Snow, dream, and flight
An essay…
While on Christmas break, I came across a soon to be published book by motivational speaker Nick Tasler. I got to meet him and we chatted for a bit. He had given a copy of his book to my niece to review. Since I showed interest in the book, my niece suggested I read it. And so I did. The book seemed interesting and given that it was Christmas, it was a good time to explore it.
The title of the book is Your Year of Wonder and it was released in January 7th. The book is short but packs heavy stuff. You can read it a few hours or one or two days if taking breaks. I read it in two days.
I had to take notes since I could not use a highlighter being that it was not my book. I highlight when I read and it has to be in yellow. The act of going over each paragraph line coloring it yellow while reading it, kind of commits the words to my mind. I know it sounds crazy but it is like somatic learning and an almost visceral experience for me.
The book by Tasler had many gems. It is a book about how to best approach changes or unexpected situations that alter one’s trajectory. More to the point, Tasler uses many metaphors and analogies to allude to a core principle: changes are inevitable but expected (we will know that everything can change in a moment). Moreover, it is mostly our ability to consider these unexpected moments as opportunities for a profound transformation in our lives or as opportunities to bring us closer to that which we are meant to do. One quote that called my attention was this one:
Take a long term view of our short term situation.
This quote reminded me of my former lawyer. He dealt with my family’s estate after my Dad’s death and took a mentoring role with me. Both out of care for me and his former friendship with my Dad. Because there were many hiccups in the process, my lawyer used to tell me all the time:
Do not sacrifice the forest for the branch.
It was tangible. After all we were dealing with assets so it was easy to see what he meant. Everything has a cost but not everything was worth it. The aphorism, however, is not easily seen when dealing with emotional or personal issues. Granted, it is not impossible either. Thus, whether we are considering to burn the branch or the forest, Tasler’s advice would be to take the long term view of a short term issue. There are many, many self help books, articles, shows, and sites about self help but one thing that is basic and even cheap is the capacity of our imagination to hope. I am not talking about visualization x or y. I am simply stating that a glimmer of hope is more powerful than a wall of fear.
Tasler’s book is well written, easy to read, and short. Herein however, is where I think the book can be stronger: each framework Tasler presents is promising and I feel they should be developed further. Or if not all of them, some really could be explored deeper.
The pace of the book felt a tad fast. But, after meeting him I can see why. Tasler is a very charismatic and charming person. He is funny, fast talker, and enthusiastic. The book reads like his personality and at that it captures him well. Still, I wanted the book to delve deeper in some of the concepts. Particularly towards the end of the book where he talks about continuity between your past, your future, and where you are now. How your roots give you clues to your true goals and aspirations but more importantly, how to remove the noise out of them. Admittedly all those tangents we might take if we do not take time to reflect and strategize in order to see ourselves in the long term in spite the short term circumstances.
One chapter I enjoyed quite a bit was chapter 13 on leadership styles. It talks about how “great leaders of change push you with one arm and love you with the other arm.” The two chapters after that continue to develop the idea of leadership. And it ends with this gem which I thought was great:
Fear is good at scaring people out of complacency. Fear is bad at scaring people into creativity.
There is so much in the book I can see using in my design classes. And perhaps this is one of the reasons I wish the book dug deeper on some of the concepts. One of the last quotes I noted that stayed with me was this one below:
The survival instinct responds to jump or fly ultimatums. The growth instinct responds to the dream and fly suggestions.
I don’t know about you but I want to fly with my yellow highlighter on tow of course.
Love,
Alma