Over the past year I have spent a good deal of time working to better understand the things that are important to me and how these translate into the 'why' for Opus 29. Fundamentally, Opus 29 is built on the belief that 'great people make amazing things happen' and supporting this belief are eight guiding principles that help me bring my purpose to life. These principles also provide me with a reference point against which I can check my own actions and behaviours...particularly when times get a little tough.
Today, and for the next seven Friday's I will publish blogs outlining my eight guiding principles and explain what they mean to me. Perhaps, however, most importantly I will also begin to outline how I intend to bring these to life through my actions. These are the things that I want you to see and experience when we meet, connect or talk. They are also the things that you can expect from me as and when we work together.
So, guiding principle number 1...CREATIVITY
For me this means that…
“I will take time to understand the root of the problem and then apply diverse thinking to unearth potential solutions. I will seek freedom to explore and imagine how the future could be and will make connections between existing theories and ideas to produce new and inventive paths. I know that we live in a constantly shifting environment and that in order to thrive amongst change we need to appreciate, recognise and embrace different perspectives in order to push boundaries and find new ways of working and being. I believe in being authentic and that being ‘me’, which can often be daunting, is necessary if we are really to find innovative and effective ways of chasing our dreams.”
My commitment is that I will then bring this to life by:
Hearing what is said, or left unsaid, and being genuinely interested
Being willing to share my own story and experiences when they are relevant
Going exploring (metaphorically and in reality) to find new paths between places and ideas
Listening to the ideas of others and encouraging them to share
Not being constrained by current culture or expectations and being willing to always ask ‘why?’
Nurturing my creative side and allowing myself time and space to write that poem, draw that picture, play that song or try that new thing
...and this week my creativity has been in the form of recording a couple of 'old' songs in new ways. Have a listen on my Soundcloud channel if you want to hear what I have been up to!