Friday, June 26, 2015

Finding your niche

We're more than simple dominoes...
I’ve been reading a book recently about how nature is adapting to climate change. It’s much more positive than the doom and gloom messages we see in the global press.

Funnily enough our global flora and fauna are far more resilient than we might imagine, and while it’s still important for us to reduce our polluting and damaging activities, our natural environments are likely to recover much more quickly than some predict.

The book reminded me that our ecosystems aren’t static and closed systems but open, adaptable and collaborative.
"Our ecosystems are open, adaptable and collaborative"
It's a misconception that each animal or plant only has a single vital role to play, each with its own unique niche, and all stacked up like a fragile row of dominoes. The reality is that different species collectively tend to perform niche functions within an ecosystem - functions like providing specific habitat, pollinating flowers or dispersing seeds.

Happily, plenty of different species are surprisingly resilient to a changing climate. Yes there are niches, but they're big enough for a number of species!

I was a big fan of Roald Dahl books when I was growing up. To be honest I still am and I'm looking forward to introducing them to my kids when they're old enough. I'm sure that many of you will be familiar with Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. In the story Charlie finds a winning golden ticket in a chocolate bar which leads him into adventures beyond his wildest dreams. I do wonder whether we have times in our lives where we feel that finding our place, our calling, our niche is like searching for that golden ticket. Maybe we'll find it, more likely we won't, but at least we'll have a nice chocolate bar to eat anyway!
"Different species collectively tend to perform niche functions within an ecosystem"
The "golden ticket" mindset that we've only got a narrow niche to fill in life, that we're a single domino to be placed in line, can be restrictive and discouraging. Of course there's no harm in searching for that golden ticket, but maybe there isn't just one ticket to be found. Like the broad ecological niches, our lives are best thought of as a broad portfolio, richer and more nuanced than being a single domino with a single position. As Jeff Goins might say, we can be a jack of all trades and master of some.

Still looking for the golden ticket??
That doesn't make it any easier to find our place in the world, but it does mean that you don't need to panic if you don't feel you've found your purpose yet.

Thinking in ecosystem terms, one thing about niches is that they don't exist in isolation - they can only function as part of something bigger, and they tend to be something to grow into.

When I studied Civil Engineering I didn't have a fixed idea in my mind of what I'd end up doing with it.

I figured that was a sensible vocational degree to study, especially in the absence of any other good ideas! Thinking back I picked it because it was the broadest engineering discipline and so it left my options open.
"The Golden Ticket mindset that we've only got a narrow niche to fill in life can be restrictive and discouraging."
Fast forward over thirteen years and I've found myself to be a specialist generalist - by which I mean I have broad skills in lots of areas but have ended up pretty specialist in the area of water and flood risk. I must say that this wasn't an intentional niche to fill, but as I've been part of a diverse organisation I've learnt lots of skills, undertaken lots of projects and found myself especially adept in one area above others. But it's a wide niche, accommodating others, and it's not exclusive - I can cover lots of other bases too. It's good to be adaptable!

In my working life this is a niche I happen to be filling at the moment, but it's unlikely to always be the case. Change is inevitable, and thinking in portfolio terms helps us to consider other niches we could fill. If you've never read Who Moved My Cheese? it's a fantastic little parable about dealing with change in our lives, especially in our working lives.

So don't worry if you don't feel like you've found your niche yet, if you're still searching for your golden ticket. The main thing is to be a part of a wider ecosystem, to be connected to something bigger, and see what grows - maybe there's a dozen silver tickets to find instead!

Likewise, if you're happily in your niche, don't get complacent - change is happening faster than you may think! So stay open-minded, grateful and aware of your environment. Your next niche may be closer than you know...
"Change is inevitable, and thinking in portfolio terms helps us to consider other niches we could fill."
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Thanks for taking the time to read Finding Your Niche. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here).

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.
My Random Musings
My Random Musings

Friday, June 19, 2015

Interview with Cathy Madavan

I recently had a fantastic interview with Cathy Madavan, author of the book Digging for Diamonds, for The Potting Shed Podcast. If you haven't caught up with my podcast yet then you can find it on iTunes here and listen in a variety of ways here as well - I'd love for you to subscribe and it's completely free!

Cathy and I talk about becoming the diamond we're made to be, and Cathy had such great insight I've embedded the episode below so you can listen to it here too!

I really hope you enjoy it, I got so much out of it myself, and as always I'd love to hear your comments!



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Thanks for taking the time to check out my interview with Cathy Madavan. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here).

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Alignment

Straight-line thinking...
The other week I planted out our potatoes on the allotment, and this year to get them in dead straight rows I ran some twine between pegs at either end and used a tape measure to space the holes and rows out evenly. 

Hopefully this means that as the plants come up they’ll be in perfectly aligned rows, and will impress our fellow plot holders! It’s nice to have things neat and tidy, especially on our allotment – sadly this is less often the case!
"Roman roads are famously dead straight..."
I read a fascinating book recently about the Iron Age map of Europe – essentially the druidic cultures of that time created a sophisticated road network using solar alignments, pre-dating the Roman roads, and in many cases literally forming the literal foundation to later Roman infrastructure. 

Roman roads are famously dead straight, as were the druidic solar roads, and this is certainly true when plotted on a large scale map. But on the ground even Roman roads deviated like a lazy sine wave around local obstructions and features – never more than a few hundred metres or so, but minor deviations from “true”.

So often with the alignment of our life we can find ourselves thinking in straight lines. Perhaps our subconscious desire is for our lives to be orderly and linear, like my row of potatoes or a Roman road. As we all discover, however, our paths are rarely straight and circumstances in all shapes and forms conspire to knock us off course.
"So often with the alignment of our life we can find ourselves thinking in straight lines"
In my Civil Engineering degree and in the early years of my career I spent time learning about road design. With highway design you think in terms of straight lines and curves - normally the curves are transitions between one straight line and another. The radius of the curve depends on the design speed so for faster roads the curves need to be wider. In fact, the best road alignments are marked by the most appropriate curves to fit the terrain - side to side in profile and up and down in long-section. The most efficient designs have just enough curvature to enable a smooth journey whilst minimising costly earthworks.

The same principles apply to buried drainage systems, borrowing another analogy from the world of civil engineering. The best systems have all the incoming branches suitably angled for smooth flow - all aligned in the same direction as travel. 

Surrender to the meanders...
Turning to the environment, the natural alignment of rivers and watercourses is invariably not straight. Yes, in their higher reaches they may be straighter, but a healthy river has wide meanders as it moves downstream. 

No matter how much we try to artificially straighten and contain them, rivers have a knack of bursting their banks and finding their natural alignment again. 

In fact, the meanders help slow the flow, create floodplains and generally result in a richer ecosystem. 

So apart from planting our potatoes or travelling along Roman roads, maybe it's time to ditch our straight-line thinking and surrender to transitions, curves and meanders. Like rivers our natural alignment is more of a meander, and maybe now's the time to allow your banks to burst in a few places to find that width again.
"maybe it's time to ditch our straight-line thinking and surrender to transitions, curves and meanders."


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Thanks for taking the time to read Alignment. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here).

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.

Friday, June 05, 2015

Forward Visibility

You can't always see round corners...
This week we've been on a family holiday in Cornwall, which has been a refreshing break for all of us. A characteristic of Cornish roads is that many of them are narrow, winding and have high hedges either side. 

This makes it much harder to see what's coming around the corner, and therefore a more cautious driving approach is needed when travelling on these country lanes. It also means that a "Cornish mile" takes longer to travel than a regular mile, therefore journey times and expectations need to be adjusted accordingly!

Relying on an out of date sat-nav can also lead to mishap, especially when combined with Cornish lanes. We very nearly had a mishap when directed down a turning which swiftly deteriorated into a muddy, potholed, overgrown track - slightly stressful to be honest as we bounced slowly along from pothole to pothole, nervous for our car's suspension! While I gripped the steering wheel tighter and held my breath, my daughter piped up from the back seats saying how much she was enjoying the adventure! I must confess I didn't quite see it the same way until afterwards when, after a mile of "adventure" we rejoined a more navigable road.
"...a "Cornish mile" takes longer to travel than a regular mile.."
Driving in Cornwall has reminded me yet again of the importance of being journey-focused and not merely destination focused. So often we head for the nearest motorway - the wide, fast road - to get to our endpoint as efficiently as we can. And not just when we're in our cars, but metaphorically in our careers, relationships and personal goals as well. I wonder if we have a bias towards the wide and fast routes in our life journeys? Admittedly it can be easier to see what's coming, but our trips become more linear, more functional and potentially less fulfilling.

Of course, in life we can rarely see what's coming our way round the next corner, and more often it's like we're travelling on Cornish country lanes rather than motorways. If you're like me, it's easy to have a "fast road" attitude when travelling on slow routes, leading to frustration and road rage if I'm honest! I'm not saying that fast is bad, just that for this particular life-journey metaphor you need to balance your speed with the visibility ahead. If you're on a proverbial Cornish road then the best thing to do is adjust your speed, enjoy the scenery and allow for extra travel time - otherwise you'll get frustrated.
"Of course, in life we can rarely see what's coming our way round the next corner"
There are two things not to do on a meandering narrow road. Firstly don't drive too fast because you never know when a juggernaut will come flying around the next bend. But secondly, don't drive too slowly - yes slow down for really sharp bends - but in general drive the road at a reasonable pace. Otherwise you'll take far too long to get anywhere and you're likely to hold other people up behind you. The knack is to drive confidently and decisively without driving dangerously. One other lesson that's helpful is about following the tail lights of someone more familiar with the route, let alone reading the signposts - a topic for a whole other post!
"It's not realistic to be able to see the whole road ahead of us"
It's not realistic to be able to see the whole road ahead of us. There are too many twists and turns, ups and downs for that, especially when we're looking to a distant destination. In my own life I've too often been risk-averse in the face of this, driving too slowly and not getting anywhere as a result. This is just as frustrating as trying to find shortcuts and save time - applying a "fast road" attitude to our lives.

So don't worry about not being able to see around the next corner, and don't fret about your journey time - keep on confidently going, and remember that Cornish miles are longer than regular miles! And if you find yourself crawling down a potholed track, take my daughter's advice and realise that it's all part of the adventure!

Wherever you find yourself, these words from the book of Jeremiah are something I find helpful - especially because they were spoken when God's people were in exile. Even when we're in a foreign country, even when life is taking a scenic route: "I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and future" (Jer 29:11).

No matter what twists and turns you've faced, there's always hope around the corner. 


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Thanks for taking the time to read Forward Visbility. If you've enjoyed it please share it with your friends on social media! Why not subscribe to The Potting Shed Podcast on iTunes for the audio version and much more (direct RSS feed is here).

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to comment below or email me at stricklandmusings@gmail.com 

If you want to stay up to date please sign up to my mailing list, and do check out my book Life Space on Amazon.