At the back end of last year I pondered listening to my own advice, and getting myself a coach. When I pondered this I hadn’t quite realised how much I needed it, so thanks subconscious. I wanted to do some reflections on my coaching so far, and what I’ve learned.
My focus for coaching is probably not particularly clear, i’m not one for grand ambitions or anything, but I wanted to explore my waves of energy and productivity. I’ve often found myself having periods of hyper productivity and periods of just, well not. I wasn’t looking to be hyper productive at all times, but I wanted to understand how and why these periods happen, and if I can predict or in some way control them.
What have I been working on
So to understand my waves, I needed some insight on the things that might influence my energy, my motivations. So I've started something which I’ve described as “Patterns”, where I plan and reflect to discover patterns. I ask questions to myself and try to answer them, and use these to help me understand. At one point the words “Rituals” and “Journaling” were mentioned. “Rituals” brings back unfond memories of Catholicism, and Journaling just gives me the slight icks and makes me think I’m going to start writing Linkedin posts which give you 6 things that will change your world and sell you….a journal.
Why patterns
Words are important to me, and i try to use them specifically and intentionally. I thought quite hard about using the word Patterns. Patterns are everywhere, drum patterns, data patterns, visual patterns and patterns in the natural world (like Fibonacci numbers and fractals). They help us to understand things, but they can also be beautiful.
Through this I have spotted some patterns, which I think get to the core of me.
Three simple things.
I need creativity, I need to create.
I crave inspiration and also like to inspire
I must take action, for things to happen.
And it’s the combination of all three that underpins all my energy and productivity. Inspiration without being able to create and take action just swamps me. Just action, without a creative process bores me.
Now, I can’t always be creating, or find inspiration, so what I need to understand is how often and how long the delay in these cycles can be for me to still maintain my energy. I’ve also come to realise that creativity needs to also happen outside of work, so I've taken up drumming and playing guitar regularly again, and i’m also doing things like trying to learn how to make cortado art. You can see from my picture i have a long way to go…honestly I mainly just drink espresso so give me a break yeah
I’ve begun exploring how to use the creativity>inspiration>action concept as a sort of retro for myself. And actually we at Data For Action are going to explore using it as a retro for our whole work as it seems to fit. We’re not here just for the status quo, but to make, create and shift things, so checking in with ourselves on this seems important.
Pebbles and boulders
One other thing i’ve been noticing with my Patterns is related to scale and focus. I’m constantly working on things both on an organisational level and also at a sectoral level, or at least trying to. But I sometimes get caught up in focusing too much on the really big challenges, and maybe miss out on the small steps. As I mentioned I need action. And so as a metaphor for this I’ve started describing things as Pebbles and Boulders.
Ah you mean you just need to break things down into smaller tasks….you need a task management planner Tom….
Well no, not really. I view pebbles as still individually important with their own characteristics and sometimes that’s enough.. But also sometimes, pebbles can start something bigger, and move boulders. It doesn’t need to be all or nothing. Same with work, focus on the pebbles, create, inspire, take action and go again.
