What would Mary Poppins do?
Volume 4, Number 3 | March 2010
Clawing my way out of confusion into some kind of clarity continues to be a highly illuminating process.
While I've been down the confusion-to-clarity road before, I have a greater sense of urgency at (almost) 49 than I did at 29 or 39 because HEY, life is short!
On the other hand, these days I also have a far lower tolerance for doing things I dislike. Because (you guessed it) Hey, life is SHORT.
So how to reconcile these two seemingly opposite forces: the desire to really, really move things along, and the incredible resistance to much of the drudgery involved in improving one's life and outlook?
Enter the nanny
One nice thing about all the decluttering I've been doing is that it's opened up more room for weird ideas to float in and out. And a couple of weeks ago, when I was casting about for a weekly "focus" theme in my Google Wave with Dave™ experiment, "Mary Poppins" popped into my head.
For those of you who are too young to remember the Disney movie (and not young enough to have seen the new theatrical musical production), there's one really great song in the show titled "A Spoonful of Sugar." Okay, maybe it's just a silly song, but it carries a great message sung by the great Julie Andrews (and paraphrased by me):
Inject a little good times into your work and your work becomes a lot more fun.
In the song sequence, new nanny to Jane and Michael Banks informs her charges that while they must tidy up their room, there's no reason they can't make a game of it.
Reframing work as play
Mary had the advantage of special effects to turn cleaning into the good times. (And hey, if I could snap my fingers and make stuff happen, I'd be snapping for way bigger stuff than automagically-folded laundry.) But even without magical powers, there are lots of earthly ways to make tedious or frustrating to-dos fun.
For cleaning and decluttering (two of my not-favorite things), feng shui is the original flavor of awesome. Those Chinese, they knew a thing or two about a thing or two. And while you may not believe in chi or the auspiciousness of placing certain things here or there, the overlay that feng shui provides--the baguas, the elements, the "cures" -- is like turning your living space into a gigantic game board. In case you haven't heard me mention it a million times already, this is my favorite feng-shui-can-be-fun book.
For becoming a better writer and/or speaker, a program like Toastmasters is wonderful. It breaks down the terrifying, monolithic thing of learning to tell stories into really small, manageable and fun steps. But it also forces you to write, which is still mandatory work for writers.
The Moth storytelling slams are another good bet for would-be writers or performers living in some major U.S. metros, as are Ignites, which happen all over the world. As chief storyteller Ira Glass says, the secret to telling better stories is to do it more often, among good people and with deadlines, where possible.
For boring or repetitive work, nothing beats zen buddhism. I understand that for some people, getting numbers to reconcile is a fun game in and of itself; for me, entering data into QuickBooks or processing paperwork is much more likely to become interesting if I bring (or keep bringing back) my full attention to it. Or hey, if you're not into the feng shui cure, above, cleaning is a natural candidate for the zen treatment. (Sweeping Changes, a wonderful book I learned of via a reader on my blog, might be helpful if you're interested in trying this.)
Meta-Mary secrets
Your games will vary, but some general questions may be good reframing devices or starting points:
- Is this more like a puzzle, a race or a treasure hunt?
- Is this a team or a solo sport?
- What are the pieces or components to this challenge?
- How does it break up into innings, matches or other game-like segments?
- What will I "win" at the end?
- What badges (skills, experiences, knowledge) will I collect along the way?
- How do I suit up for it? Is there a uniform or equipment I can use? (And if so, how can I repurpose what I already have or scavenge/borrow it so I don't have to outlay cash to do the equipping?)
As you can see by that last point, once you start playing Mary Poppins, you get better at seeing everything through a Mary Poppins lens. Not only do you start looking for the sport in everything, you also look for opportunities within those opportunities.
I'll be sharing more reframing solutions in coming issues, as well as on the blog. If you have any particular conundrums you'd like to see turned into a game -- or if you've managed to turn any icky things into really fun, Mary Poppins-style "wins" -- please let me know!
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What's better than classic American pop songs? Covers of classic American pop songs in foreign languages available for your downloading pleasure minus even the slenderest of dimes! This "guest mixtape" by Creative Commons Creative Director Eric Steuer titled "Other Countries" is chock-full of amazing, classic-country covers like "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Stand By Your Man," and "Harper Valley PTA" will knock your socks, boots and everything else near 'em clean off. God bless American Country by way of everywhere else! (via Sally Jacobs, the Practical Archivist, and StumbleUpon's amazing "messaging" feature)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
'TWEENER RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
Speaking of great features, you know all of these nifty little resources I share here every month? What you may not know is that I collect these gems all month long, along with plenty of others, at a social bookmarking site called delicious. And even if you know that, you may not know that you can subscribe to receive updates of my new delicious bookmarks in general or any "tag" (or combination thereof) in particular. Amazing, huh? What you'll need is an RSS reader, like Google Reader or Bloglines; you can also subscribe via your Safari browser, if you're a Mac-head. Or just bookmark the bookmarks and visit the old-fashioned way. While I usually keep next month's candidates under wraps until the newsletter "drops" (fancy, technical term), you can browse plenty of other stuff, by interest, to keep you busy (or distracted--hey, I calls 'em as I sees 'em!)
PHOTO SERIES OF THE MONTH
I'm no sports fan, which makes it all the more ironic that for years, I paid my mortgage writing ads for the world's #1 sports drink at the time. But I am an unabashed fan of any kind of art, whether it be filmed, written, drawn, danced or other, that evokes place and spirit and grace. This fantastic set of photos taken during the recently-ended 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is that kind of art: it reminds you of why it's great that cameras have gotten so good and so ubiquitous, why the Internet is a neverending source of wonder and possibility and hey, why sports and Canada rule. It's (almost) enough to make me want to start carrying around a real camera again. Of course, when there are other people doing it this well, it also makes me glad I don't have to. (via kottke)
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