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Stuart Woods

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If you could describe yourself with an object, what would you be?

Sometimes our intuitive self will name the object before we know why.

The benefit of using objects as metaphors for personal exploration is a well regarded coaching model. It can often take us somewhere extraordinary in terms of understanding ourselves and how we relate to the world. The design of objects (natural or manufactured) have numerous factors which might influence our choice: shape, size, colour, form, texture, function. All can unlock a fascinating journey though self-discovery if we pursue some or all of these formal elements and our reasoning behind them.

Do you have an example of where this metaphor coaching has really worked to help you achieve a goal?

Related Talks:
Topics: Being yourself Self Concept projection of self self self awareness self belief
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Closing Statement from Stuart Woods

Thanks for everyone's interesting answers. I wonder how others regarded the choices. When reading them I was drawn to asking further questions about the detail of the object and the answers equally as fascinating as the original object. Many inanimate objects were named, many small but which eluded to a certain quality of symbolism. There is something deeply satisfying when small things stand for big things. Our readiness to regard ourselves in symbolism reveals much about how we view ourselves too and with what level of seriousness or levity. Distilling what we believe we stand for into one thing is incredibly telling and I very much appreciate the openness with which people engaged in the question. I respect those who did not feel the need to explain their choice but hope that in adding to this conversation you did reflect (on some level) on what you choice might mean for you. I believe that awareness is key to efficacy and the more we challenge our assumptions and assertions about what we stand for, the more we can be useful in what we do.

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    Nigel Bamber

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    May 2 2012: A map

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        Nigel Bamber

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        May 2 2012: Because there's a whole load of directions that I can see I'd like to go in and a whole load of different places I'd like to experience being in. Just frustrated that I can't do them all at once without being a map.
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        Nigel Bamber

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        May 3 2012: Thinking about this more, rather than giving my instinctive reponse, should perhaps add that I am a prolific mind-mapper. Started as a child on paper, but now do this on the computer. The maps cover every aspect of my life at work and home and are all connected by hyper-links. Together I guess the maps give a pretty accurate description of me, although they are not strictly speaking a physical object.
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        Stuart Woods 10+

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        May 3 2012: Hi Mary,Fascinating, Nigel makes some excellent observations.The map is for me V interesting, does this somehow indicate a fomrality to the way you see yourself? A map shows the way... a candle too does light a way (it's orignal use) We now know candles in a different light (pardon the pun) to create soft mood and atmosphere, warmth.
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      Stuart Woods 10+

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      May 3 2012: Thanks Nigel, does your mind mapping have a design, real or imaginary? Do you have different maps for different things or are they all connected? if so how?
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        Nigel Bamber

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        May 3 2012: The maps started as a single map that divided my life into its' separate aspects to categorize different things, but some things exist in multiple aspects. When you reach those things, you jump via hyperlink to the same thing, but in a different area of the map in a new context. Instead of providing a formal structure it gives a very flexible structure that is always changing.
        Very quickly, the map gets very big, but then I just prune a branch of it off as a separate map, still with the abillty to jump back to the root map or any other child maps. To do this physically, you'd need to write on multi-dimensional paper, or have a book that you could open in different ways, to see the same information but with different contexts.
        At work, I use it to keep track a lots of disparate technical information that I might want to combine in different ways to achieve different goals. I can't possibly remember all of the things I need to, but I know which parts of the landscape of the map I need to pull together to make new regions when viewed from a different direction.
        It's also a good landscape to explore ideas or new projects.

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