A short video grabbed my attention this morning. It was about how gloom and glitter co-exist. “I’m sure she is bewildered as I am by the fact that those rather bleak times and this glittering evening are somehow part of the same process and same experience.” David Szalay, author of Flesh, thanked his wife as he wrapped up his acceptance speech after winning the Booker Prize.
He also kept coming back to the importance of taking risks. Which somehow connected me to this beautiful quote by Sylvia Plath that greeted me on the Insight Timer app: “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” The ability to take risks is about embracing courage and letting go of self-doubt. “Will I? Can I? Should I? Am I ready?” Grappling with these questions is ok, but at some stage, take the risk or risk looking back and asking yourself the dreaded “what if?” As someone wise once said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
I keep reminding myself that it’s better to take the risk than to live with the regret of not doing so. “What project. What person? What situation? Can be made richer or better because of my involvement and participation” I ask myself.
Life is lived in the arena. The gallery offers some insights and viewpoints that one sometimes misses when in the fray, but I must jump back in and take the risk. This is what I was reminded of listening to David’s acceptance speech.
It also brought into focus the power of words. Word matter. What we write, what we say, what we consume in words and pictures reverberate. It’s through stories that I touch the world, and the world touches me. A reminder of the privilege and a responsibility that every communication and coaching professional carries.
Maybe it’s not just another post, press release, or reel. Maybe it’s not just another coaching conversation with no clear immediate list of to-dos’s that emerge. Maybe it’s having a real impact on somebody’s life, and that matters more than we can comprehend. I will probably never meet David in my life. He does not know that I exist, and yet his labour of love – the book Flesh and his acceptance speech found their way onto my feed and into my thinking and writing this week.
I am likely to buy his book and hopefully read it. His publicist told him to prepare a speech in case he wins. Awards help shine a light on good work. Good PR is often about helping others find the good in others. Our work matters. Our stories matter.
David’s wife, who bore witness to the bleak moments and allowed him the space to find his way through difficult times. She found mention in his “thank you” list, along with many other hands that held his as he wrote the book that won the Booker this year.
To me, these words of thanks were reminders about two roles I get to play – grabbing attention and giving attention. The communications professional is geared towards the attention economy. Finding ways to get hold of another’s attention is what the PR business is about. We call it “earned attention” as opposed to the “paid attention” variety.
And then the coach in me must be able to, give my complete attention, without attachment or judgment, to hold space and listen. To give one’s complete attention to another, so that they can hear themselves think and allow their true feelings to emerge and crystallise into an insight, is a gift. Both these worlds of communication and coaching are connected by the need for insight-driven work and the grabbing and giving of attention.
In life, sometimes there is gloom, other times there is glitter, and in between these, in the liminal space, take a risk or two. Pay attention, find an insight, and act on it – that’s life lived well.
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