I love a metaphor! They make life more colourful and easier to understand. My grandmother spoke in colourful colloquialism that fascinated me as a child. She lived in England and most of her “sayings” were completely foreign to Canadian culture.
“What’s for dinner Gran?” was answered with, “Three jumps at the cupboard door.” Translated, this meant that we were on our own to figure it out.
When we took a long, unnecessary path to get anywhere, Gran described it as, “Going all round the Wrekin.” It took me years before I discovered that the Wrekin was an actual hill in Shropshire. As a kid, I imagined it to be a huge lake. Despite my confusion, I knew what Gran meant when she used it.
One of my favourite metaphors that she used was completely baffling to me until 20 years after she died: “that’s the one the cobbler threw at his wife.” I discovered the meaning by chance when, as teacher, I took my class to the Bata Shoe Museum. We were listening to the tour guide explain that shoes were created when the cobbler sewed the leather onto a last, or mould. Eureka! I thought. Gran’s saying about having run out of something finally makes sense. “That’s the one the cobbler threw at his wife: the last.”*
Metaphors Have Many Benefits
We all use metaphors everyday to help us accurately describe our experiences to each other. They relay our feelings, and an event’s impact on us, more quickly than a simple description. ** Describing the discomfort of having the blood supply rush into your arm after temporarily cutting it off by lying on it, is much more aptly expressed as your arm having “pins and needles.” You can feel the stabbing pains in the metaphor.
Metaphors have been recognized as an effective tool for bypassing the figurative, logical brain and quickly accessing the subconscious.
Metaphoric Language Is Not In Everyone’s Toolbox
However, it can be more difficult to generate your own metaphor, when there isn’t one that you’re familiar with, that fits the situation you’re in. That’s when pictures can be a great tool.
Using Pictures To Generate Metaphors
In coaching, I find an easier way to use metaphors than trying to find an appropriate phrase to compare your experience with, is to use a picture. You apply your experience to an object or action in the picture, and then you have a ready-made metaphor.
Try This Exercise
Place a goal that you are presently working on in this picture of a mountain stream. Where did you put it?
On the rock?
In the trees?
Down stream?
Once you’ve found the metaphor for your experience you can more easily talk about it.
“My goal is stuck in the trees and I don’t know what I can use to move it to the river, so that it will progress smoothly down stream.”
Valuable Insights
A metaphor gives you new language to use to describe your situation. This helps you communicate that experience more accurately to yourself and others.
It also allows you to look at it from a different perspective. “How did my goal get in the trees?” This can lead to new insights and revelations.
A metaphor is a short form of language that allows us to quickly understand each other and work on our goals. It gently pushes your kayak down the stream.
What are some metaphors that you find fascinating? Do you know any obscure ones from different parts of the world? Comment below.
About the Wrekin (click here).
*It’s disturbing to realize that the last is a very, heavy, iron form in the shape of a foot. It would’ve significantly injured anyone who was hit with it.
**https://www.aau.edu/research-scholarship/featured-research-topics/how-brain-finds-meaning-metaphor
***https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-social-thinker/201711/why-metaphors-are-important
Read more about how metaphors and pictures are being investigated in neuroscience research: usedhttps://shura.shu.ac.uk/26180/8/Turner_CognitiveNeuroscienceMetaphor%28VoR%29.pdf
Retired, And Now What? 
I love your idea of using images when discussing goals with clients. What a terrific conversation starter!
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