Thanks to Robyn I’ve found another new blogger – Lisa Gates, who’s talking about how we can join the dots.  Be creative.  Create:

Something from nothing. Something from something. Something for us to ponder and move into our day with.

All with a view to inventing "a new arabesque".  That’s right.  Another invitation to join the dance.

Meanwhile, Robyn has reminded us to acknowledge the origins of the Thinking Blogger meme.  I’ll add a thanks for kicking this off, it’s providing some great food for thought – and great opportunities to join the dots.

There are some stunning descriptions about the power and benefits of story-telling. Storytellers, she says “have as profound a purpose as any who are charged to guide and transform human lives”. She talks about stories as medicine – and of times when we need to “tell stories to one another as if our lives depended on it”.

But ‘The Art of Storytelling’ does not just describe the power of this art form. Nancy also shows you how to use it to start telling the most important story of all: your own…

The book is crammed full of storylines, prompts, questions, stories and creative activities that will set you off on the path of telling your own story, of bringing it to life.

She introduces us to many of the core features of traditional storytelling: the characters – fairies, angels, dragons, wizards; the settings – mountains, forests, swamps, castles, kitchens, the high seas; and recurring themes – even simple things like doors, locks and keys.

Each one comes with a number of questions that will set your imagination running. She shows us for example how doorways and thresholds might be just the right place to start telling your story:

How do you know it’s time to unlock the door? What lies behind the door? What does the door look like? What kind of key will fit it? Where will you find the key?

I found the book a great stimulus to my own imagination as well as an invaluable resource to help explain ‘why storytelling matters’. It’s no small purpose. As a storyteller, she says, “you are a co-creator with the thriving live of the universe.”

Enjoy reading the book, and creating your story.

In fact until recently I was saying it myself – that is until I discovered the secret to becoming a creative genius. Want to know more?

Here it is.

“The biggest difference between creative people and those who aren’t, is that creative people believe they’re creative and uncreative people believe they aren’t.” (Marshall Cook)

Amazing isn’t it?  So all you need do now is:

1. Believe that you are a creative genius

2. If that’s less than totally easy to begin with: act as if you were a creative genius.  (A great coaching technique – start to model the behaviour of the people you want to be like.  In this case ask yourself what a creative genius would hear, see, feel, wear, say, do… and then start trying some of the behaviours on for size)

3. Use your creativity muscles.  The more you practice using your creativity the more creative you’ll find you are.  And once you feel it, once you hear your own amazing answers, see your creativity in action… believing it will be easy

4. Still not convinced?  Here’s what worked for me.  Ask your unconscious mind to go inside, locate your creativity switch, and flick it ON.  You might be amazed at what happens next…

5. Step back and enjoy the results!

It also creates the chance for us to have more of a ‘conversation’ so if you’re new to the site: hello and welcome. I hope that the words and ideas that you find here will tell their own story……and that it’s a story you enjoy and want to keep on exploring.

I guess if there’s one small downside to the blog approach is that you can feel like you’re joining the conversation, you’re picking up the story, sometime after it began. I’m sure you’ll soon pick up the thread, but I thought it might be an idea to include a little blurb on what’s going on, what kind of stories to expect and who else you might find here.

So, what is coaching wizardry all about?

The site reflects a core aim of my business: to weave words together, to use language playfully in order to create a new sense of possibility. It’s an introduction to the services that I offer, of course, but I also wanted a space where we can create new possibilities together.

So it’s a place to come if you are interested in a different way of looking at, talking about and defining these things called coaching and NLP. It would be great to hear from other coaches and practitioners (and I’ve created a corner just for you) but also from students, clients and would-be clients and students. Would different words, images, language and stories make the world of coaching and NLP more appealing to you? Let me know!

It’s a place to share ideas with people who are interested in the way that words, and language, and stories can shape and influence our lives, and ways that we, as the authors, can take back control and
start to live, to tell, our own stories…

What you read here will reflect my coaching and writing styles: using language playfully, telling stories, being creative with words. I hope you enjoy reading the writing and the stories and if that is all you come for: that too is just perfect.

Finally it’s a place to feel: welcome. Especially if you are just at the start of your own story of wondering, of exploring, of starting to change, of taking a peek at the looking glass world and finding, like Alice, that you can just see the edge of the passage in the Looking-glass House, which is very like any other passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different when you move on beyond.

Whatever brings you here, I hope you enjoy reading some of the stories… and if any of it sounds like you… well you might just find yourself knowing what you need to do next…