‘And Another Thing’ by Eoin Colfer

From NLP to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. What could be a more beautiful transition?

I can’t actually remember if I’ve ever read ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. But I loved the TV series. Hated the film though. So Eoin Colfer’s follow up, for the 30th anniversary, was a ‘must read’ for me.

Did I like it? Yes. Is it a great book? I’m not sure. I think Colfer suffers from the fact that he is emulating someone else’s originality. However, he seems to do that pretty well. It did take me a while to get into the book, just because frankly, it is a bit strange. But once my brain adapted, I found the story an easy and enjoyable read. The characters came back to life and it all just seemed to make sense. You have to know Douglas Adams’ work though, otherwise you really will be freaked out.

Froody.

Frogs into Princes – Bandler and Grinder

It has taken me some time to get through this book. I’m not sure why as it is a really easy read. Probably my unconscious knows something it won’t let on….

So Richard Bandler and John Grinder are the founding fathers of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. This book is a transcript of a workshop they ran back in the 1970s. It is considered essential reading for those interested in NLP and so, having done an NLP Practitioner course last year, I duly obeyed.

The transcript format works really well. They do various demos and even though you can’t see what is happening, you can still understand what is going on. I wouldn’t say you need to read this book if you are interested in NLP but it certainly gives you an idea of what Bandler and Grinder were doing back in the 70s and how they dealt with skepticism.

To blog here or not to blog here – a new home

Well I’ve done it. This week I’ve got my new website/blog ready, ordered new business cards and updated profiles on places like Linked In. You can have a look at the site at www.growinginsights.co.uk.

I’ve been thinking about whether I need to have a personal blog as well as the work blog. Many of the observations I’ll be making could sit on either. But then I thought, actually there might be things that don’t fit with the work side of things – like talking about why I’ve chosen to read certain books. So I’ll keep this one going as well for the moment.

On the book front, I have nothing to report because I seem to have been catching up on weeks of Saturday newspaper sections. Nearly there though. Might need to avoid buying tomorrow’s copy….

Career decisions – books – knowing – and finally!

In a previous post I mentioned that I’ve been deliberating the next phase in my career. To help me in this process I’ve been reading two books ‘How to get a job you’ll love’ by John Lees and ‘ The Career Itch’ by Grace Owen. Lees’ book was recommended by a friend. And it really is a good book. It is packed full of creative exercises to explore career ideas and practical tips on the regular stuff like interview technique. Highly recommended.

I also chose to read Grace Owen’s book because we both do some work for the same consultancy and though I haven’t worked with her, I know she has a good reputation. She has self-published her book – the quality of the finished product is still high. I would say it is a much lighter read with more anecdotes than Lees’ book. I skimmed through it in a couple of hours. I’d recommend this as a starting point to get you thinking and Lees’ book as the one to really make you work on your career. With only £4 difference in cover price, Lees’ book is better value but it depends on what you’re after.

So, committing myself to the various creative exercises I came to my decision. Having gone round and round in circles I came to terms with the fact that what I want to do is freelance research and writing. I’ve known this for a long time but hid away from it for a variety of reasons (not least ‘But is that really a proper job?’). Everything else I looked at just seemed to be a smoke-screen. So, I have developed my action plan and I will be repositioning my business website. Now it is down to me to make this work. In the meantime I’ll still be doing a bit of training and today I just found out I’m going to be an Associate Tutor with the OU, which I’m really looking forward to.

An interesting experience in this process was thinking about the question my coach asked me last year ‘How do you make a decision?’ I realised, when I came to my career decision, that there is a big degree of intuition for me. When I really knew what I wanted to do, I had a strong sense of certainty, a solid and grounded feeling around my middle. I’ve had it before and I know that means I’ve decided. How I got to that is rather less clear but I suspect that somewhere in my subconscious there’s a lot of sifting of the output of my research and analysis. This isn’t always easy to explain to others who want to hear about logic – I just know.

A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland

When I was a teenager I hated silence. I’d have the radio on when doing my homework. Now, I, in the words of Depeche Mode ‘Enjoy the Silence’. And I’d like more of it. In fact, I’m finding in conversations with friends and colleagues others who long for more quiet in their lives. For me it is partly a desire for greater simplicity. Life is too complex, too fast, too cluttered now. And so much of what Sara Maitland writes about in this wonderful book reflects my own feelings.

Maitland has written a lot of books and I’ve read none of them. I came across this book when I was looking on the internet for books on the notions of silence. I’d been thinking about writing a book or an article on the subject myself. Except that what I would have wanted to write has been written, in A Book of Silence.

Essentially this is an account of Maitland’s own search for silence and solitude after years of being in the city and with a busy, noisy lifestyle. She interweaves her story with accounts from other seekers of solitude, such as hermits, and brings in religious, historical and social perspectives. She explores the different types of silence and solitude, cultural attitudes towards these experiences, and the challenge of finding space on your own in modern society.

At one point she talks about the way in which silent reading came about. That in the mists of time, reading and writing were social events. Once reading became a silent activity, this enabled independent thought. I’d challenge her comment that reading and writing are now private activities. They are for some to an extent. I’ve been intrigued by the growth of reading groups, for example. For me reading is private but the thoughts it engenders may be shared informally as part of day-to-day conversations (or in this instance, on a blog). But for others there is clearly a desire for some more formal vocal sharing of their reading, a social aspect to it.

I hope that more people read this book and use it as a way to reflect on their own engagement with the external world. I believe more and more that the almost constant requirement to act extrovertly and the ‘always on’ high stimulation culture we live in are contributing to mental health issues.

Reflect more, act slowly and do less. Only be warned, you may be seen as lazy, selfish or mad.

Who is the public in ‘public interest’?

This week I’ve been getting agitated about calls by the media for certain things to be revealed ‘in the public interest’. Actually, I get agitated about this most weeks!

Which ‘public’ are we talking about? Are the public all of one mind? Unlikely. Most of the time this phrase is used, I don’t feel a need to know about what it is the media tells me I want to know about. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Sadly these days, the more I watch the news the less I want to watch it. I can’t help having visions of laughing hyenas.

I’m mindful that I’m also lumping ‘the media’ together. So I’m just as guilty then.

Little owls – Career themes – Silence – Revolutionary Road.

You might be looking at this title and thinking what an intriguing combination of topics – or not. I’m not actually meant to be working at the PC as I’ve been osteopathed this afternoon and I’m meant to be treating myself with care. So I’m going to do a quick post whilst my brain is flying and then I’ll expand on the ideas another day.

I’ve just finished reading ‘A Book of Silence’ by Sara Maitland. So many times as I read this I thought ‘She’s describing how I feel’. Towards the end she talks about time for silence, amongst other things, being time to watch the sheep outside her cottage.

The sun was beaming this morning so I went for a short walk on the footpath near me. And I saw a Little Owl (I know this from checking in my bird book when I got back home). I stopped to look more closely at it sitting on a fence post, its head turned away from me. Unfortunately it must have heard me because it glanced round and flew off. Not only was the sun beaming, so was I.

I’m working my way through John Lees ‘How to find a job you love’. This afternoon I’ve been reviewing my ‘House of Knowledge’ and ‘Career Hot Buttons’. I like to think I already know myself pretty well – being the introspective sort -and indeed nothing new really came up. What it did do was emphasise even more my love of reading, observing, speculating and theorising. Oh yes, and that I don’t get to dance as much as I’d like.

Last night I watched ‘Revolutionary Road’. A beautiful and absorbing film. A young couple start out with high hopes and dreams. They find themselves in suburbia, 2 kids, him doing a job he doesn’t like. Then they decide to go live the dream but it doesn’t happen and ultimately their new enthusiasm for life turns to death and sorrow. The thought, you have one chance at life, do you take it or stay where you feel comfortable even if you don’t like it? The feeling, hopelessness. I cried.

On my walk I thought of an interesting title for a book or poem – Obsessions and deviations of the unfocused mind.

Time for a change…

For some months now I’ve been living with a sense of drifting in fog with blinkers on. I sort of know where I want to head but I can’t quite reach a definite level of clarity. I therefore end up casting about rather like a searchlight scanning the distance, hoping to illuminate something, enabling the searcher to go straight to the end point. Instead, I keep stumbling and grasping, with waves of hope, excitement and frustration rushing in.

Where to go next in my career?

That is the search. Not an uncommon one, I know several people who are in a similar state of bewilderment. I know I want to do something different, the challenge is working out what that looks like.

So, I thought I’d share what I know I enjoy doing and what I think I’m good at, and see if anyone has any creative ideas. I do have some thoughts of my own and am actively researching those. The conversations I’ve had with various people have been very helpful. I thought I might get some more ideas from here. I’m open to having a portfolio career (doing several different things) or focusing on one area.

Content of career
Things I am interested in and I know I am good at:

Learning, reading about new areas, hands on experiential trying things out

Sharing knowledge and ideas with interested individuals (in writing or spoken)

Categorising/organising information and inanimate objects

Context
The kind of environment/framework within which I’d like to work:

Allows lots of time to work on own, thinking, reflecting and creating

Results in a tangible worthwhile output

Steady pace

Under an hour’s commute/home-based/part-time (Freelance or employed)

Working with supportive and enthusiastic people

Access during the day to (possibly content involves) countryside, fresh air

Enough money to keep my husband happy so he doesn’t think I’m free-loading!

Strengths
Specific skills/behaviours I believe I can build on:

Conscientious – I deliver

Making connections between things/seeing patterns

Questioning – being critical/skeptical

Observing

Checking detail

Enthusiasm and self-motivation

Integrity

Willingness to have a go and muck in

Taking responsibility

Relationship building

I could list what I’m not so good at, but let’s focus on the good stuff for now!

So any ideas spring to mind?

I’d like to say I’ve had some really nice surprises during this foggy journey. One has been the reaction of my clients. I was worried that telling them I wanted to change career might mean they wanted nothing more to do with me. But as integrity is so important for me, I didn’t want to pretend that I will still definitely be available to do training in a year’s time. In fact, they’ve been really interested and encouraging, and they still contact me to see if I’d like to do some training work – which of course I’m still doing whilst I work things out.

Look forward to hearing the ideas.

(I’d like to thank Alison MacLeod for the inspiration for this post )

Tube humour

I’ve been rather quiet on here owing to a) being away running lots of training courses b) visiting family and c) getting ill as a result of mixing (a) and (b). Anyway, I am now getting back into the swing of real life, albeit whilst coughing like a heavy smoker.

My first proper venturing out of the house since last Tuesday was this Tuesday, owing to some client work in London. I spent the entire train journey feeling embarrassed because of my ‘bring out your dead’ continuous coughing. I dreaded getting on a packed tube, but was thankfully saved by some lovely sounding ‘Catarrh pastilles’ that I procured from a well-known chemist at St Pancras. Little miracles – although only for the first 15 that I consumed.

Having discovered, just to make my morning even better, that my normal tube route was in chaos, I chose to go on the Northern Line. Not my favourite. Always packed. But it turned out to be the highlight of my morning. The guard/attendant (don’t know what they call them) on the platform had a nice line in wit and a cheery disposition. This was added to by the train driver who seemed to have gone to the same stand-up comedy classes (is this some sort of London Underground development initiative??). When the doors were unable to close – no doubt due to some poor last minuter having their leg stuck in half out of the train – the train driver said,

“Come on ladies and gentleman, you all know the drill. Bags and botties in. If we can’t get it right on a Tuesday, there really is no hope!”

I looked around, a few little smiles, one or two giggles (including my own) but boy what a lot of stony faces. Now personally I’d rather have the humour but I realise that if you’re doing that commute every day (which I’m not), maybe such jokes wear thin.

Next time I’m on the tube, I’ll be hoping to hear more wit and banter. It makes life so much more bearable.

‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary Mantel

Finally, finally, finally finished reading this at the weekend. Took a concerted effort but determintation set in. I’ve been reading it since the second week of my holiday – so early December! It wasn’t that it was a boring or hard read, just long, and also, too heavy for me to cart around on the train.

Firstly, how did I come to read this book? Easy. It won the 2009 Man Booker Prize. Actually, I don’t normally pay any attention to what books have won what prize, as I like to adopt a more intuitive approach to my choice of reading. However, as I’m now putting more focus on reading fiction, and also looking to work within the publishing sphere (more on that another time), I thought it might be a good idea to start reading things that some people consider to be the best.

Am I glad to have read it? Yes. I can see why it won. This is an epic book and at the same time, an easy read (with a couple of caveats I’ll talk about in a moment).

What is it about? A fascinating fictional look at the politics and power relationships during a period of Henry VIII’s reign. Specifically, it focuses on his moves to annul his marriage and marry Anne Boleyn. But the book is written from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell. A lowely boy made good. Using his political intelligence he rises to be Henry’s right-hand man. Not averse to using bribery and manipulation, we like him because at the heart of it he loves his family.

I was genuinely caught up in the story. The characters really came alive and there was plenty of movement and dialogue to keep the pace going. I felt for Cromwell and was routing for him all the way through. Even when he wasn’t being a nice man!

And I also found it interesting learning about this period of history. Though this is where one of my niggling issues arose. When I did History at school the syllabus changed just before we got to Kings and Queens (I think we were still on prehistoric times!). So I came to this book with scant knowledge (no doubt much to my shame) of the period. Although the brief blurb on the back does give a feel for the main events, I still felt for a while as if I was floundering around amongst the cast of characters and with no sense of where we were heading. Not really the author’s responsibility but just an observation. Rather like when I went to see an opera sung in Italian and hadn’t found out about the story beforehand (maybe I thought there’d be subtitles…).

The only other issue I had was that from time to time I wasn’t clear who was being referred to in the text. I would have to re-read the page to try to get a sense of who ‘He’ was. However, the cast of characters at the start of the book did help me when I suffered occasional moments of confusion.

Minor things really. Still well worth reading, just make sure you’ve got the time for it!