Don't take my word for it

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."
Jonathan Swift, author

"In a dark time, the eye begins to see"
Theodore Roethke, poet

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Antoine De Saint-Exupery, author

"History is made at night. Character is what you are in the dark." 
Lord John Whorfin, cult movie character from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension

What don't you know?

• We can't see (and don't know) what makes up most of the universe
• We can't see most of life on our planet
• We can't trust much of what's in our mind
• We can't see much of what drives our behaviour

Feeling dizzy yet? Let me quickly take you through the four points above.

The universe. No matter how they cut the data, scientists can't figure out most of what makes up the universe. By some calculations, they're 99% short of the stuff they need to make sense of the universe we're in. The missing mass was first named by the Swiss Astronomer Fritz Zwicky as "dark matter" - a fabulously poetic name. The two main explanations of what makes up dark matter prove, if nothing else, that some scientists have a sense of humour. They're either WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, i.e. specks of invisible matter left over from the Big Bang) or MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects - i.e. black holes and very dim stars that don't reflect enough life for us to see them).

Life on our planet. In Bryson's book mentioned above, he also mentions that the vast majority of life - perhaps as high as 80% - is invisible. This became most apparent when, in 1976, microbiologist Carl Woese redrew the so called "tree of life" with twenty-three main domains. The entire visible world - plants, animals, and fungi - represents just three of the twenty-three branches. Most of the rest are microbes. As Bryson puts it, most of life is "small, unicellular and unfamiliar."

Dodgy memory. If you feel your memory is going on you, it may not just be a sign of increasing age. A good deal of what you remember may be false. In Diane Ackerman's Alchemy of the Mind, she quotes some fascinating studies done to show how unreliable memory is. Ulric Neisser of Cornell University tested memory by asking people for their memories the day after the space shuttle Challenger exploded. Three years later he surveyed them again, and about two-thirds were totally wrong about where they heard the news, when, with whom and so on. And more tellingly, they were totally confident that they could remember the details correctly. (Neisser also found that if you tell a story about an event, you're more likely to remember it. Narrative, one of the brain's key strategies, helps engrave memory).

Our shadow. The final realm of darkness is within - the Jungian shadow. This is a complex and fascinating area, and one to which I can do no justice in a single paragraph. But to attempt to sum it up, Jung argues that we all have parts of ourselves that are unclaimed, elements of who we are that for one reason or another we've decided to disown. One of Carl Jung's insights is that it is through embracing and incorporating our shadow that we become whole. As he said, "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious." There's a lot of good stuff written in this area, one of the most accessible being Debbie Ford's work (see below).

SOMETHING TO PRACTICE

Think of something that's challenging you right now, something you'd like to get unstuck on.

What are you not seeing?

If you step back from the situation, float above it at 30,000 feet, what do you notice? What do you now see that you couldn't see before? What are new factors? How do you sense this will end?

If you step up to it, pick up a single piece of it and study it closely, what do you notice? What do you now see that you couldn't before? What are the new factors? What are you most curious about?

What role are you playing in this? What part of yourself are you not acknowledging in this? The greedy, arrogant, scared, angry, controlling side? The weak, pathetic, confused, scared side? The compassionate, gentle, leader, inspirational side?

WANT TO LEARN MORE? HERE ARE SOME USEFUL RESOURCES

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything. This book is stunningly good. When you finish reading it, you realise just how miraculous it is that we, all living creatures, the earth, the universe exists. [buy: Canada  US  UK]

Diane Ackerman, An Alchemy of the Mind. Following on from her best-seller A Short History of the Senses, this poet takes on some of the mysteries of the mind. [buy: Canada  US  UK]

Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers. A tad "Californian" in its writing style, it nonetheless has some very powerful insights and exercises in looking at your shadow. [buy: Canada  US  UK]

Curious about dark matter? You can read more here.


Comments? Feedback?
Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz







Get Unstuck & Get Going™ Challenge

Here's the first ever Get Unstuck & Get Going™ challenge! It will be a monthly feature, and entrants are eligible to win a copy of the 8 Irresistible Principles of Fun card set.

Here's how it works.

1. Print out a copy of the Action Acceleration™ Sheet here.
   
   
2. Decide a challenge, something where you want to get unstuck. Fill out the first section of the Action Acceleration™ Sheet.
   
   
3. Use the three "flips" here to generate new ideas about what you might do, and feel at the appropriate sections on the Action Acceleration™ Sheet (this is just one of 125,000 different combinations that Get Unstuck & Get Going™ offers):
   
   

Inspiring stories	In the 1970s, Dr Fred Hollows halved curable blindness amongst Australian aboriginals. He then took his dream of eliminating blindness to Nepal, Eritrea and Vietnam. In 1991, he was named Eritrea's first honorary citizen. On his deathbed he said, "You disappoint yourself more often by not doing things because of cowardice and temerity than you ever did by doing things that turn out to be wrong." What are you not doing because you're being cowardly? What's the bravest thing to do?
Provocative quotes	"If you start to take Vienna, take Vienna." Napoleon Bonaparte, military leader What have you started? How can you finish it quickly?
Powerful models	Mike Abrashoff, former Commander of the USS Benfold, offers two pieces of advice: - If a rule doesn't make sense, break it. - If a rule does make sense, break it carefully For this challenge, which rules don't make sense? Which rules do make sense? How can you break them?




4. Complete the final sections of the Action Acceleration Sheet, describing what you're going to do, when you're going to do it by and how you'll hold yourself accountable.
   
   
5. Send me by email (Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz) your challenge, the action you're going to take with it, and the way you're going to hold yourself accountable. Subject line should read: Get Unstuck challenge. I'll randomly select the winning entrant, and send you a copy of The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun in its new card design (not available to the general public for another month).

Meantime, there's just one month left in the pre-publication special of Get Unstuck & Get Going™. If you're looking to snap this self-coaching tool up at a 10% discount, now's the time to do it. Check out www.GetUnstuckandGetGoing.com for details.

Curious as to what the Get Unstuck & Get Going™ system looks like? www.GetUnstuckandGetGoing.com now has a photo of the product.

Michael on the move

I'll be speaking at a number of upcoming conferences. Here are some dates to put in your calendar.

"Get Different or Get Dead!" Metro DC ICF chapter teleseminar, August 17, 8.00pm - 9.30pm (EST). I'll be sharing the workshop I ran at the European ICF conference on the 11 levers coaches (and any entrepreneurs) can use to differentiate their business. It's practical and creative, and you'll leave with at least one new idea for your own business. It's US$10 for ICF members, US$12 for non-ICF members (with all proceeds going to the chapter) and you'll also pay for any long-distance charges you incur. You can register here and be eligible to win a copy of Get Unstuck & Get Going™.

"Get Unstuck & Get Going™." Mind Camp! September 8-11, Cedar Glen Discovery Campus, north of Toronto. I'll be part of an eclectic crowd of scintillating and provocative presenters. This is a perfect place to get completely revved up on creativity. You can find out more and enrol at http://www.mindcamp.org.

"From Confusing to Irresistible." HR.com's "Employees of Excellence" conference. September 25-27, Tuscon, Arizona. I'll be speaking with my client and friend Chris Gillespie. We're going to tell the story of how PricewaterhouseCooper's recruitment brand was reinvented to great success, and share some of our secrets. If you do any work around driving change in your organization, this is a workshop that will be of benefit to you. Other great speakers at this conference include Jim Collins, Daniel Pink and David Whyte. You can find out more here.

"The Wow Factor: Creating Your Own Coaching Products for Greater Visibility, Impact and Profit", International Coach Federation conference, November 8-11, San Jose (to be confirmed). I'll be facilitating a hot-shot panel of experts who have a great deal of experience in creating real, honest-to-goodness products. If you're a coach looking to generate passive income, then this might be for you. Find out more here.

As you might be able to guess, I love to speak or run workshops for groups! Please get in touch if you think I might be able to serve you or your organization in this capacity.

This will make you laugh

I've been looking into viral marketing recently - you'll hear more about that in future episodes - and stumbled across www.boreme.com during my research. It claims to be "the best of your inbox" and has a long list of funny bits and pieces.

Here are some of my favourites:

• a deodorant ad from Holland
  
• a bacon ad:
  
• Gene Kelly dances through a VW ad

And finally, something that hasn't made it onto www.boreme.com yet but will soon: a brilliant beer ad from Australia (www.bigad.com.au).

Michael Bungay Stanier helps people, teams and organizations to get unstuck and get going on the stuff that matters. 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 subscr.be to Outside the Lines click here. If you have any trouble accessing this link send a blank email to subs@BoxofCrayons.biz.

Outside the Lines is distributed on the 2nd Thursday of every month. Your contact information is never traded, never rented, never sold.

©Box of Crayons 2004-2005. Box of Crayons is a registered trading name of Maida CC Inc.


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