Dancing as the adventure of being alive

“… and the invitation opens up another a new metaphor: of life as a dance. Dancing as the adventure of being alive. Which brings us back to the question: will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?”

From the post: Won’t you join the dance? An invitation

Ease up on your golf swing

“I could see from reading on that the metaphor of golf for life worked on lots of levels: you always learn something new; it can be difficult, challenging, fun and rewarding. But the bit I really loved was that advice to ease up on your golf swing…”

From the post: Golfing as a metaphor for life

The path we are travelling

“But looking too hard for the one, true path can create its own problems. You can find yourself fixed on finding ‘the’ answer rather than noticing and enjoying where you are. The path that is unfolding under your feet. The trail you have left behind.

And it can leave you focused on the path that other people have created, the ‘shoulds’ of other people’s expectations, or the trails that others have blazed, rather than the path that is distinctly yours. Focused on external pointers and signs, rather than trusting your instincts and intuition to find your way.”

From the post: looking for the right path

Lessons from the art of juggling

“I know, I know, it doesn’t take Einstein to read and apply the lessons from the art of juggling as a metaphor for life. In fact, I’m constantly amazed by the relevance of each learning point for other areas of life, of work, of learning where I’ve got temporarily stuck.

The trick is deciding you’re not going to stay there. Not stopping after the first juggulation. Moving on when you’re stuck. Resolving to keep throwing the balls.”

From the post: the art of juggling – keep throwing the balls

"It’s not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity.” (Francis Bacon Sr)

I like the idea of learning as digestion… and then practicing, rather than professing, what we have learned.  There’s always a celebration of learning over at Joyful Jubilant Learning and Rosa (the hostess) has been encouraging us to look back at what’s been learned during July.  Spices was her hook for the learning points and she rattled through them like a gourmet chef chopping up onions…!

Sticking with the spices (with a definite curry theme – must be feeling deprived after two weeks in the highlands) here’s a quick check through of what I’ve learned in July:

Pepper: there’s been so much to learn from the comments and conversations here this month, I’m wondering if thoughtful, generous comments are like black pepper, sprinkled over our food, bringing meals to life?  This month I’ve had some amazing comments and feedback: thank you all

Cardamom: sometimes we need to split things open to find out what’s inside… Learning lessons from the art of juggling this month taught me that to keep progressing, to keep learning, we need to go ‘backwards’ from our juggulation and start dropping the balls again…

Chillies: nothing like ‘em to bring you back to life, waking up your taste buds, maybe even tears to your eyes.  I had the luxury of live music every night when I was on holiday (courtesy of the Feis an Eilein festival on Skye) and it was just amazing, reminding me time after time of the power of music to get us jigging again

Ginger: great for the circulation… I’m wondering if learning isn’t the ginger of life.  Even a little bit here and there can make us feel invigorated, curious, intrigued, inspired…. I spent the last fortnight in the company of people brought together with a love of learning.  From 16 to 76 they were using their holidays to learn about a language, music, history, a sense of culture and heritage.  And didn’t they all look good on it!  As Robyn reminds us: learning really is good for the brain

Mint: After that explosion of tastes the soothing, refreshing mint that helps us to digest it all…  This month I came across a great question that helped me to feel calm, refreshed, that soothed me and allowed me to shed some old baggage, to make sense of it all, to aid the digestion… It was this great coaching question from Nick at Life 2.0, for which, once again, many thanks:

How does the truth of who we are wish to express itself now?

Words that will stay with me well into August – and beyond.

Thanks, Rosa, for the prompt to look back at the highlights of the month that’s coming to a close.  It’s a good preparation for whatever adventures lie ahead.   And thanks to all of you that have shared in my learning this month.

If you were to do the same exercise I wonder what learning has been adding spice to your life this month?

This was partly because external circumstances were squeezing out the time I had to practice juggling. But more than that I think I’d got to a plateau in my learning, stopping at the thrill of achieving the first three ball ‘juggulation’.  Except I wasn’t just resting on my laurels.  I couldn’t work out how to move beyond the first juggulation to the wonder of a continuous juggling flow.

Gelb and Buzan recognise this as a common problem.  Here’s their solution to the challenge of getting stuck at the end of the first juggulation.

"Having achieved your first juggulation, celebrate and be prepared to move on.  The secret is to keep the emphasis on throwing.  In order to progress, you must be willing to start dropping the balls again, raising yourself to a higher level of chaos."

So that’s what I’m doing now.  I realised that I was kind of attached to the progress I’d made in the three-ball juggulation and didn’t want to see the balls falling on the floor again.  I’ve got to let that go – or stop where I am.  I realised that in some way I’m stopping myself and I need to find a way to break, to disrupt, to interrupt that block with the repeated, continuing command to throw, throw, throw.

Believing that after a while the catching will take care of itself.

I know, I know, it doesn’t take Einstein to read and apply the lessons from the art of juggling as a metaphor for life.  In fact, I’m constantly amazed by the relevance of each learning point for other areas of life, of work, of learning where I’ve got temporarily stuck.

The trick is deciding you’re not going to stay there.  Not stopping after the first juggulation.  Moving on when you’re stuck.  Resolving to keep throwing the balls.

This approach has a number of advantages, not least your ability to move up and down the learning curve.  If you start dropping all the balls again or throwing the balls wildly around the room you just step back and practice the exercise that went before.  It stops you from seeing juggling as an ‘all or nothing’ thing, that you can either do, or not do.  It’s a set of exercises, a process, a rhythm, a dance, it’s something that can be practiced and learned.  Breaking it down in this way stops you from giving up, declaring that you were right all along to say you couldn’t juggle.  There’s always somewhere else to go to learn – back a step, or sideways, experimenting with a different technique, or working out what’s happened to your throw.

It’s also worth tuning into what you’re telling yourself.  The words in the book are all about fun and curiosity and that’s been transmitted into the learning experience – it seems funny, not embarassing or ridiculous when a throw goes wrong.  The focus is on how you can improve it, not how dumb you were to drop the balls.  Then there’s what you tell yourself as you juggle: the instructions are to throw not catch.  I’ve also experimented with different words for ‘throw’ (like ‘arc’, or ‘fly’, or ‘release’) and counting (in different languages!).  It’s all about finding what works for you, and what gets you into the learning state.

The other change in the self talk is the story I’m telling myself about juggling.  It’s no longer a choice of narratives: being a ‘can juggle’ person or a ‘can’t juggle’ person.  I’ve become a person who is learning to juggle.

Anyway, so far so good.  I’m buying their argument that there’s lessons to be learned from the art of juggling for the wider lessons of life – and having just achieved my first three ball ‘juggulation’ there’s no way I’m stopping the learning now…