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In This Issue: February 2006
Destruction & Creativity
 Last
month, Outside the Lines looked at deserts – both
real and metaphorical. Since then global warming – a
driving factor behind desertification – has been
much in the news. Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister, introduced
a report on climate change by the British Met Office stating, "it
is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases is causing
global warming at a rate that is unsustainable." Meanwhile,
in President Bush's State of the Union speech, commentators
noted that any reference to global warming was conspicuously
absent.
In this month's edition, we're
looking at two other forces
that are, paradoxically, sources
of both destruction and creativity:
fire and ice. At these extremes
of temperature survival is not
taken for granted. Here lies
danger and purification, life
and death. Are you using these
forces in your own life? Or
are you walking a safer route?
(Remember, when you combine
fire and ice you just get lukewarm
water...)
Know anyone for whom life is
somewhat lukewarm? Please forward
Outside
the Lines (in its entirety
please) to anyone you think
might be interested. This community
grows with your help.
I'd be delighted if you should
wish to reprint (for
free) any part of Outside
the Lines in your newsletters,
websites, and message boards.
Contact me at
michael@boxofcrayons.biz for further details.
Michael
Bungay Stanier
Principal, Box of
Crayons
P.S. For my Toronto readers,
I'm running public
Get Unstuck & Get
Going workshops in
partnership with The
Learning Annex on February
15 and March 14. You can learn
more here.
Don't take my word for it
"You do not really know your friends from your
enemies until the ice breaks."
Icelandic proverb
"Yesterday is wood; tomorrow ashes. Only today
does the fire burn brightly."
Inuit proverb
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra
and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night,
the ice weasels come."
Matt Groening
"What is to give light must endure burning."
Viktor Frankl
"It is not necessary to imagine the world ending
in fire or ice. There are two other possibilities: one is paper
work, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
The 12 most powerful 'get unstuck' questions in
the world...
and why they work so well
I've recently released The 12 most powerful 'get
unstuck' questions in the world ... and why they work so well, a free ebook for new subscribers
of Outside the Lines.
It does just what it says on the label.*
It's available to all readers of Outside the Lines here.
(You'll be asked for your primary email, first name and country – but
don't worry, this just confirms your subscription details. You won't be
receiving the newsletter twice).
*Actually that's not true. There's a bonus 13th question, which makes the
other twelve work twice as well.
Fire and Ice
Fire and ice are often portrayed as forces of destruction. And indeed,
they are.
But they are also, fundamentally, forces of life. Without fire and ice
life would not exist.
Ice is a physical anomaly. Unlike all other molecules, H20's solid form,
ice, is lighter than its liquid form, water (something that any of us who
enjoy a great gin and tonic appreciate with the clink of the ice-cube in
the glass). It's because as it approaches freezing point, water begins not
to shrink but to expand.
That's miraculous, and not only because it makes cocktails more pleasurable.
If ice didn't float on water, our oceans and seas would freeze from the
bottom up. Once frozen, they would probably stay frozen. Life would not
be able to exist as it does now under the ice. In fact, it is likely that
life would not have been able to start if ice didn't so perversely ignore
the basic rules of physics.
Fire is at the heart of our planet in its liquid form, magma. Slow and
powerful currents in the liquid core keep the 30 or so plates that make
up our planet's surface in constant motion. Sea floors spread as plates
move apart; mountain ranges build as plates crush together.
Without this motion and the consequent constant reshaping of the earth
surface, erosion would have worn down all Earth's features until it was
flat. And as Bill Bryson says in his endlessly fascinating book, A
Short History of Nearly Everything, "if Earth were perfectly smooth, it would
be covered everywhere with water to a depth of four kilometers. There might
be life in that lonesome ocean, but there certainly wouldn't be baseball."
Equally, if we didn't inevitably endure some shaping and scarring forces
in our own lives – the fire of failure, the ice of shame – our
lives would be both more smooth and more bland. Some of us tend
to veer away from extremes in our own life, others plunge headlong into
them. Either way, as William Blake wrote over 200 years ago, "the road
of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." It is in these places of
extreme we're tested and our character is created.
Picasso wrote, "every act of creation is first an act of destruction," – and
with that in mind, here are some ways you can use the forces of
fire and ice in your own life.
SOMETHING TO PRACTICE
Think of a place where you're feeling stuck. It might be at work or in
your life outside work.
Here are two ways of using fire metaphorically that may serve you
- As a form
of purification.
- What is it about you that needs to be burned
away? What can you let go of, that will lighten the load?
- As
a form of discovery
- Where are the shadows here, the places about
this challenge that you'd rather not look? What if you shone
the light in these shadowy places and looked at what was there?
Here are two ways of using ice metaphorically that might serve you.
- As
a form of slowing down.
- Ice occurs when water molecules stop
and lock into place. If you stopped being busy, how would that
serve you? What do you need to stop doing, so that you can start
giving this challenge the attention it needs?
- As a form of exclusion.
- Who do you need to "freeze out" that
might be getting in your way?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? HERE ARE SOME USEFUL RESOURCES
Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn. A highly influential book
about using the wisdom of your body and mind to face and manage
chronic pain and illness. [ buy: US CA UK ]
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. This is one of
my favourite books of all time. It not only makes science accessible
and even understandable, but it also makes you laugh and marvel
at the miracle of humanity existing. (We've had a lot of things
go our way to make it so). [ buy: US CA UK ]
The Revenge of Gaia, James Lovelock. Lovelock is a leading environmental
scientist who coined the term Gaia to describe Earth as a whole,
living system. This book is a pessimistic view of our collective
future: he says that we're moving inevitably towards a "hell of a climate".
He's also sparked controversy amongst environmental advocates by
endorsing nuclear power as the most sustainable form of energy.
[ buy: UK only
at present ]
Ring of Fire, sung by Johnny Cash. (And by me on a karaoke machine to see
in the New Year, although I think Johnny Cash has the edge). You
can read the lyrics here.
Comments? Feedback?
Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz
Free shipping ends February 28
Since we launched Get Unstuck & Get Going in September,
we've offered free shipping to our customers in over 40 countries
around the world.
Canada Post has just increased shipping prices, so now we need
to increase ours. This means free shipping will end on February
28th.
So if you've been hesitating on buying something from the
Get
Unstuck store, now's a great time to act.
The best value is the Get Unstuck & Get Going tool.
It's
a substantial tool – beautiful, practical... and packed
with nuggets of wisdom, powerful questions and a self-coaching
process. (Octavius Black, author of the UK's leading business
book The Mind Gym says "it can shake us out of mental autopilot
in seconds and bring benefits that last for ages.") Check
it out for yourself here.
There are other great products you can buy at the Get Unstuck
store – and if you buy before the end of the month, the shipping
is free.
Just try and shut me up!
In the coming months I'm speaking in person in Toronto, New York
and Prague, possibly in Bahrain, as
well being interviewed by Marcia Wieder,
America's Dream Coach,
and holding my usual "international" teleforum. You
can find out the details here.
Please note: the Get Unstuck & Get Going teleforum will
now take place every third Wednesday
of each month (to help avoid conflict with various national
holidays). This month's call will be on Wednesday 22 at 2pm
EST. Register by sending an email to
admin@boxofcrayons.biz
As you might be able to guess, I love to speak or run workshops
for groups! Read more about the keynote
and workshop topics I offer in this
PDF.
'The Scribbler'
Look for the next edition in your Inbox on Thursday, February
23rd with guest writers
Jen "The Comfort Queen" Louden
and David Creelman, former
Head of Knowledge for HR.com.
Michael Bungay Stanier helps people, teams and organizations to get unstuck and
get going on the stuff that matters. He is the author of Get Unstuck & Get
Going ...on the stuff that matters (www.GetUnstuckAndGetGoing.com),
a self-coaching tool endorsed by leaders in the coaching and training professions,
and creator of The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun (www.EightPrinciples.com),
a movie that's taken the internet by storm. He is the 2006 Canadian Coach of
the Year. You can find out more at www.boxofcrayons.biz or
you can contact him directly at Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz or
+1 (416) 532-1322.
To subscribe to Outside the Lines & The
Scribbler click
here. If you have any trouble accessing
the form, send a blank email here or
to subs@BoxofCrayons.biz.
Outside the Lines is distributed on the
2nd Thursday of every month. The
Scribbler is distributed on the 4th Thursday of every
month. Your contact information is never
traded, never rented, never sold.
©Box of Crayons 2006. Box of
Crayons is a registered trading name of
Maida CC Inc.
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