Just one more thing…

8May2009 Filed under: Beat your creative block, How to be a happy scanner, How to be happy, Play all day, What shall I do with my life? Author: John

…or what Columbo can teach you about discovering what you really want from life

I love the detective show Columbo. It’s the ultimate wind-down TV; while modern cop shows are neurologically over-stimulating with handheld cameras and 3 cuts a second, Columbo is slow-paced and charming.

The series has been running for over 30 years but my favourites are from the 70s featuring mutton chop sideburns and plots that revolve around “cutting edge technology” like a tape recorder.

Lieutenant Columbo, played of course by Peter Falk, is a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Every feature length episode starts with showing the actual murder scene. There is therefore no mystery, no whodunit.

The pleasure is in watching Columbo, the disheveled, apologetic cop shambling his way towards snaring his prey and proving them guilty.

Columbo knows in the first scene who the murderer is but doesn’t let on to his subject. His talent is in appearing to be harmless, enabling him to bypass the murderer’s defences, while he gathers fragments of evidence that point to what really happened. Nothing goes unmissed no matter how small; a single word, a sound on a recording, a piece of lint.

Columbo is troubled by details he can’t resolve and he drives his suspect to distraction with his famous line “Just one more thing…”.

When you are on a search to discover what you’d like to do with your life, you can learn a lot from Columbo. It’s time to play detective in “The case of the missing passion”. Your adversary is your inner critic or Top Dog.

Put yourself under surveillance. No clue should go unnoticed. What part of the newspaper do you turn to first? What part of bookshop draws you? What are your favourite TV programmes?

The evidence is there. Follow every lead, act on your hunches. Carry a notebook everywhere and record every piece of evidence about what work you do like and what work you don’t. Look for where the excitement is in you. If you hit a dead-end, call for backup – get help from friends or have a session with a coach.

What clues have you discovered that might point to something important? Leave a comment.

PS. I think this finally shows that it’s possible to turn anything that you enjoy, including lying on the sofa watching TV, into something useful for your business!

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NEXT POST: “Where you look is where you go” (Or what I learned by riding a motorcycle into a tree)
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3 Responses to “Just one more thing…”

Jay Versluis
May 8th, 2009 at 10:47 AM

How funny, I’ve just started reading Peter Falk’s book, entitled “Just one more thing…”. I highly reccomend it, on the first 40 pages he’s describing a similar process when he’s not sure what to do with his life. When he’s looking back over the previous 10 years, he discovers that he’s been an actor on various occasions, that he was happy with it, and more to the point rather good at it.

Although having worked in several other jobs, it didn’t occur to Mr Falk that “actor” could be his future career. He never entertained the idea, although the ecidence was clearly in front of him.

I’ve had a similar experience when I discovered my creativity. Having created all kinds of multimedia projects for over 20 years, I’ve finally woken up to the idea that there might be something to it. Although I don’t trust it will provide me with income, I now embrace and nurture it.

To my surprise, I found that the more I focus on my new found talent, the more I want to do it - and the more fun I’m having. I also remember many projects from my past that I didn’t take seriously then, but in a creative context make a whole lot of sense.

At the end of the day, it’s what I’m good at, what gives me happiness, and what I’ve practiced and honed (unknowingly) for over 20 years. Hell, I’ve been doing creative projects longer than I’ve worked in my dayjob!

All the evidence was there right in front of me, but because I wasn’t looking for it, I didn’t see it.

I will keep looking - you never know what else is there!
John
May 8th, 2009 at 11:26 AM

Thanks Jay - very interesting to hear Mr Falk’s own experience of playing detective!
I think you’re in your stride now with all these latest web projects you’re doing and you look like you’re having a lot of fun with it too.
Judith Morgan
May 8th, 2009 at 4:14 PM

John, I dont know if you caught Rick Otton at the Money Gym Property Extravaganza on 21/3, but he teaches his rent2own students (of which I am one) to act in property negotiations like Columbo. To disguise our intelligence in order to winkle out the deal we want. To allow the other party to think they can get the better of us in the deal. And all the while reeling them in. If you promise me you are learning from all this lying about on the sofa, I might even condone it!
Judith

about this blog

This is the personal blog of John Williams, author of "Screw work, let's play: How to do what you love & get paid for it" to be published by Pearson in June 2010.

Join my mission to play all day and get paid - to do whatever creative, fun stuff we feel like doing and make a good living out of it.