Hit the dirt
By Gary Bertwistle
One of the many things I love about what I do is that I have the opportunity to meet different people and hear their stories. I was once told that everyone has a story. No matter what you do in life, your position with family, the community, religion or business, everyone has a story. I’ve been fascinated by the stories that I’ve heard from taxi drivers, truck drivers, cleaners, the elderly, children, a CEO or strangers. Every now and then you hear a great line or a great story that sparks off your own imagination and creativity. Grammy award winning singer songwriter Fiona Apple talked about song writing on the television series Iconoclasts. Fiona said that she’s always looking and listening for a story. She said quite often somebody will say something and it will just be an expression, a line or a meaning and that starts her thought process. She said that may create a rhyme for a second line and before you know it you’ve got a chorus and then it’s not long before you have a full song.
This happened to me recently when I had a meeting with a property developer. His wife had contacted me after he had bought my second book Who Stole My Mojo? and wanted some of my time to talk about how he could bring Mojo in to his work life. Although this is not what I normally do I was quite interested to see where this guy was at particularly because his wife thought it would be valuable for us to talk. So over an espresso we talked about his business which was developing properties worth tens of millions of dollars. A lot of his developments had been in the rural sector and he was a particularly interesting country guy with an amazing talent for doing Donald Trump style negotiations. Negotiating was his thing. He loved it.
However as he talked you could tell by his body language and the words that he used that he’d simply lost his Mojo. He loved doing a deal and that brought a certain fire to the belly but more and more he was finding that even when negotiating, he didn’t have this fire in the belly and felt as though he’d lost his Mojo. Thankfully he’d loved my book and wanted to know more.
I asked him when he felt as though he had this fire going on, he felt like his Mojo was working and he had his best ideas.
Here’s what he said:
‘Quite often I find myself going through the motions in front of bank managers, consultants and contractors in dull boardrooms where I just think to myself, why am I here? It’s at these times when I normally jump in the truck and head to the country. Whenever I get out in the paddocks and start working the stock on my bike it just feels right. I have my best ideas when I’m out amongst the stock. There’s something about having to move 100 head of cattle into the pens, and if one gets loose nothing else matters except getting that one problem child back in the paddock. I’ve got to drive 15kms on dirt roads to get to the property and as soon as I hit the dirt everything just changes. I feel as though I can leave the city rat race behind and my thinking, feelings and ideas become so much clearer.’
I loved that statement – when I hit the dirt. Now for you it might not be going to the country and hitting the dirt on your property. But your sanctuary could be as simple as jumping in the water and swimming laps at the pool. For others it could be being at the beach or a Sunday morning in the sun, a good book and a great cup of coffee. For some it’s just wrestling on the carpet with the kids or it could be putting on the running shoes and knocking out 10 or 15kms. For my mum I know its doing stitch work or patchwork in the lounge room in silence. What you need to think about is how you hit the dirt and more importantly, how you can include it into your weekly routine? It’s that quiet time when you regroup, relax, stimulate your spirit and get reinvigorated. It does not have to happen every day but when you feel like you’ve lost your creative spark, you’ve lost your Mojo and its time to regroup.
It’s important to remember that you don’t have to replicate someone else’s way of finding that creative spirit. It’s your own way and each of us has that way tucked inside us somewhere. It may even take you a couple of goes to decide what works best for you but the important this is that you know to look for it. So if you want the zip back in your imagination, creativity and innovative mind and you truly want to think differently, hit the dirt.
Gary speaks to audiences around the world about unlocking their thinking, imagination and ideas in the areas of performance, problem solving, innovation, marketing, strategy, creativity and learning. He is the author of The keys to Creativity and Who Stole my Mojo.