When I first heard the lyric and the song title ” a room without a roof” I am sure that to most people it sang out as something a little unusual and wether it was the lyrics, the music or even because it was sung by Pharrel Williams it managed to engage so many people and the song was very quickly propelled to number one!!
As a trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Coach and Learning & Development professional I spend a significant part of everyday supporting people and working with them to allow them to change the way they think and feel about themselves. So so many people know and some people just have a hunch, that the world can be different for them. That they have the potential to be so so much more but are left not quiet knowing what to do for the world to be different for them. Often left believing that changing the world on the outside will change the world on the inside.
Comfort zones are strange things and the reality of what we can experience and can’t experience always makes me smile; this is so often different to the reality of the world that we actually experience. In most popular thinking we appear to be either in our comfort zone and hence happy or out of it and not very comfortable at all. The reality is that when we are actually in our comfort zone, we very often switch off as we are comfortable, happy and there is no real need to focus on the world around us. True learning or the delivery of a real optimal performance doesn’t really kick in until we step out of our comfort zone and we move into our performance, learning or adventure zone, call it what ever fits for you. This is a long way from panic but it could also be a long way from comfortable. But as I am sure you can imagine the results for your discomfort are amazing. The reward is true growth, pride and learning, should you wish to grasp hold of these when they are presented. Sometimes this may be only obvious once the heart rate has returned to normal.
I spend my life looking to experience places quiet literally without walls. The great outdoors is literally the most amazing metaphor for thinking outside the box. If you want to think differently and experience your world differently and find solutions to problems that you couldn’t previously imagine, then get out of the box. “If you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always got”. I will also tell you that as a former aircraft engineer “that you can’t use the logic or thinking that created the problem to fix the problem”! Well if it worked, then your thinking would not have created the problem would it, so thinking differently is the key!! So maybe the the best way to think outside the box is not to get into or create the box in the first place. So going in to the Great Outdoors sometimes quiet literally allows to get out of our box.
But of course the box isn’t actually the box is it. The box is the fabric and framework by which we create the belief that operate in our world. The I cant’s and shouldn’t as well as the I am’s and I will’s. But of course for some people turning your world upside down to totally change a long held belief may be a great idea but in itself may be quiet a challenge. Just daring to think differently may well be placing ourselves outside our comfort zone.
So may be a room without a roof is a great half way house. A tent is a box but in a different place a little less structured than the home or the thoughts and beliefs that we have lived in for many years. May be it’s time to go camping, may be the room without a roof is that place where we aren’t comfortable but are exploring our world differently.
For me I call this A Mind 4 Adventure and just sometimes we need a little bit of support to see our world without a roof.
There are some days in life which start out as different from the second you open your eyes. One might legitimately suggest that with our constant human desire to seek a cause to all effect that perhaps I should have known that this was going to be a different sort of day from the night before. As my eyes opened if not even from Moments before I had a strong urge to use that good old fashioned military phrase “touching cloth”. The details of “touching cloth” are not important but it was now the start of a very strange day.
The link between cause and effect is a powerful one that we almost always seek to make. Does this always work or does it get us into trouble? I am a trainer of Neuro Lingustic Programming and the cause and effect relationship is key in this as a concept. Placing yourself at cause is a powerful thing. Empowering yourself with choice about how to view and react to a situation a difficult person or even a strange day!!!
However, sometimes the constant desire for the causal effect means that me make strive to draw meaning where perhaps there is none. Sometimes some things are!! Perhaps the most powerful thing about being at cause I’d that we can have the confidence to simply let things be as they are and that we have the grace to observe the world rather than to react to it.
The joy and grace of learning to observe the root of our own emotions is an amazing step on the journey of truly learning to be at cause. It gives us choice rather that simply being high jacked by the strange day.
Strange days and touching cloth then become a joy and a fabulous step and a welcomed experience on the journey.
Enjoy the journey Namaste
I wonder how similar I am to many people that use WordPress. They set up their account with truly great intentions of being an avid and daily active writer….. I certainly did I thought that I may engage my creative side creating content that’s a rich here as it is in my head and the world around me. So I am now here saying it’s been a while, probably a year or more. I have more questions than answers about what is the metaphor of it been a while. So hopefully I will see you all more often and very soon.
I have just been incredibly inspired by James Martin. His programme on loneliness was very moving. I some take for granted how many amazing people I have in my live and that I am so blessed to have some amazing people around me. Why not say Hello to someone today and make them smile.
Well this is the start of day 3 and I am waiting for the day to start. The first two days have been a powerful reminder of the gift that is this way of thinking to quote Wyatt Woodsmall.
Ian Pitchford 