HAS R-E-S-U-L-T IN IT
For now, immobilise all old attitudes and behaviours by sticking them in an imaginary plaster cast. The one the doctor puts on when a bone is broken. Whilst the arm is in the plaster cast, the muscles aren’t being exercised and as a result that arm’s muscle mass atrophies, because they are not being used.
Apply this method to your thinking muscles. If your usual way of thinking and evaluating can be contained in a plaster cast, then those approaches will atrophy also. It’s a mental discipline that will pay dividends. Each time you have the urge to explain, detail or substantiate what you are doing to justify some old pattern, then see that doctor put on that plaster cast. Immobilise those thoughts. This will give you the chance to develop new thinking muscles that can prompt new ways of being and doing things.
CYNICAL SELF ALERT
Yes, but… easier said than done, you might come up with. This is not a question of having a personality transplant. Just for the purpose of trying something new, temporarily, you put on hold (in the freezer or in that plaster cast) your reactions that might have become automatic. Yes, and… says: you never know what you might find. If it doesn’t teach you anything new or worthwhile, take the plaster cast off and apply your usual thinking patterns. Nothing has been lost.
“Yes, and…” instead of “Yes, but…”
Another way of obtaining a new perspective is by replacing or overlaying every “Yes, but” attitude with a “Yes, and” attitude. Yes, but… as an approach is judging things from a distance and commenting on them from your usual point of view. Yes, and… as an approach takes it to the next level by thinking of the next step or opportunity.
"YES, BUT" PEOPLE, GRAB THE BATON AND BEAT YOU.
"YES, AND" PEOPLE, GRAB THE BATON AND RUN WITH YOU.
LOOK AT IT THIS WAY
Is your thinking your own or conditioned? Have you been taught to approach things methodically, “realistically”? Try to pause and apply a different tactic in a right-brain, creatively rich way. The brain plays a game of two halves. Together they can change your world. How can you apply thinking differently to the changing world around you?
TOOLBOX
• ACES: awareness, creative brain, experiment, solutions.
• Thoughts become things.
• Old thought patterns in a plaster cast.
• “Yes, and . . .”
YOUR FUTURE YOUR WAY
In 100 years from now
Your bank balance will be irrelevant
And so will be your insurances, your policies, your pension
Your disagreements, your portfolio,
the colour of your hair.
Only that which money couldn’t buy
Could have changed the world
You once occupied
Rendering you immortal
Depending on what you sowed
Introduction
There is too much talk about the changing world. You must have been knocked unconscious not to know that there has been a rapid development in all fields over the last 15–20 years. Our lives aren’t the same and there is no sign it’s slowing down. Most importantly, turning around and going to back to when life “might have been simpler”, “where you could all crowd round the TV” and “rewind your cassette recorder”, is not an option.
It’s never what happens but how you deal with it, that really matters. Except for the fact that most of us have not been adequately prepared for what’s happening. We have our roots firmly in working with pen and paper, owning things that you can actually see and hold, climbing the ladder of success chronologically in order to gain a result somewhere near the top. Life –so we were told – was organised around a pattern. You go to school, you do your best, you gain a qualification, you find a job that offers you good benefits and security. You work hard, get a promotion and put aside money for a rainy day. A number of weeks a year you go on holiday, until you reach the age of 65.
IT'S NEVER WHAT HAPPENS
BUT HOW YOU DEAL WITH IT,
THAT REALLY MATTERS.
It’s a simplification, but many people based their plans on these assumptions. Fundamentally knowledge was power. For this reason, you attended school and the higher you were educated, the more chances you had to do well in life. Things were structured.
In today’s world, knowledge is everywhere and accessible to many more people than ever before. It’s not so much the knowledge that gives you power, but what you can do with it and who you can reach. Anyone can have knowledge at their fingertips, achieve some kind of result, but who can create meaning, do something amazing with it, think outside the famous box or motivate a community of followers?
There is permission in today’s society for people to take the initiative, start their own company, work from a shed or become a digital nomad. Age, background, education or previous experience are not necessarily featuring in the top three of absolute requirements anymore.
SO, WHERE IS THIS GOING?
This chapter looks at the cause-process-result lesson. A blind focus on the results of life reduces the prospect of living considerably.
Apply the creative brain and follow your personal compass to find the way to your itch. Not waiting for instructions, but trusting yourself as your buoy.
WHAT GOT US HERE
IS NOT GOING TO GET US THERE
The cause–process–result lesson
When we meet new people the question “What do you do?” seems to supply us with endless information about who the other person is. Only, does what someone does for a living really define them? Is that who they are or is that just a question that helps to categorise someone?
I worked for some time with a client who from the outset would try to catch me off guard by asking unusual non-result-based questions. “What do you think is the ‘nature’ of this day?” he would ask, or “What have you learned today?” and “What would you change tomorrow?” Conversations were interesting and thought-provoking, teaching me to think beyond the standardised
