MOOCs, Center and Life Ring
I am taking a class called a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) through a website called Coursera . Coursera MOOCs are taught by major universities in the United States and abroad - and they are FREE! If you enjoy learning I recommend checking out what they have to offer. The subject areas range from arts to history to engineering and trigonometry. Really, go check it out. It's a treasure trove for learning addicts like me.
So, anyway, the class is called 'Creativity, Innovation and Change' which is taught by faculty from Penn State University. Its focus is to help you discover your creative style (everyone is creative - creativity is not limited to the arts and humanities!) and offers strategies for beginning and following through with innovative ideas. One of my favorite exercises was Life Ring. It is explained in detail in the book 'Center - A system of 6 practices for pursuing your passions and purpose in self, family, work and community' - you can get this book on Kindle for $2.99. It's a great resource written by Darrell Velegol, one of the instructors of the course.
Life Ring is an essential exercise for people like myself who run a bit ADD. I have so many things that I enjoy doing and that I would like to do that I have a hard time managing all of my interests. Life Ring is a process that narrows down those things that are of the utmost importance in your life and they revolve around your 'driving force'. Students posted their Life Rings in a discussion forum. It was interesting to see all the different ways that people expressed their Life Ring. Some made diagrams on the computer while others wrote theirs out or made pictoral graphs. I attempted to make mine on the computer but the program wouldn't cooperate so I wrote it out and then made a poster board version that I have hanging up - I look at this everyday and as things come up to do I can reference it in my memory and see if it fits within the parameters of my current Life Ring. Your Life Ring is not static and is expected to morph and change with you. As projects and committments are completed or fulfilled then your Life Ring is adjusted for where you are in your journey. Here is my current Life Ring:
(Forgive its elementary school aesthetics. I'm not very skilled in hand
drawn art and I didn't have time to make a collage with photographs).
At the center is my driving force - everything around that comes out of that focus and in one way or another ties back into that force. It is recommended that you have no more than seven surrounding areas of focus and three to four subcategories under each of those. This is the average limit of what one individual can effectively focus on. Having this around has been helpful in keeping my eyes on what really matters in life. Some of this will change very little. My center will remain consistent for a very long time. Things that will morph might be 'Arts' and 'Community'...But as they do something on the current list will have to be retired or go on hiatus. For instance Jim and I will be auditioning for a Sunset show in the near future. If we are cast then I will have to decide what from the current ARTS list will move to make room for that.
If you also struggle with an ADD life of undisciplined ambitions, I recommend doing this exercise!
Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section!
So, anyway, the class is called 'Creativity, Innovation and Change' which is taught by faculty from Penn State University. Its focus is to help you discover your creative style (everyone is creative - creativity is not limited to the arts and humanities!) and offers strategies for beginning and following through with innovative ideas. One of my favorite exercises was Life Ring. It is explained in detail in the book 'Center - A system of 6 practices for pursuing your passions and purpose in self, family, work and community' - you can get this book on Kindle for $2.99. It's a great resource written by Darrell Velegol, one of the instructors of the course.
Life Ring is an essential exercise for people like myself who run a bit ADD. I have so many things that I enjoy doing and that I would like to do that I have a hard time managing all of my interests. Life Ring is a process that narrows down those things that are of the utmost importance in your life and they revolve around your 'driving force'. Students posted their Life Rings in a discussion forum. It was interesting to see all the different ways that people expressed their Life Ring. Some made diagrams on the computer while others wrote theirs out or made pictoral graphs. I attempted to make mine on the computer but the program wouldn't cooperate so I wrote it out and then made a poster board version that I have hanging up - I look at this everyday and as things come up to do I can reference it in my memory and see if it fits within the parameters of my current Life Ring. Your Life Ring is not static and is expected to morph and change with you. As projects and committments are completed or fulfilled then your Life Ring is adjusted for where you are in your journey. Here is my current Life Ring:
At the center is my driving force - everything around that comes out of that focus and in one way or another ties back into that force. It is recommended that you have no more than seven surrounding areas of focus and three to four subcategories under each of those. This is the average limit of what one individual can effectively focus on. Having this around has been helpful in keeping my eyes on what really matters in life. Some of this will change very little. My center will remain consistent for a very long time. Things that will morph might be 'Arts' and 'Community'...But as they do something on the current list will have to be retired or go on hiatus. For instance Jim and I will be auditioning for a Sunset show in the near future. If we are cast then I will have to decide what from the current ARTS list will move to make room for that.
If you also struggle with an ADD life of undisciplined ambitions, I recommend doing this exercise!
Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section!
Comments