The Scribbler - Michael Bungay Stanier

What's this about?

For many of you, this is the first thing you've

received from me since seeing the Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun movie (www.eightprinciples.com). Welcome! And thanks for coming along for the ride.

The Scribbler is the first of two ezines I produce each month. It has a zippy little piece from me and two hand-selected articles from writers and thinkers I admire. The articles have a common theme in that they offer insights and tools to help you live a better life. I'll give you the first few paragraphs of each article and the link if you'd like to read more.

This month, my two writers are Molly Gordon and Kevin Eikenberry.

Molly leads Authentic Promotion. She's a very cool woman and a masterful coach. She writes in a funny, thoughtful and personable way about creating an authentic life

Kevin's job title is Chief Potential Officer, which I think says it all. Our connection has been around "potential" and the question behind it: "what's possible?"

In two week's time, you'll receive Outside the Lines. This is a splash of creativity and wisdom, with a longer article from me mixed in with a bunch of quotations and additional resources to help you explore its themes further.

Michael Bungay Stanier
Principal, Box of Crayons

About ten years ago, my travels took me to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, the body of water that sprawls between Bolivia and Peru and the spiritual birthplace of the Inca civilization.

I was traveling alone, and because it was the off-season (i.e. no other tourists) and because I spoke almost no Spanish other than three essential words - "cafe solo" (black coffee), "cerveza" (beer), and "bano" (bathroom) - I was also traveling lonely.

In some ways that was fine. Being lonely some of the time isn't so bad. It opens up space and time to think about who you are and what you're doing. It's also a way of rehearsing doing 'Great Work'. Arno Penzias, the former Chief Scientist of Bell Laboratories wrote, "If you're a truly creative person, you know that feeling insecure and lonely is par for the course. You can't have it both ways: You can't be creative, and conform too. You have to recognize that what makes you different also makes you creative." (You can read more about Great Work here.)

But being lonely all the time isn't so great - and I knew that when I'd started to write terrible, self-indulgent poetry, I needed to find people with whom to connect.

By good luck, I'd arrived at Copacabana, a village on the edge of the lake. And it was an important day. Bolivia was playing Ecuador in the soccer match that would determine who would qualify for the World Cup. In the whole of the village, there was just one tiny television and at kick-off the entire village's population - including me - was gathered around it.

The match was drawn, Bolivia qualified, and Copacabana went crazy. Horns honking, guns firing, people dancing, fireworks going off, dogs howling, chickens going crazy. On the television, we could see the streets of the capital, La Paz, were jammed with people dancing the night away. It was impossible to be lonely in the middle of this party. You didn't have to speak Spanish or be Bolivian to feel part of this happy crowd.

The release of The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun (www.eightprinciples.com)

has been a little like that soccer match. I feel as if I've joined a global village - it's been mesmerizing watching folk from places like Iran, Switzerland, Malaysia and even Bouvet Island sign up.

Thanks for showing up to watch the game. And I hope we get to dance a little in the streets. (And please, pass along www.eightprinciples.com to anyone you think might enjoy it).

Personally, I hate it. And nothing irritates me more than a happy-talking, self-appointed New Age pundit who's getting rich telling me that everything is perfect and failure doesn't hurt.

Bull. Failure hurts. I ought to know. I've failed at business, love, and living up to my own ethics. I've failed as a sister, a daughter, a wife, and a coach. And not all of these failures are in the distant past. There are some doozies from times more recent than I care to mention.

Still, I do claim there are gifts in failure. In fact, I'm pretty passionate about this because I figure that anything that hurts as much as failure darn well better have an up-side.

"Have yourself an awful Christmas" by Kevin Eikenberry

I have always found it interesting to observe behaviors and listen to conversations about the Christmas season. If you listen to shoppers they'll talk about long lines and out of stock items. They'll talk about rude clerks and over-priced merchandise. They'll talk about getting things shipped on time, finding the gift for Uncle I-Never-Know-What-To-Get-Him, stale fruitcakes, and nasty weather. They'll anguish over whether the decorations on their house look ok.
...
You've heard the tirades, the stories of woe. You may have even had them or told them yourself. Somewhere in that conversation you described someone or something as "awful". Others in the conversation shook their heads in agreement.
...
About a week ago, I wrote down the phrase "awful vs. awe-filled" on a piece of paper and began ruminating on that as my thesis for an essay. I was going to talk about how a couple of additional letters could change a word - and our perspective a great deal.

What's going on?

The WOW Factor: Creating Your Own Coaching Products for Greater Visibility, Impact and Profit, International Coach Federation conference, November 9-12, San Jose. I had a great deal of fun working with a hotshot panel of experts - Andrea J Lee, Marcy Nelson-Garrison and Donna Coroa. If you'd like the handouts from the presentation, drop me an email at admin@boxofcrayons.biz and I'll send them your way.

Coachville Cafe. Wednesday November 30, 11am EST. I'll be talking with Kim George, the VP of Connectivity for Coachville about getting unstuck, writing books and a bunch more. You can sign up here.

Get Unstuck & Get Going fr^e teleforum. Monday December 19, 2pm EST. A regular forum I host for this community, to support you in getting unstuck. Register by sending an email to admin@BoxOfCrayons.biz.

Get Unstuck & Get Going fr^ee teleforum, ICF Virtual Chapter. Monday January 9, 7pm EST. Register by sending an email to admin@BoxOfCrayons.biz with ICF Virtual in the subject line.

Branding & Business Models for coaches. London, England, Saturday January 21. I've paired these two three-hour workshops together for an event sponsored by the London Coaching Group. For more details and how to register go to http://www.londoncoachinggroup.co.uk/events

Get Unstuck & Get Going public workshop. London, England. Sunday, January 22. Place and cost to be confirmed. Please email me if you might be interested at Michael@BoxOfCrayons.biz

As you might be able to guess, I love to speak or run workshops for groups! Please get in touch if you think I may be able to serve you or your organization as a professional keynote speaker.

Get Unstuck & Get Going ... on the stuff that matters. The self-coaching tool that helps you get yourself unstuck. "Stuck" is when you can see the situation only one way - and you don't like what you see. Get Unstuck & Get Going lets you generate over 125,000 new possibilities to get you moving again (and includes a ten part e-course, to make sure you get the most from it). Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, calls it "a powerful call to get going on the work that matters." And David Taylor, author of The Naked Leader, calls it "refreshing, powerful and original." See what the fuss is about here.

To ensure delivery before December 25, here are your need-to-order-by dates:
- International: November 28
- United States: December 9
- Canada: December 15

To subscribe to Outside the Lines & The Scribbler 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. The Scribbler is distributed on the 4th 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.

*Outside the Lines/The Scribbler is Read in at least 67 countries:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bouvet Island, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela, Yemen
Did I miss your country? Let me know!

The Scribbler

An
Outside the Lines
publication

Smart thoughts and useful tools from big brains to help you get unstuck & get going on the stuff that matters. For coaches, trainers and managers, and anyone who occasionally gets stuck.

Read in at least 67 countries*

The Scribbler An Outside the Lines publication

Smart thoughts and useful tools from big brains to help you get unstuck & get going on the stuff that matters. For coaches, trainers and managers, and anyone who occasionally gets stuck. Read in at least 67 countries*

The Scribbler

An
Outside the Lines
publication

Smart thoughts and useful tools from big brains to help you get unstuck & get going on the stuff that matters. For coaches, trainers and managers, and anyone who occasionally gets stuck.

Read in at least 67 countries*