The value of writing

There are two reasons to write: one is to communicate something you know you are thinking and the other is to discover something that you do not yet realize you are thinking.  When I blog, I do both - sometimes in the same post.

Writing requires effort and results in commitment and stability: once the words are on the screen or the page, they have staying power.  There's no point in writing to procrastinate: unlike listeners, readers are not required to stay with you while you put up road blocks or avoid what you do not like about what you are communicating or thinking.  As you write, the words appear before you and give form to your thoughts.  Procrastination becomes discovery.

When you want to communicate, you have many different options for combining words with structures, plans, props and actions.  When you want to find out what you are thinking, you have fewer options.  Conversations help sometimes; sometimes they encourage you to slip off the path of your own thoughts and onto an easier path already set by someone else.  Actions sometimes reveal thoughts, but they also bury them. It is easier to read results than intent. Writing always gives form to what you are thinking. Writing always draws something into being that previously existed only in the unconscious processes that drive thought.

What is the difference between spilling your thoughts onto the page or screen and allowing readers to share your journey as you explore those thoughts?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The hypnotic contract

Under what conditions would you allow someone else to tell you what to think?   If you have watched a stage hypnotist, you have seen what looks like one person exercising remarkable control over the thoughts and actions of another. It is fascinating, in part, because we have all seen it happen in real life. Suddenly someone we know seems to be relying on someone else to do the thinking.  Even if the influence is good, it is a little frightening. The secret is that there are no magic words.  In order to lead someone into hypnosis, that person has to be willing to go there. Often the people you see on stage are more than willing. For whatever reasons, they are enthusiastic about giving up self control and allowing someone else to take charge. They know that there are limits to what can happen on stage and they are only agreeing to give up control within those limits. What you see in hypnosis is an agreement between two people. Like all agreements between human beings, it stretches as far...
Read more

Good with people

What do you think of when you hear the phrase "good with people?" When a wine is good with steak, it means that both the steak and the wine taste better when enjoyed together. If you are 'good with people' that could mean that both you and they perform better when you work together. "Good with people" should not be confused with charm or grace. Many famous leaders have, in the absence of any obvious charm or eloquence, managed to get people to produce at high levels. Some introverts fail to be influential; some extraverts fail to be effective. The most useful criteria for "good with people" is the performance that results when an individual is working with others: does the sum exceed the total of the parts? Or would they all have been better working from separate cubicles? We are entering the season of networking: it's a perfect time to observe the difference between the people who are working the room and the people who are making the room w...
Read more

The fine line between observations, suggestions and commands

I have been watching Tony Robbins this week in the documentary called " I Am Not Your Guru ." You can read a nicely ambivalent review in the Financial Times here.   I think the ambivalence is built into the process, which might be surprising given the loud celebration that characterizes the Date with Destiny in the film. For those of us whose work has evolved from NLP, there are lessons to be learned from modelling the most famous and successful practitioner of NLP (Robbins has far surpassed all the founders by all measures of success). Because he does so much so well, Robbins lets us see how fine the line is between observing and suggesting. Let me explain. Robbins frames his "interventions" both with the exercises and performances we do not see in the film and with his invitations. The film opens with an intervention with a young man who says he is suicidal; it is only later that we see Robbins say he is looking for someone who is suicidal to work with. Since...
Read more