“You use a lot of metaphors in your workshops Tom!”

So said a colleague as we strolled the merry corridors at work last week.

She’s not wrong.

My workshops are brimming with metaphors, just like these daily emails.

Here's why:

Explaining an idea without using a metaphor is like trying to cook a dish using unknown ingredients. There's no textures you recognise, no smells you can place and no inkling whether the dish will take 5 minutes or 5 hours in the oven.

So sure - there's a chance you might cobble some sort of dish together.

But there’s a greater chance you’ll create something you won’t be able to digest.

Whereas if it’s your first time cooking quinoa, it helps if you’ve cooked couscous before. You can use the couscous as your jumping off point.

Another way of thinking about it?

Grasping a new idea can sometimes feel like trying to hang a coat in mid-air. It’s not until you have a hook to latch onto that a new idea can settle in. 

Hence metaphor.

Of course, the metaphor itself isn’t the idea. 

It’s more a pointer that lights the path and guides you in a certain direction, just like a lighthouse which helps clear away some of the fog.

I know I may be at risk of boiling the ocean here. 

Using metaphors to explain the power of metaphor feels like cracking open a Russian doll.

But then again, I dig a good metaphor.

This is why I loved the book “It’s All In The Mind, You Know!” by Phil Hughes.

The book contains some of the most delightful, thought-provoking and original metaphors I’ve found as I journey through the highways and byways of self-discovery.

If you enjoy a good metaphor and also enjoy reading about topics like thoughts, mindset, wisdom, state of mind and our experience of life, you might like it too.

Here’s where you can grab a copy

Other Amazons are also available.