The Art of Possibility

Zusatztext "As applicable in the workplace as in an intimate relationship." The Boston Globe "In the presence of either Zander! one's spirit soars. Now they reveal their secrets in a deeply satisfying book. I guarantee you'll be inspired." Gail Sheehy "The passionate energy permeating The Art of Possibility is a true force for every reader for self-development and life fulfillment." Klaus Schwab ! founder and president! World Economic Forum Informationen zum Autor Rosamund Stone Zander is a family therapist, leadership coach, and landscape painter. Klappentext A NATIONAL BESTSELLER Discover the twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity and a sense of possibility into all of your endeavors in this bestselling guide from the author of Pathways to Possibility Presenting twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into all human endeavors, The Art of Possibility is the dynamic product of an extraordinary partnership. The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander's experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander's genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment. The authors' harmoniously interwoven perspectives provide a deep sense of the powerful role that the notion of possibility can play in every aspect of life. Through uplifting stories, parables, and personal anecdotes, the Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators, leaders, and performers whose lives radiate possibility into the world.Chapter One THE FIRST PRACTICE It's All Invented A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying, SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES The other writes back triumphantly, GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES To the marketing expert who sees no shoes, all the evidence points to hopelessness. To his colleague, the same conditions point to abundance and possibility. Each scout comes to the scene with his own perspective; each returns telling a different tale. Indeed, all of life comes to us in narrative form; it's a story we tell. The roots of this phenomenon go much deeper than just attitude or personality. Experiments in neuroscience have demonstrated that we reach an understanding of the world in roughly this sequence: first, our senses bring us selective information about what is out there; second, the brain constructs its own simulation of the sensations; and only then, third, do we have our first conscious experience of our milieu. The world comes into our consciousness in the form of a map already drawn, a story already told, a hypothesis, a construction of our own making. A now-classic 1953 experiment revealed to stunned researchers that a frog's eye is capable of perceiving only four types of phenomena: · Clear lines of contrast · Sudden changes in illumination · Outlines in motion · Curves of outlines of small, dark objects A frog does not "see" its mother's face, it cannot appreciate a sunset, nor even the nuances of color. It "sees" only what it needs to see in order to eat and to avoid being eaten: small tasty bugs, or the sudden movement of a stork coming in its direction. The frog's eye delivers extremely selective information to the frog's brain. The frog perceives only that which fits into its hardwired categories of perception. Human eyes are selective, too, though magnitudes more complex than those of the frog. We think we can see "everything," until we remember that bees make out patterns written in ultraviolet light on flowers, and...

"As applicable in the workplace as in an intimate relationship." —The Boston Globe  

"In the presence of either Zander, one's spirit soars. Now they reveal their secrets in a deeply satisfying book. I guarantee you'll be inspired." —Gail Sheehy

"The passionate energy permeating The Art of Possibility is a true force for every reader for self-development and life fulfillment." —Klaus Schwab, founder and president, World Economic Forum

Auteur

Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

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**A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Discover the twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity and a sense of possibility into all of your endeavors in this bestselling guide from the author of *Pathways to Possibility*

Presenting twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity into all human endeavors, The Art of Possibility is the dynamic product of an extraordinary partnership. The Art of Possibility combines Benjamin Zander's experience as conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and his talent as a teacher and communicator with psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander's genius for designing innovative paradigms for personal and professional fulfillment. The authors' harmoniously interwoven perspectives provide a deep sense of the powerful role that the notion of possibility can play in every aspect of life. Through uplifting stories, parables, and personal anecdotes, the Zanders invite us to become passionate communicators, leaders, and performers whose lives radiate possibility into the world.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter One

THE FIRST PRACTICE

It's All Invented

*A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,*SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES*The other writes back triumphantly,*GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES

    To the marketing expert who sees no shoes, all the evidence points to hopelessness. To his colleague, the same conditions point to abundance and possibility. Each scout comes to the scene with his own perspective; each returns telling a different tale. Indeed, all of life comes to us in narrative form; it's a story we tell.

    The roots of this phenomenon go much deeper than just attitude or personality. Experiments in neuroscience have demonstrated that we reach an understanding of the world in roughly this sequence: first, our senses bring us selective information about what is out there; second, the brain constructs its own simulation of the sensations; and only then, third, do we have our first conscious experience of our milieu. The world comes into our consciousness in the form of a map already drawn, a story already told, a hypothesis, a construction of our own making.

    A now-classic 1953 experiment revealed to stunned researchers that a frog's eye is capable of perceiving only four types of phenomena:

    · Clear lines of contrast

    · Sudden changes in illumination

    · Outlines in motion

    · Curves of outlines of small, dark objects

    A frog does not "see" its mother's face, it cannot appreciate a sunset, nor even the nuances of color. It "sees" only what it needs to see in order to eat and to avoid being eaten: small tasty bugs, or the sudden movement of a stork coming in its direction. The frog's eye delivers extremely selective information to the frog's brain. The frog perceives only that which fits into its hardwired categories of perception.

    Human eyes are selective, too, though magnitudes more complex than those of the frog. We think we can see "everything," until we remember that bees make out patterns written in ultraviolet light on flowers, and owls see in the dark. The senses of every species are fine-tuned to perceive information critical to their survival—dogs hear sounds above our range of hearing, insects pick up molecular traces emitted from potential mates acres away.

    We perceive only the sensations we are programmed to receive, and our awaren…