How Q-Storming in Nature Helps Us To Find a Path Forward Faster with Dr. Starling Starling Part 1 (of 2)
“We are going to be our best when we are out in nature and when we are creating space for ourselves to explore and be inspired.”
YOUR KEY INSIGHTS FROM Dr. SABRINA
Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist™, is the author of the How to Hire the Best series, The 4 Week Vacation™ (coming October 21, 2021), as well as the founder of Tap the Potential LLC. Tap the Potential specializes in transforming small businesses into highly profitable, Great Places to Work and sending business owners on 4 Week Vacations to celebrate that achievement. Dr. Starling has coached thousands of entrepreneurs to overcome the day-to-day struggles of business growth by getting out of their own way and developing a success mindset that propels them to higher and higher levels of success (and profitability). As a co-host of Tap the Potential’s Profit by Design Podcast, she shares tips, tools and strategies to help entrepreneurs design sustainably profitable businesses that support the lifestyle they desire.
taking the non-conventional path
“As we're talking about the nature advantage, I want to tie this all in to an epiphany that I had years ago. It was right when I had started graduate school at the University of Texas, and I was going for my doctorate in counseling psychology. This was my first week in the doctoral program. And it was a very stressful week. And it was the end of the week, it was a Friday afternoon. And I was very stressed. I decided I am going to go for a walk with my dogs around Town Lake in Austin. it's a beautiful setting and it's very peaceful, even though it can be very busy. I just remember all the stress falling off of me as I walked around the lake as these big questions rumbling through my head. Am I in the right place? Did I make the right decision? Is this what I should be doing with my life? I don't know. I don't know, I don't know…
And what I came to from that walk, I had this feeling of peace come over me that I don't know that I'm in the right program. But I know I'm supposed to be where I am right now. That was the beginning of me realizing that I'm not going to take a conventional path as a psychologist. I need to learn what this program had to teach me, and I need to use it in a different way. But I just I knew I didn't know it. I knew at that time, I didn't know how I was going to use it. So I just had that big question mark in my head. And so I was I was kind of the odd duck all through that program. Everyone else was very focused on the professor track. Not only did I want to apply what I was learning, but I always wanted to look at how to make people healthier. And so that was another area where it's a little different because most psychologists are working with restoring mental health. We're trying to restore people to a baseline level of mental health. I wasn't content to be there. I wanted to take what psychology had to offer us and use it to make us better people. I wanted to go the other way.
And so when I came out, I went to work in a community mental health setting. Again, I was the odd duck in that setting, because I always just wanted to talk about his entrepreneurial ventures. I didn't want to talk to him about his social anxiety. Let's talk about what you're gonna do with your business.
I think so much of our journey as human beings is tuning into, where do we get excited? What gives us energy? And recognizing even when you're in situations that are not the right fit for us that there is something there for us to learn from. And that really was the start of my trajectory into going into coaching and focusing on positive psychology strengths-based approach. I have been very aware of when it comes to maximizing human potential that sitting in an office space in a confined environment at a desk in front of the computer is not where we're going to have our best ideas. We are going to be our best when we are out in nature when we are creating space for ourselves to explore and be inspired. That is something that we've woven, and we're doing it more and more intentionally, at Tap The Potential, but we've woven it into our retreats. And we give them an experience where they can connect with each other, but in a more relaxed, natural setting. The guard comes down the the ideas start to flow. And the breakthroughs happen.”
q-storming
“So whenever possible, we have people outside at the retreat. It's been in Louisiana in March. So typically, that is a very nice time to be outside and we go outdoors. We do a process called Q-Storming, which is different than brainstorming. Brainstorming your brainstorming solutions. With Q-Storming, you’re brainstorming powerful questions around the challenge that is on the table. You're bringing forth a challenge or something that you're trying to figure out for yourself. And instead of us saying, Darren, you could do this, Darren, you could do that and do that, which oftentimes invites the person to put up defenses and to say, I don't want to do that, or I've tried that, or that won't work, because and so it blocks the creative thinking.
With Q-Storming, what’s happening is when we're asking these questions, we're asking them like we are the ones in that situation. So I wonder if I might explore what could happen if I move forward in this direction? And I wonder what opportunities will get created if we take this action? And so it's just a very open way of thinking. And what we see is the entrepreneurs will have breakthroughs, they will have insights, they will put things together as possibilities that they had not considered previously. And oftentimes, there's a path forward that is much simpler than the one we envisioned when we try to sort things out in our head.
I will tell you that the best Q-storming sessions happen in person at the retreats outside. And it is the outside piece that I think is is critical. And it is because we're breathing fresh air, we are surrounded by things that are stimulating our brain in a very different way. And it's also the social interaction that's happening in a safe supported environment. And so one of the things that we have started to do is adding walking masterminds into the retreat experience, because there's movement. And when we are moving, our brain works in a different way and we are tapping into different parts of our brain as we move. There are studies that show that there are certain activities like knitting certain repetitive activities that really relax and calm our bodies. And I believe walking is one of those activities, and allows us to access thoughts that we might not have access to at another time. “
reconnecting with ourselves in nature
“W are able to reconnect with ourselves in nature. I really feel like so much of what we're dealing with right now in society is technology overload. We're in front of screens all the time. Connection to technology really blocks us from knowing ourselves in connecting with ourselves, it blocks us from connecting with other people around us. And when we get out in nature are were provided with a whole different level of stimulation than when we look at our phone screens. When we're just going through life and doing one thing after another after another… We're not in touch with who we are, what's important to us, and what we value. I've been studying entrepreneurial burnout over the last year. And I watched the entrepreneurs in our Better Business Better Life program. And there are times when they get into crisis mode and they're really losing connection with themselves with their family. What we are working with them on is, no matter how busy you are, you can take a break, you can step outside, you can go breathe some fresh air, you can go for a walk, you can you can step away from your computer. Just that experience, even five minutes of getting away, can give a fresh shift in perspective. Just taking your lunch outside, go sit outside for 30 minutes, leave your phone inside, eat to 20 times before taking another bite… slowing everything down, allows us to reconnect with ourselves.”
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