I don’t know if you ever get stuck with some bits of work, or writing, or things that you want to start changing in your life? I know I do.
I’ve realised that sometimes it’s the language and the words that are getting in the way.
One really simple thing you can do when this happens is play around with the words: explore the definitions, try on a different meaning, use some alternative or neighbouring words. You’ll be amazed how many new possibilities start to open up just by changing the language that you use.
For example, when I was doing the research to develop this blog site I found that some of the language was really putting me off. ‘The website is a portal to the services that you offer’. How could I get excited about that? And then I tried experimenting with what those words might really mean…
Starting with the website – well that’s just a computer connected to the internet that maintains a series of pages on the World Wide Web… isn’t it? Or is it a part of the web, the web that is an interconnected system of things…or people…Or is the web something that we make by weaving things together…
And suddenly I found that I was back in a world that for me is altogether more intriguing – where humans weave words together, create meaning, make connections, tell stories…
Which made me look at the word portal in a totally different light. Because when you think about it a portal is just a doorway, providing a way in… or a way through… or a way out… and in the end portal is just a grand and imposing word for an entrance… and entrances can be entrancing… can’t they?