Brilliance. Resilience. Wisdom. Resourcefulness.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just push a button and be able to access these amazing qualities at will? In a world where people are struggling to find the time, energy and focus to get everything on their “to do” lists handled, it can be hard to stay out of the reactive, fire-fighting mode of operation that seemingly has become the norm for most.
As a graphic recorder, one of the delights of my work is seeing people accessing their own wisdom and claiming it. In one case, I was working with a client who was conducting a focus group with their suppliers to help them understand how they could do a better job for their end consumer. One interviewee came into the session and answered questions about what made his job easy, what made it a challenge, and ideas for how the client improve.
At the end of the session, this supplier shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, I don’t know if that will be much help to you. But I hope you got some useful information from my answers.” The client said, “Are you kidding? You gave us gold! Just look at the visual map Carolyn created of what you shared with us!” The gentleman turned around to see the graphic recording I had just made and he broke into the biggest smile. “Wow, I’m surprised! I guess I did have a lot to share with you!” As he recognized his wisdom and the value his insights would bring to the client, he stood a bit taller and his smile got even broader.
Here are some questions and strategies I use that help me dip into my reserves of wisdom and brilliance when I need it!
Tip #1 – Stop and Breathe
We live in a world where are brains are assaulted by stress, adrenaline and overwhelming amounts of information and choices. It truly is hard to think straight, and when you’re under stress your ability to access your prefrontal cortex that governs your ability to make choices much harder. Stop and take some deep belly breaths. Deep diaphragmatic breathing helps to calm your nervous system.
For those of you who enjoy visual cues, you can imagine with each deep breath that you are diving down to the bottom of a deep, vast ocean. The waves can be choppy when you’re snorkeling at the surface, but deeper down there is a stillness and calm that helps slow things down.
Tip #2 – Draw It Out
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, there’s too many competing thoughts happening at the same time. It’s like a mental traffic jam in your brain! Inspiration and ideas bump into implementation and execution strategies, with a steady stream of things to remember, appointments, and urges running continuously in the background.
When you have a pot threatening to boil over, you lift the lid to take some of the steam out so you don’t have a mess. When your focus is fractured and you need to bring your A-game to the situation, grab a marker and paper, perhaps some sticky notes, and start drawing it out. Just do a brain dump of all of the different thoughts, ideas, worries and put them on paper.
Putting one thought per sticky note will allow you then to visually group things into categories, or time frames that make sense. As you draw it out, you’re giving yourself some perspective on the issues you’re facing. It will become clearer what’s most important to do next, and what you need to let go of in order to move ahead.
Tip #3 – Do an Inventory of Your Resources
When you’re under stress and wondering whether you can rise to the challenge, it’s easy to overlook the resourcefulness and experience you can bring to bear to solve the problem. It’s a good time to do some journaling and ask yourself some questions to help you activate your brilliance. Some of my favourite questions include:
What are the strengths I have?
Looking back at past examples where I have felt challenged, what choices did I make that helped me breakthrough?
What values do I have that can guide me in this situation?
If I had no fear, what would I choose to do here?
If I don’t have the answers, who can I call on to help me?
If I was to experiment and implement one thing now for just 24 hours, what would I do?
Taking a few moment to remind yourself of the resourcefulness you’ve demonstrated in the past can help to jump start that insight and brilliance again.
