Over the last couple of weeks, as I’ve been commuting back and forth to the office, I’ve been capitalising on the lack of internet access and reading this really rather excellent book by Alison Smith ‘Can’t see the wood for the trees? Landscaping your life to get back on track’
Never had I imagined that a seemingly ordinary book could hold such important insight into the world of problem solving. If you’re looking for a new tool to help you get unstuck and get your life back on track, then this is the book you have to read
Alison has developed a very clever method of using metaphors to help people get unstuck, and she’s called it Landscaping Your Life. It really is ingenious!!
The basis of the LYL method is that you explore the metaphor which you use to describe your stuckness to help you become unstuck. It’s an amazing idea!
For example, when you’ve missed an opportunity (e.g. you didn’t apply for that job you fancied) you may describe it as having ‘missed the tide’. What Alison does is help you put the problem aside and explore your metaphor. You create the landscape in which you’ve missed the tide and explore where you are and what your world looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like and tastes like! By doing this it helps you uncover solutions to catching the tide next time around, or maybe even rowing out to meet it! The solutions you derive from this exploration help you find solutions to your stuckness!
One important part of this method is that you stay with your metaphorical landscape – don’t try to match your metaphor with your problem because bouncing between the two means that you’re not really focussed on either
I really enjoyed this book and I read it from cover to cover – not something I always do. I’m a slow reader and some books I just don’t have the will to ‘jog up the hill’ to finish (did you see what I did there??!)
I’m planning on testing out this newfound problem solving gem of a method – and my metaphor is ‘stuck between a rock and hard place’.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and experience in your excellent book, Alison. So glad I had the chance to read it
I think you should too!
Can’t see the wood for the trees?
