In This Issue: April 2006

• In the main article, No Going Back, I offer up three new insights about commitment, and spill the beans on Hernando Cortez.
• Don't take my word for it collects quotes on commitment from four organizational gurus – Block, Senge, Drucker and Bennis – while Kurt Vonnegut Jr. offers up his own unique perspective.
• Possibility Virus: Find out how to win a copy of Get Unstuck & Get Going by checking out my new blog.
• Got it going on: see what cool and funky places I'm speaking in the coming months – and drop on in if you happen to be near.

The Launch

My parents gave me a fabulous gift last week, a print from the Royal Geographic Society of the James Caird setting off from Elephant Island.

In this tiny boat six men, one of them Ernest Shackleton, set out on an ultimately successful attempt to rescue the crew of the Endurance, stranded on an uninhabited island after their ship was crushed in Antarctic pack ice.

Shackleton is sailing for South Georgia Island, 750 miles away and across the Drake Passage which has some of the roughest seas on Earth.

He'll sail using dead-reckoning – even though during the 17 day passage they saw the sun just four times. There was one chance of getting it right – if they missed the island, the prevailing winds and currents meant that there'd be no chance to turn back.

What's magic for me about this picture is that it's the moment of no turning back. It's the moment of complete commitment.

In this month's edition, we're looking at commitment: what it takes to take the plunge, and what happens if you don't.

Know anyone who wants to take the plunge? 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, blogs, websites, and message boards. Contact me at michael@boxofcrayons.biz for further details.

Michael Bungay Stanier
Principal, Box of Crayons

P.S. For my Ontario readers, I'm running a public workshop as part of Creativity Week on Thursday 18th at the Toronto's Ontario College of Art and Design.  I'd love you to come along – there are a bunch of brilliant workshops being run. Check it out.

Don't take my word for it

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans."
Peter Drucker

"It is our experience that, 90% of the time, what passes for commitment is compliance."
Peter Senge

"The antidote to self-interest is to connect and to find cause. To commit to something outside of ourselves. To be part of creating something we care about so we can endure the sacrifice, risk and adventure that commitment entails."
Peter Block

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has a genius, power and magic in it."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Intensity coupled with commitment is magnetic."
Warren Bennis

"I just want to leave a committed life behind."
Rev. Dr Martin Luther King

"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!"
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Get Unstuck & Get Going

A coaching program and tool used by everyone from coaches in the Czech Republic to Robert Bruce who's organizing a "Running of the Sheep" festival in East Ilsley.

David Allen, time-management guru and author of Getting Things Done, says "it's pretty cool" – so check out what the fuss is all about here.

No Going Back

Can you think of a time when you fully committed to something?

Went full out? Took a leap of faith? Went, "what the heck, why not?" Put your money down? Went past the place of no going back?

Did you feel your body react as you recalled that moment? Did you notice that you held your breath, that you shifted your body slightly as you reconnected?

Such is the power of commitment.

Here are three insights about taking the plunge, stepping up to the plate, and committing.

1. Commitment = fear

If you're struggling to commit to a bold task, then you're almost certainly struggling with fear. Fear of starting, fear of failure, possibly even fear of success.

It just comes with the territory.

What's needed is courage. Courage is possible once fear is acknowledged – and the decision is made to press on regardless.

Courage comes from knowing that the fear is there, but that the goal you're striving for is more important than that fear. Courage comes from breathing, and seeing fear shift into excitement.

What's possible here, as Aeschylus writes, is to "Overcome fear and behold wonder."

2. Commitment = movement

There's an old joke: five frogs sitting on a log. One of them decides to jump off. How many are left? Five – because deciding doesn't mean doing.

You'll know you are committed when you're on the move. It might be getting out of the house, it might be making the phone calls, it might be rehearsing that tough conversation.

But unless there's movement, there's no commitment.

So ask yourself this question: if people were watching you, how would they know that you were committed?

3. Commitment = persistence

An insistence on perfection (and for nothing but) can immediately deflate the balloon of commitment.

Whatever you are committing to, it is almost certain that you will stumble and quite possibly fail. And then you can decide whether that failure is permanent or temporary.

I had dinner the other night with David Allen, author of the international bestseller Getting Things Done, and he told me that it took a year to write the first draft of the book – and then he had to abandon it.

And he decided that this was a temporary failure, not a permanent one. And so he wrote the second draft.

Where have you given up? Was it too soon?

PS: The low down on "burning your boats"

You may have heard of "burning your boats" as a metaphor for commitment. Legend has it that Hernando Cortes, en route to dismantling the Aztec Empire, burnt his boats on arrival so that his rebellious crew had no option but to press on.

The truth is, he didn't burn his boats but ran them aground, and not as a way of getting his crew to commit to battling the Aztecs.

John H. Coatsworth, director of Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, puts it like this: "Cortes beached the ships to prevent anyone from heading back to Cuba to report to the Spanish nobilities that he was engaged in an utterly unauthorized and illegal expedition. He was running for cover."

SOMETHING TO PRACTICE

What's the big thing, the Great Work that you want to commit to?

Out of ten, how would you score your current commitment?

And now you've done that, realise that this is a trick question.  There is no "half way" on commitment.  You either are, or are not.  (It's either a ten or it's nothing).

So, imagine you're now fully committed – ten out of ten.

What wouldn't you do to make this a success? (This is a more powerful question than jumping to "what would you do?")

And now you've written that short list, what's left?

Pick one of those actions.

Make it one that excites you and also scares you.

Write it down.  Write down when you'll do it.

And now write down who you'll ask to support you, by creating accountability (you're going to set a date to report that you've done it/not done it).

And – bonus step – email me and let me know how it goes for you.

WANT TO LEARN MORE? HERE ARE SOME USEFUL RESOURCES

Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Caroline Alexander.  Shackleton's story is extraordinary, a miracle of leadership, endurance and luck. If nothing else, it will make you grateful for a diet that isn't just snow and seal. [ buy: US CA UK ]

The War of Art, Steven Pressfield.  Pressfield is screen writer, best known for The Legend of Bagger Vance. In this terrific resource for a writer or anyone struggling to commit he talks about Resistance – "the most toxic force on the planet" – and makes the distinction between the amateur (waiting for the muse to show up) and the professional (who commits to working through resistance).  Short and full of wisdom. [ buy: US ]

The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp. Tharp is an renowned choreographer, and this is a delightful book. Her piece on Buster Keaton's most famous stunt – the falling wall sequence from Steamboat Bill Jr – is a great read on commitment. [ buy: US CA UK ]

Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan. Particularly the chapter "Beyond the Brick" which describes how brands "punch through the brick" to get heard. [ buy: US CA UK ]

Comments? Feedback?
michael@boxofcrayons.biz

Win a copy of Get Unstuck & Get Going

My new blog, Possibility Virus, is up and running.

You can read regular postings on "get unstuck" insights, great resources, and cool brands.  Right now you can read (amongst other postings) what Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has in common with management guru Peter Block; why Hendrick's Gin reminds me of Edward Gorey; and my experiences while visiting Bahrain.

Anyone who links to the blog or makes a comment by April 30 will be in the running to win a copy of Get Unstuck & Get Going – we'll collect names and do a random drawing – so jump on in and have a peek.

Got it going on

In the coming months I'm speaking at public workshops in Toronto, Connecticut, New York, Portland and Prague, and holding my usual "international" teleforum. I'm also being interviewed by Milana Leshinsky, founder of ACCPOW. You can find the details here.

My next open Get Unstuck & Get Going teleforum is on Wednesday, April 19 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 April 28 with guest writers Tom "teach me teamwork" Heck and Hugh MacLeod on How to be Creative.

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, a self-coaching tool endorsed by leaders in the coaching and training professions, and creator of The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun, 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.

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©Box of Crayons 2006. Box of Crayons is a registered trading name of Maida CC Inc.

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