As the ‘just visualise’ it technique can be challenging, I go for the ‘what colour is it?’ technique. My tape-measure is orange. When I know I am looking for something orange, all the orange things pop out at me – that handle on the G-clamp, the label on the glue – and, oh look, poking out from under that pile of offcuts, it’s the tape-measure!
I suspect the same technique happens with other things too. Every morning I post a photo of something I have spotted in nature with a ‘Good Morning’ tweet. Knowing that I want to send such tweets makes me keep my eyes open for potential photographic subjects. I am sure I have seen flowers and insects I would never have noticed otherwise.
But it also works on not such nice things. For example, crisp packets had been left littering the footpath through my local meadows. After a couple of times walking past them and being disgruntled at the litter-louts, I took a bag, and next time I passed them, I picked them up and threw them in my own bin. However, now I am noticing litter EVERYWHERE. I need to ‘reframe’ what I look for. If I don’t want to just see unfinished projects or DIY that needs to be done, I need to start looking at the jobs I have finished, the things I have made, and celebrate those!
Now, what shall I focus on next? But first … where did I put my glasses?
