COACHING THE COACHES
PART 8
by Jon Rappoport
Copyright © 2011 by Jon Rappoport
Try something as simple as this. At the top of a blank page, write:
THINGS A PERSON IN MY POSITION WOULD NEVER DO BECAUSE THEY MIGHT BE TOO ABSURD.
Then, every day, type in answer after answer after answer.
Be as ridiculous as you want to be.
Sooner or later, something will pop up out of the hopper, a new idea, an interesting idea, an inspiring idea.
A doable idea.
Or how about this:
FUTURES ONLY A FOOL WOULD PURSUE.
You see? It’s absurd, right? It makes little sense. Yet, if you carry out the exercise, you’ll eventually come upon a gem.
This is a small part of what I mean by imagination-work.
Here’s one specifically for coaches:
STRATEGIES FOR WORKING WITH CLIENTS THAT MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL.
Again, do this exercise long enough and you’ll stumble across an idea that rivets you, that makes titanic sense.
And for writers experiencing a vacuum in a project:
THINGS THAT DEFINITELY WOULDN’T HAPPEN IN THE STORY I’M WORKING ON
In life, we focus on the practical, the obvious, the already-learned, the sensible, the routine, the habitual. Whatever doesn’t fit under these categories is shunted off to a bullpen and stored there.
And, lo and behold, that bullpen turns out to be a sub-section of our imagination.
Once you tap into the bullpen, all sorts of material comes tumbling out—as well as lost energy.
It’s commonly assumed that great innovations occur in two ways: either the innovator was “struck” by a new concept; or he was nothing more than the next person in a long line of people who had gradually developed a body of knowledge, and he simply added his little piece to the trove.
These assessments aren’t entirely wrong, but they overlook the much more important fact that the innovator was living in his imagination.
Which is where new ideas originate.
So, in my work, I’ve taken the position that there are many ways to introduce a person to his own creative capacity, and I’ve proved this is true, time and time again.
The exercises above are four out of hundreds and hundreds of exercises and techniques I’ve developed.
I’ve been asked this question: suppose a person imagines a new future for himself, but he doesn’t have the knowledge, skill, talent, or experience to make it come true? What then?
This is like saying, suppose a horse in a stall decides he wants to fly?
The answer to this conundrum is simple. After deploying imagination to invent many possible futures, the person is going to settle on one. And that one will, in fact, be possible, given his experience and skill. Or he’ll gain more skills so he can pursue a more adventurous future.
I’ll add one proviso. There are people who imagine the stars and the galaxies, and against all odds, they get there.
Here’s another exercise to chew on:
TWENTY THINGS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE
Every day, write them down. Twenty. It doesn’t matter what area of existence they cover.
Do this for six months.
Something interesting is going to happen to your state of mind.
I once worked with a mathematician who had never liked that field of work. Try as he might, he couldn’t figure out what else to do in his life. He was suffering from debilitating chronic headaches and legs pains. On a hunch, the prompt I gave him was:
SOLID OBJECTS YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE IN YOUR HOUSE
After some wrangling, he agreed to undertake the writing exercise. He worked on it every day for a year.
Then he became a sculptor.
His headaches and leg pains went away.
Jon Rappoport
A former candidate for a US Congressional seat in California, Jon has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years. He has written articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. The author of The Ownership of All Life, Jon has maintained a consulting practice for the past 15 years. He has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, and creativity to audiences around the world.