Cam Findlay

Posts Tagged ‘calling’

Creative images are those clear images you may have had as a child or while growing up that have internally hinted throughout your life so far at what your purpose or calling may be.  Below is a bit of a time line from memory (I’m sure I have left some things out) of some of the creative images and opportunities or invitations to explore my creative images.  You will see that technology and invitations to align myself with technology based activities is intertwined throughout my time line.

0-5 years: From what I have heard from my parents and relatives and to a lesser extend what I actually remember myself I have always as a child been drawn to gadgets and electronic things… I remember a story told to me by my parents when I was about 18 months old or so I had this electronic toy phone which made tones when you pressed the buttons… I carried it everywhere and one afternoon was able to highly annoy my parents while stuck in traffic in Brisbane’s 30 something  degree heat by holding one of the buttons down… perhaps I was just letting them know about my enjoyment of technology in my own special way.

6-8 years: My Grandmother worked as a teacher in the childrens ward at Timaru hospital.  I remember as a kid she would bring some of the computers home to her house (Apple IIe!) and I would spend a lot of time on them figuring out how they worked, playing games and playing with a publishing program making all sorts of graphics.  I was quite lucky to be able to have access and free time to learn the ins and outs of computing at a young age.  Becasue of this jump start when I later encountered computers during primary school I was able to help my class mates use them.

9-11 years: I would spend hours after school and weekends at either of my old school friends houses tinkering and playing games on thier Commandore 64 computers (A classic personal computing platform).  Again I find this was all adding to my understanding of what computers could do, how they worked and continued to spur my interest in technology.  I was lucky as at those times (late 80’s, early 90’s) it was uncommon for house holds to have computers in the small town I lived in and to have access and shared interest with 2 friends who had computers available to them is another one of those oppertunies offered up by the universe that I was able to take.

11-13 years: I remember having this great teacher at Intermediate School that was very much into electronics and computing.  He would run after school courses in building circuit boards and writing using the LOGO programming language which of course I took up.  It was my first introductions to understanding just how computers worked and how to give them instructions to get them to do what I wanted them to do.

13-15 years: We moved to Christchurch and I started high school.  I also had an Auntie and Uncle who introduced me to the internet and let me visit them whenever I wished to research school projects and generally spend time plaing around and surfing the internet.  I remember catching buses, walking and finding anyway I could to get myself to their home and sitting on their doorstep until they got home just to spend a few hours on the net.

15-18 years: I was introduced to web publishing and HTML programming by a friend of my Mother’s boss, subsequently I took over building and maintaining the company website (They imported and exported classic cars around the world).  I also spent a lot of time during my high school years building websites for family friends companies and generally getting a sense of the global community of the web and that I could reach and communicate with a worldwide audience.

18-20 years: I did really well in the commerce subjects (Economics and Accounting) at high school and went on to start a Bachelor of Commerce at Canterbury but after a year and a half left to pursue my passion for technology and practical skills by completing a Diploma of Multimedia at the National College of Design and Technology.

20+ years: I have been working in the web and technology industry ever since!  New opportunities are always presenting themselves and I do my best to take them up. I have been lucky enough to attend some great technology related conferences and meet some of the worlds best in digital media just by being open to these creative images and invitations.

Looking back over all these childhood memories, creative images  and invitations it paints a clear picture that my purpose, calling or what ever you wish to call it definatly somehow will involve computers and technology as these themes and the invitations to follow what I enjoyed seem to have been present through growing up.

Yesterday was a great lecture, I really enjoyed the concept of flow.  I have definitely found myself in states of flow both in my work as a web developer (with hours of intense coding and creative brainstorming sessions) and in my hobbies of DJ-ing and Iaido.

Flow is that state of mind where time stands still, where you tap into the subconscious in something that your doing but remain in complete control with an intense sense of focus.  This state of mind lets us operate at extraordinary levels of performance where our skills meet the challenge ahead of us.

I found it interesting that many of the people talking about leadership had the same ideas but different ways of saying it.  People like Jim Collins are pushing core values and a sense of purpose, Joseph Campbell’s idea of the “Hero’s Journey” taps into the ideas of an internal and external call to adventure and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about differentiation and integration.  In all cases where our levels of each of the 2 elements intersect we find ourselves in a state of flow or complexity.

It can also be seen as a line in the sand that is our “limits” and by reaching states of flow and pushing past this line in the sand we can draw a new line, this then becomes our new, higher limits.  On a side note a while back while I was at the Canterbury Kendo Dojo for my Iaido session, the Kendo instructor before our class was talking about this very thing.  In Kendo (or to an extent all martial arts) you have a limit of energy, strength or stamina this is your limit, when you are at you most tired and exhausted from training you should push yourself to train that little bit extra. By doing this  you will have pushed past your limit and set a new limit, this is now your limit, which didn’t exist before.  I am thinking there maybe a lot of crossover between ideas of leadership and Japanese Budo ideas, something to explore later I think.

Boiling this all down to me it seems that flow exists where we have internal feelings and abilities or talents if you will, and the world/universe has a hole/need/challenge that only our particular talents fit in.  Perhaps where we can create flow in our work or personal life we can find meaning to what we are doing.

This weeks Journal Questions:

1. Sketch a ‘flow’ flowchart, mark on it at least 3 activities in which you experience flow.
2. Analyse those 3 activities, what core values and sense of purpose are present within each of them? and/or as a result of those 3 activities, how have you or how could you become more integrated and differentiated?
4. Draw a time line of your life, on it record times that may reflect what your ‘creative images’ might be. Also reflect and record what ‘invitations’  might have been present.
5. Use your journaling and time line to reflect on what all this might suggest about your future work or calling.