Day 14.........delayed..................

The TED Talks came to a rapid halt. A trip out of town and busy work schedule.....hard to find consistant scheduled time.

 

I've still been keeping up with my regular blogs and this one post in particular spoke to me.

 

Check out my favorite Mormon mommy blog (tongue in cheek, ha!) C Jane Kendrick. Courtney is passionate about her home town, which I love about her. She also tries to dig deep and really understand what she is feeling. I thought this post was right on point. Especially this part:

 

I think a life of ownership is the most spiritual, peaceful and joyful life I can imagine. To wake up every day ready to answer for all of your choices for that day, to promise to God to protect and utilize your power to choose and fight the temptation to let others make choices for you SO THAT you won't end up angry and resentful and hating the very thought of them--it sounds like the good life to me.

 

Check out the full post here:

The Parable of the Fruit Snack

 

Going to attempt to get up a little earlier and have some time in the morning for coffee and enlightenment. Let's see if I can manage to pull myself away from the cozy confines of a warm bed to do so. ;)

 

Day 13..................No TED, only gratitude

Didn't have time to watch a TED Talk, but here are my gratitudes...

 

1. Had time to run for a coffee before work.
2. Lunch with my hubby.
3. My jammie pants.

Positive Experience...

Hubs and I had an unexpected free night, with the kiddos both at activities. Housekeeper was here today so house was nice and clean. We just relaxed and watched some tv. So nice!

TED Talks | Day 12 [Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn't Happen At Work]

 

 

Summary:

 

Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. In his talk, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work

 

Key Points:

 

People do not typically think of the office as a place to get work done. In most offices you don't have a work day - you have a work moment. Your day is interrupted on a continuous basis.

 

People's days are too jumbled. Tasks take up all the time, no meaningful work is done.

 

Sleep and work are closely related. Both happen in phases and if you are interrupted you have to start all over again from the beginning. Interruptions mean you don't sleep well - same with work.

 

Work is full of INVOLUNTARY distractions. Namely - meetings and managers.

 

Ideas to over come this, and get more work done at work:

1. Pick one day of the week and do not allow people to talk to each other.
2. Forgo active communication and use instant messages and emails so people can respond when they are ready.
3. Cancel meetings as much as possible.

 

Notes:

Can I just say AMEN??

 

Train Your Brain:

 

Three Gratitudes:

1. In Vancouver and no rain!
2. Got to have a nice dinner with friends.
3. Had a great Lush bath bomb bath.

 

Positive Experience:

Sitting at Caffe Artigiano having a latte and working away this morning.

TED Talks | Day 11 {Day 1 of Train Your Brain}

Shawn Achor: Work Happier

 

Summary:

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

 

Key Points:

• Link between happiness and success
• news focuses on negative and makes you think that that is the accurate ratio of positive (very little) to negative (the majority)
• it's not reality that shapes us, rather the lens with which you view reality, if we can change the lens we can change our happiness
• 90% of long term happiness is how your brain processes the world
• only 25% of job success is predicted by IQ - 75% of success is optimism levels, social support and the ability to see stress as a challenge - not a threat
• the formula for happiness and success must be reversed from:
• work harder -----> achieve more success ------> be happier; to
• positivity -----> better performance -----> better work
• to achieve this, train your brain to be more positive:
• write down 3 things you are grateful for each day
• journal one positive experience
• exercise
• meditate
• random acts of kindness (one positive email per day to someone)

Notes:

Loved this one. Watched it twice. Very entertaining. And likely correct. A change in attitude could benefit me greatly right now. Willing to try the 21 day challenge. Here we go:

 

Day 1 - Train Your Brain

 

Three gratitudes:

1. Kelsey made her own lunch.
2. Advil and midol work.
3. Did not have to shovel snow this morning.

Positive experience: Tried a new recipe and took some to work to share with the girls. They all loved it. Made it again tonight for them. :)

 

For today that is as good as it gets.

Postscript..........big storm, power out, left for Vancouver, no blogging...oops!

TED Talks | Day 10

Elon Musk: The Mind Behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity

 

Summary:

Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket.

 

Key Points:

• Sustainable energy is the biggest problem we have this century
• mid level electric car comes with lifetime free charging on super chargers - charges in 20-30 minutes
• SolarCity - we are already a solar powered system as all earth systems depend on the sun.
• solar power once installed just keeps working
• to make it feasible, get the cost of infrastructure low
• solar will beat natural gas, it must as natural gas is not sustainable
• premise is no money down, utility bill decreases. SolarCity raises a chunk of capital from a company/partner, charges the homeowner a monthly fee that is still less than utility bills. Essentially, SolarCity is a giant distributed utility.
• Elon sold PayPal to fund SpaceX with a goal to expand rocket technology to have a reusable rocket in order for humans to be a space faring society
• Question? How does one person innovate such huge projects from start to finish?
• To do something new - boil down to the fundamental truths and reason from there.
• Discover new things that are counter intuitive to current thinking.
• Pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it.

TED Talks | Day 9

Sir Ken Robinson: How To Escape Eduction's Death Valley

 

Summary:

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

 

Key Points:

• 3 Principles on which human life flourishes:
• Human beings are naturally different and diverse. Education is based on conformity and focus is narrowed to the sciences and math first, humanities second and arts last. Arts should be held in higher regard as they speak to parts of the child's being that are untouched.
• Curiosity - if you can ignite a spark of curiosity, children will be natural achievers. Standard tests should not be the focus of education, they can help and support learning, but should not obstruct it.
• Human life is creative.
• High preforming systems in the world have three things in common:
• Individualized teaching and learning
• Attribute a very high status to the teaching profession
• They give the school responsibility to get the job done
• Professional development for our teachers is an investment, not a cost.
• Education is not a mechanical system it is a human system. There are conditions in which a student will thrive or not.
• The world is made up of three types of people - immovable people, movable people, and people who move. If we can encourage more people to move, that's a revolution.

TED Talks | Day 8

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution

Summary:
In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence

Key Points:

• You are what you do. Should actually be.........not *what* you do, but *who* you are
• human communities depend on a diversity of talent not a singular conception of ability
• we have built our education on the model of fast food where everything is standardized...............and we have suffered for it
• human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it is an organic process
• our children spread their dreams at our feet, we should tread softly

Notes:
I just love him. That is all.

TED Talks | Day 7

Ken Robinson: Schools Kill Creativity

Summary:
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

Key Points:

• all kids have talents and we squander them
• creativity is as important as literacy
• children are not afraid to be wrong, adults are
• if you are afraid to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original
• eduction hierarchy world wide puts math & sciences at the top, followed by language and then arts at the bottom
• public eduction puts the value on the top of the hierarchy, not what a child is good at or loves
• degrees are worth less and less because more and more people have them, standards are raising - once a BA was all that was needed, now it's a MBA or PhD (academic inflation)

Notes:
Loved this one. No one is funnier than the British and his message was great. Sir Robinson as an academic himself, recognizes that is not where the value lies for everyone and public eduction has a narrow focus of what is valuable.

Will look up his other talks, just because I enjoyed this one so much.

TED Talks | Day 6

Nilofer Merchant: Got A Meeting Take A Walk

Summary:
Nilofer Merchant suggests a small idea that just might have a big impact on your life and health: Next time you have a one-on-one meeting, make it into a "walking meeting" -- and let ideas flow while you walk and talk.

Key Points:
People sit more than any other activity - on average 9+ hours a day and it is killing us. Rather than sit for meetings, walk for meetings. Fresh air encourages fresh thinking. You can take care of your health and your obligations at the same time.

Note:
Short! This one was only 3 minutes. Love the idea, wonder how work would feel about this! ;)

TED Talks | Day 5

Deb Roy: Birth of a World

Summary:
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.

Key Points:
Ok...............this one was way over my head. Fascinating research I am sure - I can't even comprehend how this researcher and his team ever imagined this type of analysis. Interesting to hear his son's progression from ga-ga to water. The final point - some sort of amazing feedback loop when his son takes his first steps is cut off on the video. Bummer.

TED Talks | Day 4

TED Talks | Day 3

Amy Cuddy | Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

Summary:
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.
Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions

Key Points:

• We are influenced by our own non-verbal expressions of power and dominance (or lack there of)
• We tend to not mirror power non-verbals, rather our instinct is to do the opposite (get smaller)
• Non verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves.
• Our minds change our bodies, do our bodies change our minds?
• Don't just fake it until you make it, fake it until you become it. Pretend confidence through non-verbals until you feel confidence.
• Tiny tweaks ----------> Big Changes
• Try a power pose before stressful situations (interview, social gathering, public speaking)
• Share this science with those that need it

Notes:
Interesting point that both seeing people and people blind sense birth will instinctively make the same pose when they win a race - arms up in a V and chin raised.

This one is worth trying - two minutes in private holding a power pose is shown to boost your level of testosterone and lower your level of cortisol.

TED Talks - Day 2

 

Brené Brown | The Power of Vulnerability

 

Summary:

 

Storeyteller/researcher Brene Brown studied stories of vulnerability to explain the human connection.

 

Key Points:

• People who have a strong sense of love & belonging, believe they are worth of love & belonging.
• These people are whole hearted people who have a sense of courage to be imperfect, compassion to be kind to themselves first and connections as a result of authenticity. Most importantly they embrace vulnerability.
• Lessons Learned:
• We numb vulnerability but you can't just numb the bad, you also numb the good
• We make the uncertain certain
• We perfect
• We pretend that what we do doesn't have an effect on others.
• Solutions:
• let ourselves be seen
• love with our whole heart
• practice gratitude and joy
• believe "I am enough"

TED Talks - Day 1

Jill Bolte Taylor | A Stroke of Insight

Summary:
This neuro scientist shares her passion for the study of the brain, inspired by her brother's struggle with schizophrenia. She detailed how the left and right hemispheres of the human brain function, with the right be a "here and now" component and the left being "past and future". A number of years ago Ms. Bolte Taylor suffers a stroke and recognizes during the stroke the opportunity to study from the inside out what is happening to her. Her description of her stroke is passionate and beautiful.

Key Message:
"Moment by moment we have the power to be who we are in this universe."

"The more time we spend choosing the right hemisphere, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful we will be."

Oh, and she held a real brain on stage. Complete with spinal cord. Gah.