"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. "
Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 - 1965)
It's very fortunate that I am exploring the concept of blitz - I need it! Indeed, such is the growing intensity of demands on my time that I suspect that this is part of my research. I am being forced to validate and discover the essence of the blitz concept and show how it can be applied in practice.
Before we go racing off again, it is worth reflecting on what it is all for - ultimately. Why do I want to accomplish all those tasks quicker, achieve all those goals, meet all those demands etc? Why do I want to climb the ladder of achievement faster? Well, I guess, it depends on whether the ladder is leaning against a worthwhile wall - that leads to something I will ultimately value. Why do we work? Well, let me recount an interesting dream I had a number of years ago.
In this dream, I was speaking to my grandfather. He said to me:
"Bobo, why do people work so hard?"
I said "Well, because they need to make money and ..."
"Why do they need to make money?"
"To have the things they need and also to have the things they want"
"In other words, to survive comfortably?"
"Well, yes, I guess you could say that"
"Until?..."
"I guess until the end of their lives"
Grandad smiled. " Ok, so let's summarise. Most people work hard, go through a fair amount of stress, miss out on the true joys of life etc, in order to survive comfortably until they die."
I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, some people love their work! Some people are able to live life fully (work and play, relationships etc)"
"Yes, but they are a small minority. The majority are surviving comfortably until they die. And the rat race is to see how comfortably you can survive until you die"
"So, in a sense, we are trying to solve the problem of being alive, by putting in tremendous energy to survive comfortably until the inevitable".
I was feeling pretty depressed at this point.
"Yes, and if that is truly the situation, you could avoid the whole problem by not being alive in the first place!"
"So, life has to be more than surviving comfortably until you die."
"Yes, your life must serve some purpose, must bring something lasting into the world. And you have to find what it is you can bring - we all have a gift"
This dream was a turning point in my life, and came to me during a period of great turmoil. It gets to the heart of the matter of living, as does the simple quote by Sir Winston Churchill. Surviving comfortably is an important wall to lean your ladder against, and the comforts can be great fun in themselves, but this will only take you so far - the wall is not high enough to reach the destination of deep fulfilment. Bringing your gift into the world is a wall that has no limit, and ultimately is what makes life truly worth living.
The key thing I have learnt is to find out what your gift is and bring that essence powerfully into WHATEVER you do. When you do that, you tap into something very special indeed - the piece of the jigsaw that links us all. And, in that place, you become present enough to experience it, to truly live...
"Behold those wretched souls who tiptoe through life, hoping to make it safely to death" - anon
Sunday 24 February 2008
Saturday 16 February 2008
Genius
Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.
Edgard Varese, US (French-born) composer (1883 - 1965)
A week of oscillation between laser-like focus in blitz mode to headless chicken distraction in snail mode. The great truth, demonstrated time and again, is that blitz mode does expand time and create new possibilities. The trick is to sustain it and attract it more often. This applies not just to work but to all aspects of life where accomplishment is the order of the day. It shall form the thrust of my research over the coming weeks. The other aspect of blitz mode is that it appears to connect us with our genius...
There is something about high speed mental activity that appears to ultimately release a higher level of performance. Speed readers experience an increased comprehension as they read faster. Blitz chess players achieve a greater understanding of the position than sometimes occurs in normal chess. That, in itself, is surprising, given that chess is a game of calculation and evaluating various sequences of moves and possibilities. So why should going faster make any difference? Why, more pertinently, could things possibly get better?
Well, let's return to the speed reading example. Part of the magic of speed reading is that you begin to engage the dormant parts of your brain, which are usually not engaged during normal reading. You have plenty of spare capacity to think about other things, or get distracted. When you are speed reading, there is no capacity for anything else. When you are driving really really fast, there is no capacity for putting in a new CD or even adjusting the climate control - your attention is totally on the road ahead. So that is one element - focus. However, I suspect that a deeper more powerful aspect is also at play...
Throughout your day, your body is performing millions of tasks seamlessly, keeping you alive and safe. All of this occurs without your conscious attention. You may also have noticed that after much practice at something you become able to do it "without thinking". Stephen Covey talked about four levels of performance - unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence. Unconscious competence is the highest level precisely because you are engaging a much more powerful computer - your unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is like a child with super powers. It needs direction from an adult, but can achieve far more than the adult is capable of. So the trick is to get your conscious mind to provide direction to the unconscious mind without taking over the tasks and limiting you to a normal performance. In reality, this happens naturally with practice as you go through the four levels of performance. It is particularly striking in blitz chess, where initially you lose and don't really know why. Then you get better and start to understand why you are losing, either on the board or on the clock. Then you start to win some games but you are having to put in a monstrous mental effort (calculation, evaluation etc) and you often may have seconds left on your clock. Finally, you begin to have games where it becomes effortless and the essence of the changing position is crystal-clear to you without really thinking about it - you just play the right moves and it is natural and flowing.
That is the state of mind that we aim to experience more consistently, the realm of genius that alas for most people, does not last very long. The beacon of hope is that we can train oursleves to operate in that mode, simply through practice. In the same way that playing lots of blitz chess games can get us into the blitz-mode of unconscious competence, we can expect that invoking blitz mode in other ways (e.g. I use a stopclock while I'm working and give myself no more than 10 minutes for a task) will help us attain this state - the mental superhighway, where time seems to expand as we go faster and more becomes possible...
Edgard Varese, US (French-born) composer (1883 - 1965)
A week of oscillation between laser-like focus in blitz mode to headless chicken distraction in snail mode. The great truth, demonstrated time and again, is that blitz mode does expand time and create new possibilities. The trick is to sustain it and attract it more often. This applies not just to work but to all aspects of life where accomplishment is the order of the day. It shall form the thrust of my research over the coming weeks. The other aspect of blitz mode is that it appears to connect us with our genius...
There is something about high speed mental activity that appears to ultimately release a higher level of performance. Speed readers experience an increased comprehension as they read faster. Blitz chess players achieve a greater understanding of the position than sometimes occurs in normal chess. That, in itself, is surprising, given that chess is a game of calculation and evaluating various sequences of moves and possibilities. So why should going faster make any difference? Why, more pertinently, could things possibly get better?
Well, let's return to the speed reading example. Part of the magic of speed reading is that you begin to engage the dormant parts of your brain, which are usually not engaged during normal reading. You have plenty of spare capacity to think about other things, or get distracted. When you are speed reading, there is no capacity for anything else. When you are driving really really fast, there is no capacity for putting in a new CD or even adjusting the climate control - your attention is totally on the road ahead. So that is one element - focus. However, I suspect that a deeper more powerful aspect is also at play...
Throughout your day, your body is performing millions of tasks seamlessly, keeping you alive and safe. All of this occurs without your conscious attention. You may also have noticed that after much practice at something you become able to do it "without thinking". Stephen Covey talked about four levels of performance - unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence. Unconscious competence is the highest level precisely because you are engaging a much more powerful computer - your unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is like a child with super powers. It needs direction from an adult, but can achieve far more than the adult is capable of. So the trick is to get your conscious mind to provide direction to the unconscious mind without taking over the tasks and limiting you to a normal performance. In reality, this happens naturally with practice as you go through the four levels of performance. It is particularly striking in blitz chess, where initially you lose and don't really know why. Then you get better and start to understand why you are losing, either on the board or on the clock. Then you start to win some games but you are having to put in a monstrous mental effort (calculation, evaluation etc) and you often may have seconds left on your clock. Finally, you begin to have games where it becomes effortless and the essence of the changing position is crystal-clear to you without really thinking about it - you just play the right moves and it is natural and flowing.
That is the state of mind that we aim to experience more consistently, the realm of genius that alas for most people, does not last very long. The beacon of hope is that we can train oursleves to operate in that mode, simply through practice. In the same way that playing lots of blitz chess games can get us into the blitz-mode of unconscious competence, we can expect that invoking blitz mode in other ways (e.g. I use a stopclock while I'm working and give myself no more than 10 minutes for a task) will help us attain this state - the mental superhighway, where time seems to expand as we go faster and more becomes possible...
Friday 8 February 2008
Friendship
"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends. "
Japanese Proverb
An interesting week with many new discoveries. It is said that stress occurs when the perceived demands exceed the perceived resources. The pace of demands does not let up, but there is much scope for increasing the resources that can be brought to bear. The basic resources are Time, Energy and Money, but to that I would add Knowledge, Attention and Relationships (TEMKAR). All of these can be nurtured to enrich your life materially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. In future postings, we will explore these in more detail.
Let's briefly focus on Relationships today, and specifically, the type of relationship called Friend. What is a friend and why do we have them? I will let the quotations at the end of this posting answer this, but the themes that emerge are around sharing and support as well as company. Keeping good company is a critical facet of your well-being and the Japanese proverb strikes a powerful chord. Take a good look at your friends and see what they reveal about you...
"Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. "
Elbert Hubbard, US author (1856 - 1915)
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. "
Dale Carnegie
"All people want is someone to listen. "
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, May 8, 2003Author of the Standing Room Only Weblog (http://blogs.salon.com/0001573/).
"Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances. "
Jay Leno, US comedian & television host (1950 - )
"In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. "
John Churton Collins
Japanese Proverb
An interesting week with many new discoveries. It is said that stress occurs when the perceived demands exceed the perceived resources. The pace of demands does not let up, but there is much scope for increasing the resources that can be brought to bear. The basic resources are Time, Energy and Money, but to that I would add Knowledge, Attention and Relationships (TEMKAR). All of these can be nurtured to enrich your life materially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. In future postings, we will explore these in more detail.
Let's briefly focus on Relationships today, and specifically, the type of relationship called Friend. What is a friend and why do we have them? I will let the quotations at the end of this posting answer this, but the themes that emerge are around sharing and support as well as company. Keeping good company is a critical facet of your well-being and the Japanese proverb strikes a powerful chord. Take a good look at your friends and see what they reveal about you...
"Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway. "
Elbert Hubbard, US author (1856 - 1915)
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. "
Dale Carnegie
"All people want is someone to listen. "
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, May 8, 2003Author of the Standing Room Only Weblog (http://blogs.salon.com/0001573/).
"Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances. "
Jay Leno, US comedian & television host (1950 - )
"In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. "
John Churton Collins
Sunday 3 February 2008
Freedom
"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. "
George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)
Another great week and a marvellous set of new lessons learnt. One concept that I have been developing is the idea of Blitz, derived from my experiences playing speed chess. Myself and my opponent (often thousands of miles away) each have five minutes to make all our moves in the game. Creativity and calculation are triggered at lightning speed and time seems to expand. Five minutes begins to feel like an hour. This same concept applied to work can lead to fairly spectacular results. Indeed, in those rare sessions when I have achieved Blitz mode while at work, I have felt a strange sense of peace - a sense of freedom.
This is how, in the face of overwhelming challenges and numerous tasks, one can still find space to move your life forward. The concept of space is related to the concept of freedom and the chess metaphor holds true here. If your position in chess is cramped, and you don't have much space, then you are not free. Space leads to freedom, and freedom tends to lead to creativity - in chess there are more possbilities for devastating combination in an open position.
More generally, freedom relates to much more than merely space and time. The quotation above relates to the inevitable consequence of freedom that many find less palatable - responsibility. We want to be treated as adults, free to make our life choices, but we also want to be cared for by the state or the company. We want to have the freedom of doing what we love, but we also want the security of regular income. It is only when we are truly ready to pick up the tab of responsibility that we can truly enjoy freedom.
Ultimately, freedom lies in the mind and the ability to choose your mental and emotional reaction (if not physical) to life's events. And, to this extent, one great freedom is the freedom of presence. The past and future, as useful in handling functional tasks as they may be, often shackle us in pyschological and emotional matters. Becoming present releases us from this mental prison and creates the space for our freedom...
"Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery. "
Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. "
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. "
Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855)
George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)
Another great week and a marvellous set of new lessons learnt. One concept that I have been developing is the idea of Blitz, derived from my experiences playing speed chess. Myself and my opponent (often thousands of miles away) each have five minutes to make all our moves in the game. Creativity and calculation are triggered at lightning speed and time seems to expand. Five minutes begins to feel like an hour. This same concept applied to work can lead to fairly spectacular results. Indeed, in those rare sessions when I have achieved Blitz mode while at work, I have felt a strange sense of peace - a sense of freedom.
This is how, in the face of overwhelming challenges and numerous tasks, one can still find space to move your life forward. The concept of space is related to the concept of freedom and the chess metaphor holds true here. If your position in chess is cramped, and you don't have much space, then you are not free. Space leads to freedom, and freedom tends to lead to creativity - in chess there are more possbilities for devastating combination in an open position.
More generally, freedom relates to much more than merely space and time. The quotation above relates to the inevitable consequence of freedom that many find less palatable - responsibility. We want to be treated as adults, free to make our life choices, but we also want to be cared for by the state or the company. We want to have the freedom of doing what we love, but we also want the security of regular income. It is only when we are truly ready to pick up the tab of responsibility that we can truly enjoy freedom.
Ultimately, freedom lies in the mind and the ability to choose your mental and emotional reaction (if not physical) to life's events. And, to this extent, one great freedom is the freedom of presence. The past and future, as useful in handling functional tasks as they may be, often shackle us in pyschological and emotional matters. Becoming present releases us from this mental prison and creates the space for our freedom...
"Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery. "
Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them. "
Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. "
Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813 - 1855)
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