Project One
Practical self-management reflection. Thoughts provoked by four videos and two texts.
In The Art of Possibility, an excerpt from the 2009 World Economic Forum, Benjamin Zander talks about possibility and the choice we each have to take advantage of it. I mostly live in the ‘glorious opportunity’ camp, where possibility is the norm. However, it is becoming easier and easier to slip into the downward spiral of ‘situation hopeless’. I find the momentum and motivation I get from a great meeting, inspiring conversation, or exciting new project is leached away far too quickly these days by the monotony of my daily job.
Carol Dweck discusses the ‘growth mindset’ in her TedTalk, The power of believing that you can improve. Similar to Zander’s ‘glorious opportunity’ versus ‘situation hopeless’, Dweck compares the two problem solving attitudes, ‘can’t do it’ and ‘not yet’. This made me think of my experience as a GirlGuiding leader and the huge difference between some girls when faced with a new challenge. It’s scary that at such a young age some are already convinced there’s no point in trying because they’ll fail.
Brené Brown’s Listening to Shame really resonated with me, but with the work I do with GirlGuiding around our self-esteem and equality programmes rather than my job. It resonated on a personal level as well as I am painfully aware that I am so often waiting until I am “bulletproof and perfect” before I jump, which means I am forever waiting.
Amanda Palmer shares her experiences of asking for help in her TedTalk, The Art of Asking. This made me question if I should be asking for help more, and if I could. Asking for help is putting yourself in a vulnerable situation, and as we’ve seen from Brown, being vulnerable is hard.
Hugh MacLeod’s manifesto, How to be Creative, reminded me of something I’ve been thinking for a while, that I don’t feel creative anymore. Creativity used to be one of those words, when asked at the end of a conference or training what values you contributed, I’d always use. I can’t say that anymore. A major reason for this, I believe, is the isolation I feel in my job and that I’ve found myself in a position that doesn’t really fit.
The final text, How to Master on the Art of Getting Noticed, is a review by Maria Popova of Austin Kleon’s book, Show Your Work. Kleon talks about sharing work, and made me thing that it’s something we need to do in our workspace more often. We work in a creative hub, full of creative people, but I have no idea what most people are doing. This is partly due to our busy workloads and the divide between our two floors of offices, and of course it is largely due to the fact that I don’t talk with my colleagues enough, but we also don’t really have a space for sharing.
