a paragraph or two is plenty) where you play the victim role in this situation.

3. Using the same situation write a drama, (again a paragraph or two can be enough) where you play the hero role.

4. Next, using the same situation write a drama where you play villain.

5. Notice which of those stories is closest to the story you normally tell yourself.

6. Who would you be without that story?

Have a week filled with the drama of your choosing

Love

Jen

PS Follow me on Twitter by visiting here, and then click on follow

· Do you feel stuck? ———>
“Could something better be just round the corner?”

· Are you stressed all of the time? ———>
“Could you experience more relaxation?”

· Is a lack of confidence holding you back? ———>
“What could you achieve with more confidence?”

· Do you often feel overwhelmed? ———>
“Imagine feeling peace instead”

· Are you scared about putting yourself out there? ———>
“Could you amaze yourself at how easy and fun it could be?”

· Do you wonder the value of your input? ———>
“Could you appreciate your strengths and passions?”

· Do you feel life is passing you by? ———>
“Imagine finding the passions and inspiration to live an amazing life.”

· You hate your job but don’t know what else to do? ———>
“Could you make a living from things that you enjoy and love doing?”

My clients normally can answer yes to at least one of those questions.

I help people to find their greatest strengths and passions. My work is all about becoming more inspired, getting and staying focused, believing in yourself, nurturing possibilities and enjoying the success you create.

Who do I work with?

My clients are people who want to create something new in their life. Maybe it’s more money; maybe it’s more fun and passion; maybe it’s more peace and security. Everyone knows what success means to them.

I enjoy working with people who have decided to get the things they want – and if you want a supportive, friendly guide during that journey, it’ll be my pleasure to work with you.

No matter where you are in the world I offer a solution to suit your location. I offer optional face-to-face sessions in the UK in London, Manchester and Cheshire. However, most of our work takes place via the phone so we are not restricted by geography. Providing you have a working phone we can work together.

If you are considering working with me, here is some information that will help you make a great decision:

· Most of my clients come to me from personal recommendations from satisfied clients and colleagues. Apart from being a huge compliment, this respect and recognition for my skill and talent is an indication of the standard of my work with you.

· I bring many years of training and learning different skills, techniques and theory which means that I am a catalyst to start creating something new in your life.

· I have spent years making my living by guiding, nurturing and developing talent. I use all of this experience so that I help you find your strengths and passions, stay focused and believing in yourself.

· Creativity and compassionate: I have been described as being like an iron fist inside a velvet glove – creating a safe environment with my warm and focused approach yet with the ability to get to the heart of the situation and knock the problem out of the way.

· Flexibility – I tailor make the sessions to the individual in front of me. I don’t confine myself to just one technique, I’ll use the ones that work for you. It’s like the having an item of clothing professionally and personally made for you. The end result is that it’ll fit you perfectly and flatters your body shape, making you look a million dollars.

· Integrity – I only take on clients if I truly believe that I can make a difference with by working with them, if I feel that there is someone else who is a better fit then I happily refer them to one of my talented colleagues within this profession.

· It’s not just about what happens when we are together. The work that we do together will be designed for you to use in your day-to-day life to make a positive difference.

Don’t just take my word for it, see what just some of the things others have to say:

“Jen is the kind of coach that other coaches aspire to be. She’s fantastic. Grab any opportunity to spend time with her.”
(Chris Morris, World Class Training Provider and host of NLP Connections.)

“From the very first phone call I was amazed at how much Jen was able to draw out of me and just how motivated I began to feel. I feel positive about my future and know I CAN do what I’m planning without fear! I would recommend Jen without hesitation!”
(Deborah Roberts. United Kingdom)

Working “with Jen has been very helpful. She has not only been motivating, but has helped me to find a balance and to progress towards my objectives.”
(V.S. United Kingdom)

“Although I was initially nervous about what to expect, Jen put me at ease and made it fun. After each session I felt so much better and ready to take on the world, with a toolkit of exercises to use as and when I needed.”
(Sophie Wise, England)

“Working with Jen as been a fantastic experience. In just a few short sessions I have learned things about myself I never had realised before. Jen has helped me to identify what I really want and I have now defined some clear goals. I have set some objectives along the way to achieving my goals and I’m already beginning to see results!

Jen is pleasant and easy to work with. She is very skilled in her approach.

I highly recommend Jen’s services.”
(Mike Gee. United Kingdom)

Ready for more? I offer a number of different solutions to find the details about specific packages click here for more details.