New Broom

The chimney sweep made his long awaited visit this morning.

I’d made the appointment some weeks ago. Having the chimney swept in readiness for winter had been on my ‘list of things to do’ for a while – and, when I finally got round to it, I found he was much in demand.  He tells me that there’s at least a three month waiting list now – suddenly people have ‘woken up’ to the fact that the nights are drawing in, there’s a cold snap in the air and that before very long the supermarkets and shops will be endeavouring to create a sense of seasonal bonhomie as they serenade us to the sounds of Bing singing about ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire’. Except, of course, for those poor souls who (like me last year) delayed too long and couldn’t find a sweep who was available before Christmas – any chestnut roasting will have to happen elsewhere.

Because I didntl have my chimney swept last year I had very few fires- no more than a handful at most, last winter. And probably not much more than that in the previous year.  What struck me, however, was just how much stuff had accumulated in the chimney – all unbeknown to me. And I wondered whether Mr Sweep might have been offering a metaphor about the value of living in the now, of paying attention, and to what can happen if we take our eye off the ball and , the reassurance, if any is needed,  that it’s always possible to get back on track. The key, it seems to me, is taking action. Be (at) cause you can.

Remember your future

Today I have been assisting, as a coach, at a NLP Master Practitioner course. As always, I have felt very privileged to do this and share my learning with others. And I have been. Learning. that is.

One of the many great things today was experiencing the participants' creativity and skill in using metaphors with nested loops and enhancing this by some really masterful language. Lots of phrases jumped out at me, duly noted in my notebook for reflection on later. Two, will, however, suffice for now. They are

• ·         Remember your future and
• ·         It's a great life. I made it. (oh, I just love some of the artful vagueness/double entendre of this one)

I wonder what words have hit home with you today?

Clarity through ambiguity

Yesterday I was at meeting that was considering the impact of the proposed changes in the NHS for staff. It was suggested, rightly in my view, that one of the key tasks for the Board and other leaders/managers during these uncertain times was to provide 'clarity through ambiguity'. What was meant by this was that in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty, our role was to provide clarity and, to a greater or lesser degree, direction. No small task!

Enjoying, as I do, word play and language patterns I playfully considered how some government departments might truthfully adopt 'clarity through ambiguity' as their slogan - but with rather different meaning/intent to the one outlined above, i.e. as a true oxymoron.

And then I got to thinking about Milton Erikson (as an aside, am I the only Radio 4 listener in the UK who can't hear Erikson's first name without singing Milton Jones's theme tune?) and how with his 'artfully vague' language he helped (and those of us who have modelled some, at least, of our languaging on him, continue to help) people achieve clarity through ambiguity. Neat, huh?

Life Goals & Personal Development

I came across this article Life Goals & Personal Development   today and thought it provided food for thought (hmmm.. yesterday it was soul food, today it's food for thought - there's a theme emerging here!)

When did you last review your goals and the progress you're making towards them? You can do it before January 1st, you know !

Soul Food

I've recently returned from two weeks holiday in the English Lake District.

Whenever and wherever I go on holiday I am always reminded of how lucky I am. In all sorts of ways - being able to be able to go on holiday at all, having great holiday companions, living in a country that has such varied landscapes. And that's just for starters.

For me, one of the great joys of going on holiday, whether at home or abroad, is to walk. Preferably in the countryside. I love the way it helps reconnect me with my body, my natural environment and my sense of self. This holiday, on one of our walks, we stopped for lunch- perched on a craggy outcrop above a lake, and munch happily in silence drinking in the view. After a while my companion turned to me and said, 'this is soul food'. And I knew she wasn't talking about my lovingly crafted picnic (although that got rave reviews, too!)

And she was right, it WAS soul food. Just as the sun was topping up our vitamin D supplies, everything else was reaching deep down into other parts of us, blowing away mental cobwebs and restoring us - physically and emotionally to some kind of equilibrium. Pure magic.

As we treated ourselves to foot massages (a different type of sole food!) that night we pondered, not for the first time, why we didn't do this more often. 'This' in this case didn't necessarily mean taking two weeks off in The Lakes (though that would be nice...) but taking time just to 'be' and enjoy what's around us.

So now I'm back in the small seaside town in which I live I've promised myself that I will pay more attention to keeping my soul food supply topped up. Different people get their soul food in different ways. And it's not uncommon for us to neglect it. And, in the long (and sometimes not so long) run, that does no one any good.

So, where do you get your soul food? And what are you going to do to make sure you keep your supply topped up? And even if you don't know the answer yet, it's certainly food for thought.