Author: Jim Karwisch

  • The Lie We Believe

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    Jim Karwisch
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    K.M. Weiland’s “Creating Character Arcs” is a treasure trove of applied theory for Narrative Coaching. Today we examine her chapter on “the lie the character believes” which I find to be amazing concept. The Change Arc is all about the Lie Your Character Believes. His life may be horrible, or his life may seem pretty…

  • Get Things Moving With “The Tiniest Box To Your Peppiest Tune”

    Get Things Moving With “The Tiniest Box To Your Peppiest Tune”

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    by

    Jim Karwisch
    in

    There you stand, looking at the freight train you have allowed to slow to a full stop. You know that you must get it moving again, but all of those hundreds of thousands of pounds of steel seem impossibly immobile. You recognize that the amount of energy it will take to get things rolling again…

  • The Untended Garden and the Unplanted Seed

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    When I moved into my new home a month ago, the former renter had left all of the plants on the property in a sad state. Some were dead, others were overgrown, and some were blooming beautifully from the ends of long, untrimmed branches. This is what I originally thought was the definition of an…

  • What is your Next Right Thing?

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    Today I hopped on a video chat with Sebastian Ruf, my partner in improv crime over at improvinaction.com to talk about our plans for the next season of our podcast and the troubles I was having with getting in the right head space for Season Two. Over the course of our conversation, we broke down…

  • The Confidence Wrench

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    People who meet me and know me from a speaking or coaching setting often have a difficult time understanding how I could have issues with confidence in the other aspects of my life. When I am on stage or one on one with a client, I find myself free from self-judgement and at the top…

  • Creating a working pipeline with IDEMA – Part One

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    Tomorrow will be my first day in my new home office. For the last year and a half, I have been working from the couch, coffee shops, and the occasional co-working facility. As I picture how I will keep track of all of my projects in a visual representation on my wall, I thought about…

  • Do you allow room to surprise yourself?

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    As I was watching my five-year-old today, I saw him react with surprise at his own success during an outdoor activity. We had driven 30-minutes to a state park in Georgia where volunteers had set up lots of outdoor stations. Canoe rides, archery, BB guns, rock climbing, fishing, and more. For my son, there seem…

  • A Freakish Finding Following a Forearm Failure of Flow

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    Have you ever become hyper-aware of a particular muscle group in your body? I have. Around 8:00 pm last night I started being acutely aware of my forearms. Here’s what I have been doing differently for the last week: Typing more and using my mouse in weird positions until my office is set up again…

  • The Crab Mentality

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    If we are focusing on intentional interactions with others, it is necessary for us to know what it would look like to succeed at intentionality and what it would look like were we to fail. Today we add the concept of The Crab Mentality. Crab mentality, sometimes referred to as crabs in the bucket (also barrel, basket or…

  • The Stigma of a Black Plastic Garbage Bag

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    Jim Karwisch
    in

    My wife and I were finishing up the last of our move from living with family to our new rental home just five minutes down the road. We ran out of boxes and were getting the last items by shoving them into black plastic garbage bags. On one of the trips out to the car,…