In his own struggles he realized he’d been feeling the victim of time with too little of it and too much to do, or too much time, leading to boredom. Many of us can identify with either or both of these reactions. To shift out of the victim mentality he learned to focus on the present and fully occupy the space that he was in. The two training questions he used to make that shift are “Where in my life am I not taking full ownership?” and “What am I trying to disown?”

Although these ideas were intellectually challenging to me, they didn’t lead to any changes since their effect quickly faded once I finished reading and put the book down. What did bring Hendrickson’s idea down to earth for me was his practical advice to go on a diet, a time complaint diet, requiring “complete abstinence from complaining about time.”

I tell you, unlike most food plans, it didn’t take long on this “diet” to see results. I quickly caught on to a handful of ways I put myself in the victim position with time. Mixing up some of Hendrickson’s insights and my own, here are some examples:

“I don’t have time.” The urge to say this is usually “I don’t want to do that.”
“I’ll get to that later” is my code for I’ll hopefully forget it.
Complaints of lack of time to one person would be actually bids for pity.
Complaints of lack of time to another person would be bragging about how busy, useful, productive, or important I am.

In addition, the biggest benefit of this “diet” was when I found that not speaking my time complaints could actually flip me into realizing I had ample time. I could relax. My mood improved immediately. I was now present to do the one thing I was doing.

I guess you could call this the Zen of time management. Don’t manage it, create it. His advice about time complaints turns out to also be a very efficient way for me to change the balance of the positive and negative moments in daily life.
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II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
Zimbardo, Philip. The Time Paradox. 2008.
It’s not surprising that, as a creativity coach, I’m heavily into time perspectives. In fact, most coaches become expert in helping clients move back and forth between a long term view of the big vision and a short term ability to focus on the next step. This dance of the past, present, and future has been studied for 30 years by Zimbardo. He has developed a model of time perspectives that helps you see what kind of time culture you’ve constructed for yourself.

Overall, he’s found six different time ”zones”, two each for the past, present, and future. And in his research across many different cultures, he’s found that there are some optimal combinations that are correlated with life satisfaction and a positive mental outlook. For example, there’s a Past Positive and a Past Negative and, in this case, he’s ready to help you increase the positive and reduce the negative. When it comes to the two Present perspectives, he’s going to help you balance your pleasure in whatever is fun now (Present Hedonic) with avoiding risky impulses. Finally, his two Future perspectives are quite original, and what he calls the Transitive Future fits folks who believe in existence after physical death. His information on how these perspectives can pervade every aspect of our lives, how we engage with others, and how we make choices of what to do with the time we have are novel, engaging, and easily applied to how our time zones affect our creativity.

The book may not be one you want to read entirely, but you might enjoy (Present Hedonic!) taking his questionnaire and looking up his hints for maximizing the benefits of your particular perspective (www.thetimeparadox.com) (Click Take the ZTPI TEST at lower right). In addition, you can sit back and listen to a 75 minute talk by him at http://fora.tv/2008/11/12/Philip_Zimbardo_The_Time_Paradox
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III. Friends in the Media: When you feel like reading, listening, or surfing the web   
To Deepen Your Creative Soul. 2009. A 31-image slideshow. (www.slideshare.net; use Search box). Vickie Schroeder presents a flowing reminder of the heart of creativity with words, music, and gestures. Also check out this slideshare site for other presentations on creativity and options for creating your own multimedia work to share.
Vreeland, Susan. Luncheon of the Boating Party. 2007. This historical novel about Renoir can be a pleasure (Present Hedonic, again!) to all creative folks, not just painters. The author’s attention to the artist’s feel for his materials had my hands itching to make things. The detailed telling of the steps and difficulties of painting this plein air composition includes the real life logistics of gathering more than ten of his friends on fine French Sunday afternoons.
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IV. E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching (website www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, 30September2009, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
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