Closing Escapes

As you are working towards putting pieces of your dream together, embracing different strategies can speed up that process, like stepping on the gas pedal in a car. But there are other things that work in the opposite way, like putting on the brakes. You can even have one foot on the gas pedal and the other on the brake at the same time and wonder why you not going anywhere. If that is happening to you then you probably need to close some escapes.  

Escapes are the enemies of dreams...

So what are escapes? They are things that we turn to under pressure that undermine what we are trying to accomplish. Escapes can be ways of thinking or habits. They can be things we say to ourselves or others. Rather than bringing refreshing or inspiration, escapes actually steal from us, leaving us with less resources to work towards the things that matter, especially our dreams. 

How do we recognize our escapes? One way is to look at what we habitually turn to when things are not going well. Have you ever told yourself that you cannot do this anymore? What do you turn to after that, even temporarily, is probably an escape.  

Working towards your dream will bring out the best and worst in you. It is difficult when you realize how you have been escaping but it is actually a blessing if you will learn to recognize it as such because then you can close the door to that escape and what it is stealing from you.

You can try to close escapes by willpower but they have a way of springing open again. Escapes are rooted in lies that we have embraced. So when we try to deal with an escape without getting at the root of it, we are just fighting against ourselves. The only way I have found to successfully close my escapes is to expose the lies and embrace my higher purpose.  

We tend to picture ourselves walking into our dreams. But I am starting to think that the opposite is also true - that our dreams need to find a place in us where they will not just leak out again...

Creative Places

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There is something about being in the right place at the right time - and the breakthroughs that often happen there. To some, this statement is all about chance. Others know that it is a lot about how you position yourself.  

One strategy to position yourself for breakthrough while putting the pieces of your dream together is creative places. It is really easy to act on this strategy. It simply involves spending time in a place that you enjoy... a place that encourages you to get out of routine and think differently. 

It should be no surprise that what we see and hear and think is influenced by our routine. One of the primary functions of our mind is to block unnecessary information so we can pay attention to what is important at the time. When we are in our routine, our mind and perceptions have a well rehearsed part to play, and we often play it automatically. 

When we choose to go to a creative place, a few things can happen that make breakthroughs more likely. Our minds may wander, which is the state that most breakthrough ideas happen in. We may get in back in touch with our higher purpose which is a good foundation for making difficult or complex decisions. Or the rich environment may facilitate association - where previously unrelated ideas unexpectedly combine to produce something unique and inspired. 

Creative places, not surprisingly, are different for different people. If you are not sure what your creative places are, read on and then start exploring. 

Here are my top three creative places:

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, Canada. The collection of natural and cultural artifacts stretching back through history for me forms a rich environment for association and an expectation that anything is possible. The ROM also has an incredible mosaic ceiling that adds to the experience. Photo credit: www.daniel-libeskind.com.

The Aurora Public Library. For some reason, sitting in the atrium of my local library, in a comfy chair, surrounded by books and the pursuit of learning, draws me back time and time again to higher purpose. The idea for this blog, and other ideas that I still have to act on, emerged in that setting a couple of years ago. 

Coffee shops. My current favourite one is The Second Cup sitting in a comfy chair by the fire, but just about any quirky place will do. For me, this is a creative place that needs at least one other person, preferably my wife, or a close friend. I always expect unexpected solutions to emerge. Even if they don't, I still expect it the next time and my heart leaps whenever I make plans to meet someone for coffee.  

Why not make a date with yourself to visit a creative place in the next couple of weeks or so and see what happens. I would love to hear where you visited and what  you learned...

Centrepiece of ceiling mosaic at the ROM.  Photo credit: www.rom.on.ca

Visual Strategy

Words can be powerful but there are times when they are not enough to move forward into your dream. There have been times when I have been stuck trying to figure out the next step and throwing words at it was just like spinning my wheels. At times like this, looking at things differently can make a real difference. Visual strategy is one key way of doing this.

An ancient story tells of a teacher that was set up to fail by the lawyers and politicians of his day. After posing their question to him, the teacher didn't reply at first but instead scratched something on the ground with a stick. After a pause, the teacher gave a simple answer and his opponents walked away without a word in reply. Unfortunately the story does not record what was on the ground, but whatever the visual image was, it was part of the dramatic resolution of a 'no win' situation. 

So what is visual strategy? It is the use of objects, images or symbols to bring insight or understanding to a question. Visual strategy can also include arranging or clustering words and ideas inside of a framework.  

There is a lot to visual strategy, and this week's blog is only intended as a short introduction. If you can't wait to learn more, one book on visual strategy that I would recommend is Visual Meetings by David Sibbett.  

Here are three potential uses of visual strategy to start you off...

For those of you who put their crayons or markers away years ago, how about picking up a pencil or loading an app on your mobile device and start putting your ideas down visually. Here is a drawing I did within the last year when I was developing my personal vision.

Try communicating without any words at all. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Why not put a slideshow together or create a collage of images to communicate a fresh perspective when you are stuck.  

How about comparing your experience over time with others. After posting growth curves on last week's blog, I received a growth curve from one reader showing another way that growth had worked for them (see figure on left). They described it like this "When we put effort into making a change we often see rapid results and then a levelling off before we see any future change... When faced with this scenario, we frequently stop the behaviour and over time we may in fact return to our starting point." The comparison of growth curves in this case opened insight into how different people experience growth and what the common elements might be.  

Understanding Patterns: Growth

One of the things that fascinates me is patterns. I think it comes from my training as a biologist. When looking at complex systems, it is easy to get lost in details that have no real meaning. Understanding patterns helps to make sense of complexity, and pay attention to what is important.  There are a number of patterns that are good to recognize as you walk into your dream. The pattern that I want to look at today is growth.

Figure 1

Many people think that growth looks like the straight line in Figure 1.  They believe that results will increase as soon as they put effort (time, energy, resources) into their dream.

Figure 2

In fact, growth is more like the drawn out 'S' in Figure 2.  You may notice some things that are different in this curve.  First, results do not appear to increase much  in response to effort at first (A). Second, over time and with consistent effort, the rate of results begins to increase until there is a rapid growth (B). Finally, there is a levelling off (C) where additional effort does not produce much more results.

There is a lot to talk about here, but I want to focus on two things at the beginning of the growth curve. If your idea of growth is a straight line like Figure 1, you will tend to make two mistakes:

1) You will invest too much too early

2) You will give up too soon

By changing your idea of how growth actually works (Figure 2) you can avoid these two mistakes.  Instead you will learn to invest with steady effort at first and avoid committing unnecessary resources that you will need later on when the results start to increase.  

And even more importantly, you will expect that there will be a delay to the effort you put in. You will anticipate and plan for the period of slow steady growth that is a healthy foundation for the impact that your dream will have.