Infinite Views

How was your February?  It’s taken me till now to get this brief note together because mine has been a bit bumpy, a bit duvet-based.   For many of us February does feel like the lowest point of the year, even without the perfect storm of threatening political, environmental and health factors that have blown in of late.  It’s made me realise all over again just how challenging it can be to keep thinking clearly and well when my brain isn’t starting from a strong place – a healthy body.  Me and everyone else.

We know this, don’t we?  It’s that obvious. Yet it’s so easy to forget that our bodies are the vital ‘Place’ for our own thinking.  We stay in our heads, in problem-solving, never-ending ‘doing’ mode, simply not noticing how hard we are pushing ourselves, and what it is we are neglecting. Physican, heal thyself.

What might you be ignoring right now that you/ your body needs in order to be a great place for your own thinking?  That is such a searching and important question, particularly if you’ve taken a while to recover from a virus during February.  So please do ask it of yourself.

Apart from the obvious answers like needing more sleep, or taking more exercise, what else have you  found that supports your healing, immunity and stamina, ultimately your own thinking?  I tried Sound Therapy with Tibetan gongs at a spa in Ireland last year and found the reverberations and resonances took me to a profound level of mental and physical calm – yet it’s taken me till now to look into local sessions in West London.  Mens sana in corpore sano: those old Romans really nailed it…

I also know that discovering brilliant new ideas and thinkers can be uplifting and I’ve found exactly that in listening to Simon Sinek’s new book ‘The Infinite Game’ which is going to reframe all the work I do in-house and with teams from now on.  Working in ‘infinite game’ mode is so aligned with the core values and components of the Thinking Environment it feels exciting, fresh and hopeful, a real tonic. Here’s the briefest introduction, there’s lots more online and the book is well worth the read or listen.

This also feels super-relevant to last month’s note on leadership and ‘dangerous women’; changing the nature of power is a huge goal, and framing it as an infinite game with inevitably finite wins and losses while working towards the ultimate ‘just cause’ helps to break it down into something feasible and much more positive.  Thank you to those who returned to me on that – as you see it’s still simmering along – will be in touch again.

So this comes to wish everyone in the Northern Hemisphere a happy end to winter and a strong start to Spring.  I’m so looking forward to meeting and seeing many of you during 2020.

And inspiration and great thinking to everyone, whatever your geography.

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