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When I’m playing at being a grown-up with a proper job – which I’m doing this week – my favourite way to spend my time is working with Indigo, training Edward de Bono’s tools and techniques. I was drawn to de Bono’s work around thinking skills some years ago, and over time it has become more absorbing to me, not least because choosing how to think has stood me in such good stead through my dance with cancer. I’ve written about my work here, here and here.
Today and tomorrow, in grey but gorgeous Glasgow, it’s all about Lateral Thinking. Near the beginning of the workshop, I play a short DVD of de Bono explaining why creativity is important. One of the things he talks about is how being correct at every stage does not mean you end up in the right place, although we tend to believe that if we get each bit of something right the end result will therefore be what we need it to be. I had to laugh (internally – I’m a pro) because at the time I was surreptitiously slurping down painkillers (OK – not that much of a pro), the pain in my feet following Friday’s Night Hike being quite something. But I was right at every stage.
1. I was right to surmise that an ingrowing toenail was no barrier to doing the London Night Hike, reasoning that (a) as I don’t walk on my toe it wouldn’t necessarily be under extra pressure and (b) the ingrowing toenail might be cured by the time the Hike came around.
2. I was right to make sure I had a pair of trainers that I could walk in and that wouldn’t put extra pressure on my toe.
3. I was right to train while wearing those shoes.
4. When the ingrowing-bit-of-toenail finally came off less than 24 hours before the beginning of the Night Hike, I was right to decide to wear the shoes I’d trained in. I knew they were comfortable over relatively long distances: my other, closer-fitting trainers I tend only to wear for a bit of cycling at the gym, so they were an unknown quantity when walking.
See? Right at every stage. And yet I end up with this where the ball of my foot should be.
Yes, there are blisters on my blisters.
So, Edward de Bono hits the nail on the head again: right at every stage doesn’t necessarily get you to where you need to be.
Except, of course, that I completed the Night Hike and that is exactly where I need to be. My medal is in Glasgow with me, and that’s exactly where I need it to be. And what’s a little foot excruciation when compared with being part of a team that has raised over £1000 to support Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres? It’s nothing. Not really.
Now, if someone could just drop off a foot spa at my hotel…
I look at the photo of your foot and I think to myself, "Oh, my Goodness, Woman!!!!" Ouch!
Oh, my heavens! Your poor poor foot! I hope that you are soaking that thing in epsom salts. It made me wince. Foot spa my fanny. Just soak it in a basin. That is the worst blister I've ever seen in my whole life….
You are brave Stephanie!
That looks so painful, please look after it xx
OMG, yeowtch! Your foot looks so sore. Mind you I expect it hurts a lot less than you probably did post surgery. I clicked onto one of your links and found the 6 hats of thinking, we've used that sucessfully at work before.