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November/December 2007 Newsletter: The future is orange
This
Confidence newsletter is sent each month to subscribers of
www.yourmostconfidentself.com from Kate Burton and Brinley Platts,
the authors of "Building
Confidence for Dummies" and creators of the Your Most Confident Self
website. The future is orange
Wonderful big orange marks are popping up on a sheet of paper above my desk. Tick, tick, tick, done, done, done; visible signs of progress. “More chapters will be with you tomorrow” promises our wonderfully patient development editor, Rachael. The paper I’m talking about is a mind mapped project plan for the NLP Workbook for Dummies, the book I’ve been editing this month together with my co-author, Romilla. The ticks come from a lovely juicy big orange magic marker pen and mean it is very nearly complete.
I tend to live slightly in the future – always looking for the next even more exciting project – so I’m not a natural ‘completer-finisher.’ It’s painful for me to go through the editor's questions and come up with detailed explanations. It dilutes the fun for me and turns my writing into ‘work’. However, today sitting squished up on the sofa in the sunshine, editing and watching the purple plumes of grasses swaying in the garden, was definitely better than an early commute to the city.
When I first learnt about NLP and
began playing with some of the techniques, I discovered that simple changes
enabled me to change the way I thought about the boring and difficult tasks.
Working in corporate marketing, I’d always struggled with taking a 2 dimensional
drawing and imagining what it would be like in 3 dimensions. When faced with
exhibition designs or flat plans for brochures, I couldn’t quite picture what
they’d be like when they were finished. Then I shifted my perspective a little.
I discovered that it all became easy if I did two things: Making these tiny changes seemed to get me involved in the game and the work became playful once more. I’ve since applied the same principle to many tough projects.
On 26th October we celebrated Bring YourSELF to Work Day, an annual day in which you have permission (if you need it) to bring more of your true self to work instead of leaving some of the better parts of yourself behind. When Brinley first came up with this campaign three years ago, he encouraged those of us working with him to consider how the way we experience our work could be even better than it is today. Daydreaming from a desk in a client’s office, I wrote: “I want more garden, beach and mountains in my working day.” Yet I didn’t know how it would happen.
This year, I’ve worked more from my garden and just a few weeks ago I ran a writing course in the Greek sunshine where we drank cappuccino by the beach with mountains in full view. I’m still putting out messages that I’d like work in a ski resort too.
When you’re really content with the work that you do, your energy flows and your confidence soars. Sometimes you’ll make major shifts in your career, at other times, it’s the mindset with which you approach the less exciting tasks that can switch your experience.
This month you may just like to play around with small details that make the difference. P.S. If you’re someone who finds Xmas shopping hard, let me recommend a new book from one of my favourite writers: Fiona Robyn called ‘A Year of Questions’ on Amazon and published by www.lulu.com. Or you may want to send some beautiful coloured pens to your nearest and dearest.
See the extra chapter "Ultimate Confidence: The Power To Get Any Result You Want" available exclusively through www.yourmostconfidentself.comBuilding Confidence for Dummies by Kate Burton and Brinley Platts Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Dummies by Romilla Ready and Kate Burton Privacy policy: We will never rent, trade or sell our email list to anyone. You will never get an unsolicited email from a third party as a result of joining our list. New readers are always welcome, please register at www.yourmostconfidentself.com © All text in this newsletter is copyright to Kate Burton and Brinley Platts at www.yourmostconfidentself.com. Feel free to pass it on to others and if you’d like to quote us in your own publications, all we ask is that you credit it to ourselves and give our website details.
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