It all counts
Written by Ben Tallon
I’m in a reading frenzy. Reading, listening… same thing, isn’t it? Audiobooks entered my life during early twin parenthood when I couldn’t keep my eyes open for very long at all when the babies fell asleep. The dog walks became my little escape, sitting in the woods listening to stories. Since then, they’ve stuck around, primarily to consume books as part of this ongoing study of creativity at a speed I can’t manage in my preferred physical format. Audio is great for long drives, or while working on something that requires little conscious thought too, and last night, having finished Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan’s brilliant Unheard, I realised I had no new non-fiction to begin. I noticed a misplaced guilt creep in while considering Haruki Murukami’s new novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. This is the trappings of the obvious approach and the first step to falling in line with everybody else.
OK, in my defence, my range of non-fiction is wildly broad. I’d never restrict my learning to books on design, art, and creativity. I’ve read plenty: they’re beautiful and inspiring, but if I stop there, that’s just the literary algorithm, isn’t it? Giving me what I want. No, what I’m predicted to want. Like the insufferable football fans who endure the violent pumping of their team only to hold up a phone, pointing to the ‘Xg’ (Expected goals) statistic as if it shows who really won, calculated from all kinds of bullshit stats including number of boots to have stamped upon certain blades of grass. Or something. Maybe not. Sorry. You get the point though – vary, enrich, vary, enrich, vary, enrich. There are thousands of great, more established coaches than me, but I’ve enough life experience to know that counts for nothing as long as I do it my way. So I fill my head with anything remotely interesting to ensure I see things differently.
So, what is the end game? Because that’s important. It used to be to become a full-time illustrator, and in my youthful naivety, I just used to look at a lot of contemporary art and design. No surprise that during that time I struggled to find my own feet and chased trends. These days, professionally and in my life, I adore learning about the world I inhabit, worlds beyond, and (to me) the most beautiful thing in all of it – creativity. However creativity is comprised of infinite and ever-changing elements, and they differ for each person. If I just read about creativity, I get booksmart. I’ll be an intellectual ramrod, able to tell you all kinds of interesting tidbits of theoretical information, but will that benefit my coaching clients when something bad happens in their personal lives? Or when some twat in their workplace yanks their hair and runs off with a promotion. I don’t know! I’ve been self-unemployed since I was 25 and I’ll be 42 in February! But whatever they come to me with, I pride myself on empathy, understanding, and crucially, my ability to put the exact circumstances into my large skull, knowing a solution will emerge, a solution another coach could never have delivered in the same way. A solution tailored for them, relevant to their lives, here and now. Not a regurgitated Rick Rubin quote, as brilliant as they are. They belong to Rick. Saying it back to someone without great reason is silly. That’s why people have LIVE LAUGH LOVE over their bed and wonder why the passion is like a wet match. Too far? Maybe. It only matters if the right dots are joined in quoting. The last podcast of 2024 is with the fly fisher and author of Fly Fishing With Leonardo Da Vinci, David Ladersohn. It’s phenomenal, and will probably bring me a dismal amount of downloads, but I’m long past caring. David told me that Leonardo loathed people quoting the work of others for this very reason. What I learned from a lifelong businessman and fly fisher, only time will tell. But the moment I second-guessed my instinctive pull towards the Murukami book, I pressed ‘buy now’ because one day, somewhere between a fly fisher, a great fiction author, and a moment in the dark on the end of my bed when I was supposed to be packing for a long drive north, I’ll be able to do something I otherwise wouldn’t have. That’s enough for me.
If my coaching sounds like it might help your creativity, head to the coaching section of the site and get in touch, we can have a natter!