Archive for October, 2013

If you’re not . . .

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“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”   Ken Robinson

There are thousands . . .

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“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”   Nigel Marsh

I know . . .

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“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.”   Oprah Winfrey

You may . . .

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“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
Maya Angelou

What other . . .

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“What other people think of you is none of your business.  You can’t change it, you can’t control it.  The only thing you can control is your reaction to it.”    Amy Hatvany

If you don’t . . .

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“If you don’t like something, change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”   Mary Engelbreit

Your journey . . .

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“Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be.  Don’t think you’ve lost time.  There is no short-cutting to life.  It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now.  And now is right on time.”   Asha Tyson

The world . . .

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“The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”   Robert Frost

We come . . .

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“We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”   Sam Keen

Inspiring? Me?

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In this week’s #CoachingBox we’re going to explore inspiration.

I think that it is reasonable to assume that this word originates from the Old English and medical term “inspire – to breathe into; to fill with breathe.”   One particular definition resonates with me as being closest to my understanding, “inspiration – a product of your creative thinking and work; the arousal of the mind to special activity or creativity”.

Wow!  How wonderful to think that it’s all our own doing.  That inspiration comes from within us, from our own thoughts and actions.  And I think that this is often where we can come unstuck, because for many of us inspiration is something that eludes us, something that is dependent on the actions of others and how we use the word often suggests that we can only be inspired by others.

We look to others to lead us and to motivate us into action.  We trust and hope that they will somehow be able to ‘make’ our lives better and that they will move us onto bigger and brighter things.  And here is the rub, there is a fine line between trust and hope.

Trust, I think is unconditional, it is not dependent on anything or anyone, it just is.  Whereas hope is conditional on something or someone else and in this mix I suggest there is little room for us to be “aroused to a special activity or creativity”, there is little space for us to have creative thoughts, there is little space for us to inspire ourselves, to take risks and truly trust in ourselves.  When was the last time that you inspired you?

Thomas Edison’s words that “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration” reminds me that inspiration requires time and space to breathe and grow; it can’t be rushed or squeezed into the moments between the many demands on our time.  You are a creative, inspirational being and only you will know when you are inspired and inspiring.

I invite you to take some time out over the next week or two, connecting with your inspiration.   Allow yourself to be filled with your inspiration.  See what unfolds, listen to whatever is spoken and touched within you and whatever happens. . . Trust yourself.

If you would like some assistance in accessing your creativity and inspiration, you might want to try Mind Mapping!

Popularised over the last 40 years by Tony Buzan there are now many MapMapping tools that you can download or use online; try out MindMeister or View Your Mind (VYM) or MindGenius or Buble.us .   To get a taste of how versatile mind mapping can be visit Philippe Boukobza’s blog about Innovation, Visual Thinking and Mind Mapping; in this article he presents a mind map that was created in response to watching a very interesting video on creative thinking.

In our next #CoachingBox we will be exploring the next possible step.

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