I promised myself I wouldn’t write any how-to type posts this week. Because that’s been the trend for the (whopping) two weeks since I launched a “business blog”, and if I’m already getting a little bored by the samey-sameness of it you might be as well. Plus, I’m feeling the production pressure…to meet the deadlines of my own making…and not get mentally vortexed into second guessing…amidst the distraction of having to tackle ant infestations of varying size and scope. My feelings about which I must ventilate or my head will explode.
ANTS!
Because pest control services apparently aren’t routine in our part of Spain, we’ve have had the pleasure of ant outbreaks on a near daily basis. Sometimes the mofos pour in from many hidey holes, and the only how-to on my mind is how to best smote them with Biblical intensity. I can literally claim to have had ants in my pants thanks to one especially galling infiltration. But for the grace of somebody’s god I wasn’t wearing the pants at the time. Tim (my significant other) travels around the house – inside and out – with a canister of pink ant-death powder and a spoon, because sometimes you have to spoon the powder into the millimeter-sized crevice from which the ants originate. It’s a delicate operation, and he’s quite good at it. Between the powder and the death spray that is our back up, this house is close to becoming a brown site. I have a lot to say about ants, as you can tell, and it’s a terrible shame I’m not clever enough to spot a neat, clever segue from ant outbreaks to today’s topic: angles.
As in using the concept of different angles to cogitate a viable solution to a problem that’s giving you a brain wedgie.
My brain wedgie behind the change-up in not doing a topical change-up.
I happen to have a situ that’s giving me a mammoth brain wedgie. Thus far talking it over with trusted people hasn’t produced any budging, not because they didn’t try or didn’t offer their help with the best of intentions. I’m simply dealing with one of those decisions that can’t be nudged along by anybody else’s take, by what anybody else would do, and especially not by what anybody else would have me do so they can experience it vicariously.
I’ve got to make it on my own, based on my relationship with life’s big questions, based on the more positive vision I cradle. Actually, though, it’s an “us” decision, specifically what do Tim and I want to do with our lives after September 27th when our current lease ends. That’s like five weeks from now. Let me say upfront that doing nothing is not an option, because in five weeks we’re homeless save for our small Peugeot. (I am hugely grateful that doing something is a must; that’s one less alternative on the table.) So, do we…
- Commit to living in Spain for a few more years? If so, do we buy the fixer-upper which will give us a mortgage but save us in rent, or do we continue to rent? If we rent, do we stay in Moraira, or do we give Barcelona or San Sebastian a go?
- Commit to the earlier semi-nomadic plan and live in Italy for 6-7 months, live with the question marks of what comes thereafter, see what strikes our fancy come spring?
- Go to Italy for 2-3 months, and then wander elsewhere for a few more before returning home?
- Orchestrate a sign from heaven, which is tricky because we’re both agnostic?
All of the above options have pros and cons, opportunities and limitations, comforts and risks. That’s why I have a brain wedgie*. That’s what inspired me to write about the how-to of different angles, if only to remind myself about this strategy I both know and have preached.
*Note: I realize that some people might say I should be so lucky to have this problem, what with the unemployment rates being what they are, hurricane season kicking into gear, and the usual starving in the world. To which I reply, yes I am lucky, and I’m not interested in your theories of personal problem relativity. Got it? Oh, good.
There you have it, the winded wind up. Now, the straighter pitch.
Looking at a problem from different angles is NOT an exercise in finding the bright side. Frankly, there isn’t always a bright side. You know it. I know it. Being Practical Dreamers we don’t like having bright sides forced upon us. Invitations to positivity are OK, but forced feedings of positivity are not.
Looking at a problem from different angles creates an opening for making a decision and a commitment to taking action. It can also help you see options when there appear to be none. That’s not my deal at the moment, but I have used this angles exercise for that purpose.
It’s an exercise of seven parts as follows.
1) Clarify the problem – because the problem behind the brain wedgie isn’t always what we think it is.
2) Identify some different angles, and then narrow the field down to a couple.
3) Assess the angles that call to you.
4) Imagine yourself tackling the problem in the midst of these angles, and choose one.
5) Brainstorm some next steps from this vantage point.
6) Put these steps on the calendar. Cement your intention to follow through. Set up whatever accountability mechanisms you need to make good on your intentions.
7) Step over the (imaginary) commitment line that magically appears at that very second, and from there you live happily ever after.
Ok, maybe that’s too tall an order.
Maybe you live happily ever after and maybe you don’t. What’s certain is that you shift from the land of brain wedgies to the land of de-wedgied.
Over the next few days I’ll drill down into the particulars of this exercise. It took a bit of very focused puttering to get where I am with the topic today, and it’s time for a nap.
So, tune in tomorrow when I explore numero uno, the gist of the problem – what’s really bugging me, what’s really giving an innately uncomfortable brain wedgie an extra vicious triple twist.
As I unwind towards some kind of resolution using my trusty different angles strategy, you’re most welcome to pipe in with the details of your own. Believe me, I’d be glad for the company.
