Brought to you by the Cultural and Creative Skills Council: Creative Choices looks like it could be an interesting resource for creative professionals.

Blogs, comment and analysis and online tools and information.

There's a good tool there for anyone who wants to get clear about what they are doing with their creative practise- perhaps as preparation for coaching.

It's a personal development plan specifically for creative practitioners. You'll have to register with the site to download the pdf.

Of course while some people enjoy having a plan to work to with everything imagined in great detail, other people like to rely a little more on serendipity and a certain amount of pot luck. It's not about being casual. It's about leaving space for the universe to offer up some opportunity.

Personally I enjoy the sense of spontaneity that comes with not knowing what is going to happen next and the confidence that comes of having a choice of responses and plans that are drilled into a level of unconscious competence.

In order for your outcome to be achievable it has to be “well formed”. It has to meet certain criteria. The fact is that rocks are hard and water is wet. The universe and your own neurology and physiology set limits as to what you can and cannot do.

You've heard that right? It's all about the positive thinking, yeah? Just think positively, believe you can do it. See it, feel it. Yeah right.

It doesn't take much experience of life to realise what a crock that is. I mean if that really worked then we would have world peace, no one would be dying in Gaza, the diseases of poverty and ignorance would be banished, we'ld be living in the perfect balance with nature and I would spend large potions of the year in countries where it I didn't have to sit around wrapped in a blanket.

A friend of mine used to do this send up of NLPⁱ.

“Look into my eyes, look into my eyes,

think of puppies,
now think of your problem,
think of puppies,
now think of your problem!”

We used to have some fierce arguments. NLP was manipulative. Hypnosis was wrong. Even worse it was trite and shallow. How could something so facile be so powerful.

When I was young I read somewhere, or someone told me something that stuck. It was a simple piece of advice you could apply in almost any situation.

Sitting up a mountain, you have time to get a lot of clarity. No distractions. Very soon you see, something cool happens.

This post follows on from this one: Living without a goal.

Of course living without goals is all very well if you're stuck up a mountain with a lovely view and the villagers bring you bowls of rice every morning.

Some one had to farm the rice and cook it. You have bills to pay. I have to find the rent. Sue has to feed her children.

I'm going to own up, I know I promote myself as a coach and call what I do coaching but the truth is I HATE the word. Which is somewhat contradictory.

So I thought I'd confess..

I should tell you straight.  I'm a liar, a cheat and a trickster.  It's my job.  Specifically, in the context of this blog you should know that I consistently change names, gender and the specific details of case histories in order to protect the identity of my clients.  And in my sessions with people I do the same thing, telling stories about things that happened to "a friend of mine" or to myself.  I'm not trying to mislead people.  My stories always have a purpose.  It's just not always the purpose you might think.