Ask yourself:
1. And what would I like to have happen in 2013?
Answer by stating what you would like, not what you want to get rid of/ not have/avoid/stop doing, e.g. ‘I’d like to eat healthily.’ rather than ‘I’d like to stop overeating.’; ‘I want to build a better relationship with my father.’ rather than ‘I don’t want to fight endlessly with my father .’)
2. And is there anything else about that (answer to Q1)?
Add detail to your previous answer.
3. And all of that (answers to Q1 and Q2) is like what?
This asks for a metaphor for your desired outcome. Your metaphor can be imaginary (like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow), or a real experience you’ve had/your memory of it (like climbing the Grand Canyon), an amalgamation of memories (like Christmas morning when I was a child), or anything else. There are no right or wrong answers.
4. Then ask these questions, in any order, and repeating them as seems useful, to learn more about your metaphor (‘x’ and ‘y’ refer to any word or phrase that you’ve said. Keep to words and phrases that refer to your desired outcome rather than to any problems):
And is there anything else about x?
And what kind of x is that x?
And where is that x? or Whereabouts is that x?
And that x is like what? And is
there a relationship between x and y?
there a relationship between x and y?
And when x, what happens to y?
5. Now you know about the form of your desired outcome, learn about the sequence in which things happen in your metaphor. Again, ask the questions in whatever order seems useful and repeat them as needed:
And then what happens? or What happens next?
And what happens just before x?
And where could x come from?
6. By now, your metaphor may have transformed or evolved, and you may have decided that you have all you need for your desired outcome to be realised, in which case ask yourself more of the questions from section 4, to make your metaphor ‘all singing and all dancing’ so that it has substance and staying-power (all my metaphors of course, not yours and therefore not Clean – sorry!).
7. If it is still a work in progress, ask yourself:
And what needs to happen for (metaphor of desired outcome)?
And is there anything else that needs to happen? Repeat this question until the answer is ‘No.’
Write all your answers down. They are the conditions that need to be in place for you to realise your desired outcome.
8. Now check if/how the conditions can be achieved. For each condition ask:
And can [condition] (happen)?
If ‘Yes.’ then give it a tick and move on.
If ‘No.’ ask:
And what needs to happen for [condition] (to happen)?
And then repeatedly ask:
And is there anything else that needs to happen? until the answer is ‘No.’ And then loop back to the start of section 8 and keep looping until any issues with conditions have been addressed.
Then return to section 6 to get your metaphor all singing and dancing.
9. Finish by doing whatever will make that metaphor still more memorable to you, e.g. drawing a picture of your metaphor (no need for it to be a masterpiece), making a 3D model, looking up any meaning-filled words in a dictionary with the derivation of words (etymology) to see if any further insights come from what you read, taking actions related to the metaphor, finding out about processes related to the metaphor e.g. learning how seeds germinate, if the metaphor involves a seed taking root, or finding an object to act as a reminder of the metaphor.
May 2013 be a year you remember for all the right reasons!