Day 1 was filled with temptation. The textbooks, the incoming letters from friends I haven’t heard from in years, the blog posts … all tempting to read. I did not give in.
Day 2, yesterday, was a day of distraction.Was there an episode of Community that I could kill some time with? What about perusing pinterest for some visual stimulation?How much time could I spend watching videos on YouTube? (When I found myself watching babies laughing and beagles, I knew it was time to stop.) My procrastination had turned from text to images.
Day 3, today, is the day of creative action. I started off my day with a meeting with the Department of Management, Politics, and Philosophy about their research in self-management. This is the department at CBS that asks questions like “What is money?” and “How do we use co-creation in today’s society?” and hires (read: pays) PhD candidates to do research in authenticity and vulnerability in the business world. It was 10 am and my mind was blown.
My day continued with the download of Danielle’s Big Beautiful Book Plan. It was time to answer the call and realize that this blog may have been the beginning of something bigger … stay tuned.
And now, I am moments away from taking on another artist task for the week: create a vacation and make plans to do it. Well – “all talk, no action” and I don’t go well together. When a plan is created, I commit to making it happen. So I am flying off to Basel, Switzerland with the European Yogi Nomads to enjoy 4 classes this weekend with some great people from across Europe. One of the classes is being taught by Nanna (my friend/teacher here in Copenhagen) and Chris Chavez – together!
Worlds are about to collide in Basel and it will be beautiful.
Yes, at 7 am, my bookshelf of textbooks and inspiring texts seemed more appealing to me than eating breakfast. I wanted to read because I knew I wasn’t supposed to.
I’ve experienced that before…
Someone tells me I can’t do something.
Out comes the “oh ya, watch me” response.
Someone tells me I’m not allowed to be somewhere/do something.
Out comes the “I think I could find a way” rebelliousness.
Someone tells me it’s going to be hard and horrible.
Out comes the “not for me, thanks” thoughts.
At the beginning of my MBA, I committed to taking in meaningful learning and development opportunities that would pop up along the way. Ones that would compliment the spreadsheets and textbooks and challenge me all the same.
I was recommend and, since the start of the year, have begun the self-directed course/book The Artist’s Way. The author describes this 12-week course as “a spiritual path to creativity” and “a course in discovering and recovering your creative self.” (It sure isn’t Industrial Economics, that’s for sure!) I believe that tapping into our creative brains helps us see what can be possible and helps us find cool ways to make those ideas happen, so I was (and still am) game.
At first, the weekly chapters, tasks, and morning journal pages seemed too easy. “Am I doing this right?” “Is this really supposed to challenge me?” Over the last three weeks, I have come to love the journal pages and actually look forward to writing them. Then I read the assignment for this week.
No reading for one week.
No Facebook. No Twitter. No textbooks. No magazines. No blogs. No newspapers. No articles. For one full week.
The student inside of me scoffed it off in disbelief. “I have a paper due that I need to get sources for. The author must be kidding me.” “I have pre-readings for my courses that I have to complete.” “I have a trip to Basel – how am I going to entertain myself on the plane!?!” “What about my blogroll? Or my Google news!?” The author then reminded the students and working professionals that NEED to read textbooks or reports that we “wriggle out” of our commitment to read all the time – and call it procrastination. This week was an invitation to wriggle in to not reading. To use creative solutions to find ways of making “not reading” work rather than finding ways of making “reading” not work.
Ok. Now I feel challenged. I can write (phew – blogging galore!) and read my class notes (that I wrote), my e-mails, and the Artist Way tasks for the week. Other than that, as of tomorrow morning, I will be on a strict no reading diet.
So, to my online social networks and favourite blog authors, thanks for your patience.
I’m going to see you again on the 31st.
Be sure to create something rad while I’m away.
Sometimes I get really nervous. This usually happens right before I hit the stage, the morning before a marathon, or right before I press send to that e-mail I knew needed to be written yet have no idea where or how it will be received.
I am then reminded that nerves are the best thing I could be experiencing in that moment.
As Steven Pressfield says in “The War of Art,” (hat tip to Chloe for the great read):
The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance. …
The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself.
Is he scared? Hell, yes. He’s petrified.
(Conversely, the professional turns down roles that he’s done before. He’s not afraid of them anymore. Why waste his time?)
So if you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
There is something about the sweat dripping of my face, the mind raging with endorphins, and the lactic acid burning in my body that reminds me “I don’t feel this way by sitting on the couch!”
Sweat is earned.
After a sweatfest in Vancouver over the holidays, I became aware that my level of sweating had gone down substantially since moving to Copenhagen. Since I bike for at least 40 minutes every day, I’m on the move more than I was in Vancouver. However, the intensity (read: sweat factor) had severely decreased. So this past week I cranked it up by adding some new sweaty pursuits to my yoga practice – ensuring I was sweating once a day.
I took my new helmet (and new bike lights) out for their first 8 am ride of the year with the unofficial CBS MBA cycling team (also known as two rad classmates of mine). Leave it to them to find the only hills in Copenhagen! They like to sprint up hills, race each other along the seaside, and kick out 65 kms in -4 degree weather like its no big deal.
I don’t know which was more painful: the lactic acid building up in my quads or my toes going completely numb -slash- freezing. It reminded me of that time when Steph and I decided to do a crazy ride just to eat a cookie. It was great and I’m actually looking forward to the next one.
AND, after 25 years of having my siblings rule the pool, I joined a swim team. (Now all the Corker kids can smell like chlorine!) The first practices have been great. I’m slow – which motivates me to become fast. I also love being coached. Intentional feedback rocks my world – and my stroke!
2012. The year of swim-bike-shavasana. It’s my own little Scandinavian sweatfest.
On Saturday night, I took to the online airwaves to present two workshops on “Getting Out Of Your Own Way” for the UBC Student Leadership Conference with the best co-presenter I could have asked for, Krystal Gabriel. She was live and alive in Vancouver, while I was connecting in from Copenhagen via Skype. I loved it. It was different. It was challenging. It pushed me as a presenter. We won an award for it (#humbled). And, best of all, I learned a ton. Such as:
No matter how prepared I am, things can always go wrong.
30 minutes before the session, we are online, the sound works wonderfully, the video we are going to show is fully loaded, and we’re ready to begin. 5 minutes before the session, technology decides to stop working and I’m lost in cyberspace. Mini-”oh sh*t” moment, a few deep breathes, and we’re back online ready to make up the lost 5 minutes. “We got this,” I remind myself.
Seeing the audience is key.
Krystal faced the camera towards the live audience in Vancouver so I could actually see who we were presenting to. It made me feel less far away. Especially when I saw a familiar face or two in the crowd. (Thanks again familiar faces for being there by the way!)
There is no substitute for preparation.
Krystal and I spent enough time with the material itself and ran through the actual flow and dialogue of the presentation to ensure that, even if I couldn’t hear everything she was saying, I could know exactly where she was, what point she was driving home, and how to make a smooth transition into what I was supposed to say. The focus we put on this was much more intensive than either of us would do normally and the results were great.
It’s valuable to leave room to recover. And, whatever happens, it’s always recoverable.
While playing our video in session number 2, technology decided to play a game on us again and terminate my connection to Krystal. I looked at my blank screen and thought – “Well, the video is 2 minutes long. We have 2 minutes to get back online. Easy.” Switching presenters for different segments, playing videos, asking questions from the audience – all great things we added in just in case my connection went down and we needed to keep the flow of the presentation going. (Some may argue to include those in any presentation you give. I wouldn’t argue with them.) PS. Check out the video we used about what it looks like… and feels like… to get in our own way.
Do what makes a live presentation great.
Repeat the big points. Make them laugh to give their brain a break. Be vulnerable. Play fun music before and after the session. Have a dance party to said music. (Feedback said they liked that part ) Give them something they can use now. Leave space for silence (not hard to do when there is a slight delay in the conversation anyway due to it being online).
Follow and engage in the online conversation.
By following the hashtags of the conference, we were able to find out what people were tweeting about and incorporate that into our conversations (both on and offline). It made it feel more like I was actually a part of the conference and less like I was simply sitting in a room talking to a computer. It was also helpful to know where our audience was coming from so we could meet them with the right energy level.
Presenting with someone that loves it, rocks.
Krystal was a serious rock star. Not only does she love presenting (and can manage the bumps and hiccups along the way with complete ease), she loved the material as much as I did. We could have gone on for hours about the stuff we presented on. I know that if ever I come across a topic that I think “how will I EVER present this,” I know I am not the right person to be presenting on that topic. Listening to someone present what they are passionate about is friggin inspiring. Thanks Krystal for being the rock of the presentation and for inspiring me with your passion for living a really rad life!
(Digital high fives! Proof that we had a blast together!)
Thanks to all that made taking the plunge to online presenting great. Hope the rest of your day on Saturday was #awesome.
to bring out the capabilities or possibilities of; bring to a more advanced or effective state
to make active or promote the growth of
to increase value or change the use of
The verb develop has the Latin prefix “de” meaning “away” or “off,” which, in English, generally indicates removal or reversal.
Other words with this prefix include: destroy, deactivate, deplane, detach, and defuse.
So maybe the process of developing someone (like ourselves) to this “more effective or advanced state” doesn’t require the addition of new skills and abilities. Maybe the process of developing ourselves calls us to remove things, to take things away, to get out of our way, in order to use the skills and abilities we already have and just haven’t been able to use effectively yet.
Development isn’t a game of Pokemon. We don’t need to catch em all – be them courses, skills, or habits. (That’s a fun game though!)
Development is a game rooted in archeology, where we dig deep to find the monumental treasures that were already inside us!
(Seemed an appropriate post considering that I am presenting at the UBC SLC tonight from Denmark on “Getting Out Of Your Own Way” with Krystal Gabriel. Can’t wait to rock my first digital workshop with her! #outofmyway)
Consider for a minute that the world, and humanity, had a right way of operating.
I ask you to consider this because we currently don’t live in that world. Laws, social interactions, gods, diets, languages used, business models, mindsets, educational systems, and moral and ethical practices (to name a few) all differ around the world and have been adopted as the right way of operating by certain populations – not all. Since there are many people that believe they have discovered this ultimate “right way,” it could be suggested that we currently live in a world that has many right ways of operating. And that no one really knows who is correct or not.
So, considering all of a sudden that there was an epiphany in our collective humanity and we all saw, understand, and followed an “ultimate right way,” we would then have a clear understanding of what the wrong way of living would be as well. I begin to wonder what would happen if who I was and what I did, today, fell under being wrong.
What if, under the ultimate right way, vision and goal setting was considered wrong and detrimental to society?
What if that transformational course or influential text I looked to for answers was wrong and full of lies?
What if the people I hung out with, who I considered to be spearheading the next revolution, were actually the ones promoting the wrong way of living?
What if the companies and organizations I supported with my money and time were blacklisted for being evil and corrupt?
What if the way I lead a team, the way I spoke, the way I spent my Saturday nights, the way I spent my Sunday mornings, the way I dressed, the way I thought, the way I presented a workshop, the way I danced, the way I made money, the way I showed gratitude, …. were all wrong?
They could be.
I don’t know.
In our world of many right ways, no one does.
We all have really good guesses though. We all have our right way that we would be willing to share. So I ask myself “What if I turned out to be wrong?”
Would I have spent my life in a tunnel-vision, judging others and their way of living, protecting my right (and ultimately wrong) ways and condemning their wrong (and ultimately right) ways.
Or would I have spent my life showing love and grace to myself and others, remaining rooted in my way yet able to incorporate, celebrate, and see the good in others’ ways.
If everything that I said, did, and believed in was wrong – would I still be proud of who I was for this world?
“Last weekend a young man asked me how I remain so positive.
“It seems all the negativity in the world doesn’t affect you,” he said.
I had no more than a minute with the young man so I offered this:
It’s all about where you choose to put your attention,
and I choose to be happy.”
I am your biggest fan and your burst of energy. I am the possibility of community & empowerment; gratitude & vibrancy. I am here to change the world - by helping you change yours.
Pick of the Post: 
) Give them something they can use now. Leave space for silence (not hard to do when there is a slight delay in the conversation anyway due to it being online).
