My book, Can't see the wood for the trees - landscaping your life to get back on track, is six years old this month. It was written to help you find clarity when you don't know what to do, especially about situations that you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed about.
The premise of the Landscaping Your Life (LYL) process shared in the book, and first developed in 2000, is that when we're stuck we often use idioms containing nature to describe how we're feeling. Each chapter in the book then demonstrates how to use the very idiom we're using to describe how we're feeling as inspiration to find a solution or even multiple solutions. Idioms used in the book include:
These idioms are often used to support our stuckness and affirm the lack of options available to us. Often we've had the problem so long, and tried to find solutions and failed, that we use these idioms to convey the futility of looking further. They're often even said with a tone that conveys "enough" "I give up".
Instead of giving up though the LYL process asks "what happens if the metaphor you're using also has solutions contained within it?" For example, if the situation feels like a wood you can't see for the trees what would you do in a real wood? With options emerging that include:
and two options that over the last 20 years have most often shifted the relationship with the situation
The idea behind the LYL process being to focus on the metaphor we've used, rather than on all the details of the story we're telling, to help us to identify more solutions than we might expect. That is, we're not focussing on the problem and all the "this won't work"s "I've tried this before"s "I need to tell you about how awful the situation is" we're focussing on potential solutions.
I was reminded of this the other day when a speaker said "we've become experts on problems" and by omission not "experts at finding the solutions".
Once we have a lovely long list of metaphorical solutions the next step/outcome in the LYL process is one of two things:
For each saying the book identifies four or five different ways of exploring the metaphor and also provides stories of how other people have used the process to help when they're resonating with the idiom in question. The following poem may also shed some light on other ways nature's landscapes are used in the book to help you get more perspective about a situation you're grappling with:
From 2nd to 15th September 2024 I'll be posting each day over on linkedin with more about the book and process - follow me there or see #seethewoodforthetrees for the series of posts or #landscapingyourlife for more about this unique process.
Two other sayings included in the book are
These idioms are treated differently because rarely do we describe ourselves in this way - they're usually directed at others.
You can buy the book from all online stockists including Amazon (.co /.com) and here's what other have said about the book:
The concept behind the book inspired the Landscaping your life with Alison Smith podcast which already has three series with a fourth planned continuing the theme of using idioms we use when we're stuck to get back on track. Examples of idioms covered on the podcast and not in the book include:
You'll find the podcast where ever you listen to your podcasts including Apple and Spotify and there's a helpful index of all the episodes here.
