This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 8:40 am and is filed under Coaching With "Whatever It Takes", The Writers Cafe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Where Does the Energy to Create and Change Come From?
The other book I have found useful for writers and other coaching clients is Bill O’Hanlon’s new book, Write Is A Verb.
I’ve been a reader of Bill’s work for a long time, have studied Positive Psychology with him, and always find his approach and personal energy stimulating.
He has come up with a neat way to describe the different energies that can fuel writing (and most other positive accomplishments and changes in people’s lives):
The 4 sources of energy come from feeling blissed, blessed, dissed, and pissed. (Don’t you love it?)
Simply put, feeling blissed means that you’re in touch with the inner passion you feel for your project or the change you desire. That leads to flow.
When you feel blessed, you are in touch with important external help and encouragement–a mentor or a cheerleader or perhaps a support group. The writing support groups I run create this kind of feeling.
These are the positive energies that can propel you into realizing your dreams.
But–and this is interesting–negative energies can be useful too. Bill must have read William Blake’s poetry!
For example, when you feel dissed, you have probably experienced rejection or disrespect or even a loss. If your response to this adversity is to say, “I’ll show you!” and you set out to prove yourself in the face of disbelief and things you don’t have control over, that energy actually has a positive effect by working for you.
And when you feel pissed, because you’re faced with situations that inspire indignation and you speak out or do something to protest, you’re channeling your anger toward righting a wrong. That releases what is ultimately positive energy in you too.
In all these cases, you take action to achieve a meaningful goal. And this turns out to be one of the key factors contributing to the most enduring human happiness. So, whether you are a writer–and Bill has a lot of great information for you, if you are–or want to make a meaningful change in your life, these ideas are starting points on that journey.
Posted by October 5th, 2007
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