Project Renaissance home page | The Stream Index
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Newsletter of Project Renaissance and Win Wenger
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October 2003
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Quote of the Month
* Announcements
* Events
* FEATURE ARTICLE: "Goal-Setting in Creative Problem-Solving
and Accelerated Learning" - by Tijl Koenderink
* Comments & Feedback
* Links - archives, back issues, homepage
* Reader Questionnaire
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable as a
positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that
others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry
and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house
of another, but let him work diligently to build one for himself,
thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence."
--Abraham Lincoln
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
~~~
WELCOME to all new members who have joined us this month. We hope
to hear from you and to give you much food for thought. Back issues
are available upon request. Just add the month to the subject line:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
~~~
Friday, November 14, 2003, by day, get good footing in the basics
and you can reach higher. Basic techniques of Project Renaissance,
hands-on, professionally guided - mostly by Win Wenger himself,
author of most of these techniques. Learn great methods in great
company! The Beyond-Einstein Training, singular one-day version
leading straight into takeoff into the Double-Festival. See more
information on http://www.winwenger.com/df12.htm
~~~
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRAIN TO BECOME A TRAINER?
Project Renaissance is seeking dedicated individuals who like to
help others help themselves, and who would like to learn the
techniques of Project Renaissance to this end. There will be four
days of intensive trainer training in conjunction with the November
Double Festival, and we are exploring other methods for bringing
training to you.
If you'd like to find out more about the possibility of becoming a
trainer, whether full-time or part-time, please email your interest
to Project Renaissance's Executive Director and Conference Manager,
Tijl Koenderink, at mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl?subject=Training
~~~
ANOTHER BRANCH OF THE WORK? Win Wenger believes that his work in
the topic of incentives and political economy is as empowering for
the free human individual as is all the mind- and brain-related
work of his that you've seen here. To discover why, and to find
many ways in which our current troubled times and situations might
be resolved positively, please see Win's latest online book,
"Incentives As a Preferred Instrument of Corporate and Public
Policy." This hugely significant work is free for you at
http://www.winwenger.com/ebooks/incentive.htm
~~~
SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER? If you currently only subscribe to
you can upgrade your participation in Project Renaissance to full
membership, free. Membership in Project Renaissance entitles members
to additional benefits. If you're not yet a member, please register
now, here: http://www.winwenger.com/regmem.htm - or from link on
the homepage, http://www.winwenger.com .
~~~
DUPLICATE MAILING? If you received two (or more?) copies of this
issue of
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=duplicate
~~~
How you can participate...
* You can post messages on Project Renaissance's discussion board
about any Project Renaissance topic and join any ongoing
discussions. No log-in required. Please visit the homepage at
http://www.winwenger.com and click the Discussion Board link.
To post a message right now, click here:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
* The long-established, popular Image-Streaming egroup is here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imagestream - requires Yahoo sign-in.
* Submit articles, comments or questions for possible inclusion in
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EVENTS
Free monthly meetings of High Thinktank...Open to the public.
October meeting: Wednesday, October 15, 2003
7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. promptly
Other Fall dates:
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Meetings begin at 7:30pm sharp. New topics each time.
Please check the Project Renaissance website calendar
for details and directions, at
http://www.winwenger.com/events.htm
~~~
DOUBLE FESTIVAL XII - November 2003
This year's theme: "Problem-Solving in the Global Village"
It's a small world, after all. Although absolute distances have
not changed over time, relative distance have, very much. This is
true in a great number of ways. We have come a long way from
measuring distances in day-marches. Where Christopher Columbus
took months of sailing to cover the distance between
a great impact on trade, which in turn caused borders to open and
and a far freer interchange to arise between cultures and once-
distant countries.
In recent decades this interaction has been much enhanced by the
invention of telegraph, television, telephone and, most recently,
the Internet. The entire world is at your fingertips. There is
nothing unusual about knowing within a few hours what happened
15,000 miles away from you.
Where this development has created a wealth of options, such as
trade with many other cultures and a broader understanding of
one's place in the world, it has made problems as well.
Many questions arise. If we are able to influence problems, are
we then responsible for all or a part of them? Should the various
nations of the world dissolve into one global collectivism and
give up their own cultures, or cling even more firmly to ancient
traditions, even as we cling to our own individuality, and our
self-expression? Should we worry about our microcosm, when the
macrocosm appears to have far greater and more important problems?
All these issues exist, but they are ignored by most people, who
tend to avoid so broad a vision. Applying Creative Problem-Solving
techniques should be not only in the scope of one's own life but
looking beyond this.
Win Wenger's Project Renaissance has taken the initiative of
actively raising questions on these issues. In an informal setting
we will use the latest Project Renaissance techniques to address
these problems and interactively discuss and explore them with
participants and a faculty of highly qualified speakers.
Project Renaissance's annual conference, Double Festival XII, will
take place November 14-20, 2003, in the
will begin with a condensed course of Beyond Einstein training
(Friday, Nov. 14) and conclude with four days of trainer training
(November 17-20). The main events will be on Saturday and Sunday,
November 15-16, 2003. Attendees can choose to register for some or
all of the sessions.
For further details and registration forms, visit the website of
Project Renaissance at http://www.winwenger.com/df12.htm . If
you've ever thought about making a difference in the world, this
is the time. Learn and practice Project Renaissance's powerful
methods for finding answers and resolving conflicts, on both the
personal and the global scale. Tuition costs have been held to
previous years' levels, and some discounts may apply.
The dynamics of working with a group of caring and thinking people
in a highly motivated, enlightened environment is an experience
you will not soon forget and that will have a lasting beneficial
effect in your own life. Register now.
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Feature Article:
GOAL-SETTING IN CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING
AND ACCELERATED LEARNING
by Tijl Koenderink
standing there blazing while trying to chop down a tree with an
obviously dull axe. Trying to help him, you suggest that he should
sharpen his axe, but before you even get a chance to explain, he
mumbles something about no time and starts chopping again.
This story, one that most people have heard many times before in
connection with every single "more effective" technique around,
applies very much to goalsetting as well. What use is there in
driving really fast if you don't know where you're going, or if
you know where you are going but don't know why you should want
to be there?
Goalsetting, or planning in general, has several advantages over
raw chaos. For one thing, it gives a sense of overview and
control of the situation. Instead of feeling insecure and unsure
about what is to be done and what is to come, you could have a
feeling of mastery and a sense of where you are going. It is
also far more efficient, as you are less likely to drift away
from your goal, and you limit the risk of overaccomplishing your
goal. Also, the sense of satisfaction of beating milestone after
milestone, goal after goal, is unequalled by hardly anything else:
the sense of accomplishment of that small checkmark on your list.
Where a lot of books give you very complicated and unnecessary
information on goalsetting, in the end it all boils down to three
things which are really important and directly applicable in
goalsetting:
* The practical goalsetting
* The personal goal/principle/value to go with that
* Motivation
You start with the practical planning aspect: What do I want to
accomplish. Why get myself overworked in becoming a chef if all
I want to accomplish is to impress the family on Thanksgiving.
There would be more sense in investing in a good
and practising that. So be careful not to set your goal higher
than absolutely necessary.
In describing your goal, pay attention to the following details:
Make it a measurable goal. “Doing underwater breathing” is a
poorly framed goal. When will you have achieved it? It's hard
to find a moment which satisfies you and allows you to put down
that checkmark. "Stay underwater for three minutes” is, on the
other hand, a clearly defined, measurable (stopwatch) goal.
Always try to put a timeframe to it: "tomorrow" will never become
today; "October 29, 2003" will.
The next part is a bit harder. It involves some self-knowledge.
It requires you to know your own personal goals and values, and
how to apply them to practical matters. The example above could
perhaps be that one of your values is having a good family life,
and part of that is to be able to host nice family get-togethers.
This goal is easily transferable to the preparation of a good
turkey. Black turkeys generally don’t make for good family get-
togethers.
If there is no way, direct or indirect, that you can link your
personal values to what you want to learn, it will be hard to
start learning. On the other hand, if something assists a major
value, it will be far easier.
The personal goal isn’t always as direct and clear. Try asking a
high school student how he likes math! But were he to take the
time to realize that when he starts his own business in 5 to 10
years, he will be able to apply economic principles far better,
he might be more inclined to start working on math now.
The last point is not an official part of goalsetting, but it is
very effective. Before you start your learning experience or your
problem-solving session, take time to evaluate the practical and
personal goals involved. Then spend some time on a Motivational
Moment. Imagine and visualise yourself accomplishing that goal,
having the nice dinner, getting the attractive partner you always
wanted, impressing your friends with your guitar skills. This will
give you an energy boost and a reason to start working.
The same three steps go for Creative Problem-Solving. Determine
your goal, the steps toward it, your personal value attached to
it, and imagine it being done. All through life you will get a
benefit from taking two minutes before plunging into something,
wondering what you are going to do, why you are doing it, and how
nice it will be to have it done. This goes for everything from
getting through school, getting that assignment done, having a
relationship, and learning a new language.
Just give the system the benefit of the doubt. Try it in the
coming week. Don’t be like the poorly equipped woodcutter, but
invest those two minutes and be razor-sharp for your next task.
- Tijl Koenderink
============================================
About the Author:
Tijl Koenderink became the Executive Director of Project Renaissance
in May 2003. He is an entrepreneur, organizer, trainer, and traveler.
Currently he resides in The Netherlands, spending a few months each
year in the
form called "Capoeira".
~~~
To send feedback privately to the author, email Tijl Koenderink at
mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl?subject=Goal-Setting
To send your comments about this article to
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Goal-Setting
To post your feedback or promote a discussion of this topic:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
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COMMENTS & FEEDBACK
I wonder how much anyone at Project Renaissance might know
of, or might be interested in, possible applications of
Erickson's utilization techniques to intelligence development.
I know that the Neuro-Linguistic Programming folks (in
particular, Richard Bandler) have done much with the
psychotherapeutic applications of Erickson's utilization
techniques and Bandler himself has something called Design
Human Engineering, where new abilities are designed and
"installed" by use of various utilization processes. And there
certainly are a number of books on teaching and learning which
are based on NLP ideas, but specific applications to enhancing
IQ and intellectual functions per se are uncommon, and the use
of Ericksonian utilization techniques to this end hasn't been
anywhere to be found, in my experience to date.
To attempt to explain utilization as briefly as possible: you
take something that you can do well in one area of your life
(we'll call this a resource) and employ (i.e., utilize) that
ability in another area of your life.
An example of this might be found in one of Richard Bandler's
cases: one man enjoyed ski-jumping (which requires a good deal
of courage) but was afraid to start conversations with attractive
women. The way the resource was utilized was to have the
client "map over" his courage from one situation to the other.
This can be accomplished in a multitude of ways. Any good
book by or about Milton Erickson will present many brilliantly
creative methods: "Conversations With Milton Erickson",
volumes I, II, III; "Uncommon Therapy", by Jay Haley;
"Taproots", by William O'Hanlon; et cetera.
Anyway, I just had the notion there just *might* be something
interesting... and perhaps useful... in this!
-
~~~
Win Wenger <mailto:wwenger101@aol.com> responds:
This method seems sound enough to me. It'd be GREAT if people
were to pick up on this aspect of NLP.
In my own very small way I've urged people who've gotten good at
chess or at some computer game, to the point where they coolly
ace each situation they pass through, to cultivate that cool
clear precise feeling and then bring that with them into the test
or final exam or GRE or whatever. Anchoring that a la NLP would
likely be an improvement on that simple notion....
- Win Wenger
~~~
Connie Gruen ( mailto:cgruen@chorus.net ) writes:
Ladybird Books [mentioned in
good books overall for children! Our Montessori school used a
number of early readers. The children loved them, and so did I!
We have used several image-streaming ideas (modified--hopefully
not entirely butchered) in our state agency, both in a creativity
class and, recently, in an ethics class for social worker
recertification. Well received!
Since I'm stuck in a ridiculously petty work problem currently,
... I very much needed your email newsletter to remind me to think
along different pathways this evening, even though I have much
left-brain work to do.
Thank you!
- Connie Gruen
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LINKS
* Back issues of THE STREAM by email upon request from
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
* Archived copies of Capital Ideasmiths are here:
http://www.debateit.net/projren/newsletter/index.htm
* Project Renaissance homepage: http://www.winwenger.com
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PROJECT RENAISSANCE
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READER QUESTIONNAIRE
1. When you have a task to do that is not your favorite thing but
needs doing anyway, how do you motivate yourself to get it done?
Don't do it ________
Put it off as long as possible ______
Visualize the desired end result ______
Other ____ (please specify)
2. Which motivation works best for you:
Doing it to please someone else _____
Doing it for the money _______
Increasing self-esteem ______
Other ____ (please specify)
3. When a task turns out harder than anticipated, do you:
Give up _____
Get help _____
Try harder _____
Other _____ (please specify)
To return this questionnaire, simply reply to this email, deleting
all but the questionnaire portion. Mark your answers with an X
except where long answer is indicated.
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