January 2004 Contents


I. Feature Article: Fresh Starts for the New Year
II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
IV. Creative Links: Sites for visual artists
V. Newsletter and Info: Sharing this newsletter, subscribing, and unsubscribing
 
I. Feature Article: Fresh Starts for the New Year
Well, it’s the New Year and in place of resolutions, what coach does not urge their clients to set new goals? If you’re going to, the “smart” way is to use an acronym I’m borrowing*
SMART: S=specific; M=measurable; A=attainable; R=relevant; T=time-based.

You’ve probably heard similar guidelines before. They work. And the more public you make your commitments the better. Writing them down is better than keeping them in your head; having them on the fridge is better than only in a journal; telling a trusted friend or a coach is better than telling no one. You can’t have too much commitment.

If you’re not into action goals, I’d like to propose another way to use the energy of the New Year to support fresh starts. Rather than resolutions of things to STOP (deadly) or to DO (SMART), you could contemplate how you’d like to BE in 2004. These BEING states are the ones that affect every moment of your life no matter what you are doing or not doing.

It’s true, of course, that accomplishing our action goals also changes how we feel about ourselves and thus how we are BEING. But this short cut, straight to how you want to BE, can affect how you approach all your action goals. So, experiment with choosing a state to BE in and make it your guiding star as you enter the New Year.

    1. Sit comfortably with pen and paper handy where you won’t be interrupted for at least 10 minutes. Review the last year and notice a time when you felt particularly successful, happy, at peace, most like your true self. Re-feel how the best part of that experience was in your body: your gut, your muscles, your facial expressions. Note these down. Example: my excitement when I began coaching training…butterflies in stomach, grin on face.
    2. Put down pen and paper and re-enter into that feeling state as fully as you can. Be alert for any sound, word, image or gesture that comes with it. Example: New things bring a feeling and image of opening up.
    3. Take your paper and write down ideas for the best verbal phrase to describe that state of being. If your only label is “that feeling”, it’s fine, as long as you know what it feels like. Example: “Excitement of the new.”
    4. Settle on your focus phrase, and re-craft that into your New Year’s resolution of how you want to BE in 2004. Write that down and post it as broadly as you choose. Example: “Excited everyday by the possibilities of the new.”
*from money coach, Maria Nemeth (www.youandmoney.com)
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II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading

Freedman, Neil. Focusing: Selected Essays. 2000. Focusing is a technique originally designed for therapy but useful for taking stock of how you’re doing at any given time. Builds on the work of Eugene Gendlin (Focusing, 1982) who presents in detail how to unfold various states of being. Helpful for expanding the look/feel of art pieces where conveying feelings or atmospheres is important.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go  There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life. 1995. Beautifully written short essays to dip into for support in being “wherever you are.” Written for both moments of meditation and of life…e.g. “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf.”
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III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
Multi-tasking Doubts?
Various self-help and coaching books give advice on whether it’s better to focus fully on one task at a time or to swing with a multi-tasking rhythm. The problem, of course, is that the advisors don’t agree.

As part of his Nobel prizewinning work Daniel Kahneman has highlighted the differences between intuition and reasoning in a way that gives us some clue:
Intuition - fast, parallel, automatic, effortless, associative, slow-learning, and emotional.  
Reasoning - slow, serial, controlled, effortful, rule-governed, flexible, and neutral.

Although I am oversimplifying his complex work, the part about multi-tasking is pretty straight forward: “effortful processes (e.g. reasoning) tend to disrupt each other, whereas effortless processes (intuition) neither cause nor suffer much interference when combined with other tasks.”

So when you are running on intuition, multi-tasking can work well but if you’re doing those stepwise, effortful reasoning tasks, you might want to focus only on that. For me, balancing a checkbook covers both areas. The part where I check off items by matching them visually is pretty effortless and can be done intuitively while doing something else. Once I find out it doesn’t balance, though, I have to tune out other stuff to reason my way to the error and its correction. (from Kahneman, Daniel. A perspective on judgment and choice. American Psychologist, 2003, 58, 697-720)
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IV. Creative Links.
www.handsofalchemy.com. Learn about radical artist, Jerry Wennstrom, noted for “… his ability to be completely present.” Enjoy both his 3-D constructions and his take on being an artist as a sacred calling.

www.umassmed.edu/cfm. Kabat-Zinn teaches mindfulness meditation to reduce stress and medical symptoms. Books and tapes available for learning the practice, which is also helpful if “monkey mind” chatter distracts you from your creative work.
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V. Newsletter Info 
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 ©, 31December2003, 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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