4100weeks

What's your idea?

Do you have an idea for a business, but don't know how to take the next step? Check out Ahhha. You can submit ideas to the site and Ahhha's community votes on it. The best ideas bubble up to the top, and are given funding or connections to make the project a reality. A 74 second animated clip on the main web page gives you an overview of how it works. 

According to Matt Crowe, Ahhha founder, the link between idea and execution is what's really missing in most peoples' lives.

So you're a multi-tasker huh?

Can you really do several things at once and give each the necessary focus? Check out this great multi-tasking video (5 mins.) . . . 

Multitasking from Reel Social Media on Vimeo.

 

xtranormal?

Want to deliver a message via video with no equipment, limited technical skills and no fee?  Go to www.xtranormal.com .  This relatively new site allows you to type in script that is delivered by a variety of characters in a hilarious robotic voice.  You can use it to deliver an invitation, to communicate within your company or for training purposes.

This is a unique and creative delivery method that gets the attention of associates and friends and because of that improves retention.

All of the basic characters and settings are free, you pay a small charge for premium services and it's worth every penny.  The tutorial will make you functional in a hour.

You won't be disappointed.  Have fun!

Now, THIS is an ADVENTURE.....

260 miles in a canoe, day and night, only water can be provided by your support team, snakes, alligators, strainers, sweepers, sleep monsters and maybe a surly partner to make things interesting.

Start on the San Marcos river in Texas, merge into the Guadalupe, cross Alligator Lake and then paddle the bay for 10 mile to Seadrift Texas.  It's the Texas Water Safari, the first weekend in June each year.  Start practicing and preparing now to be ready for 2011.  It's a life changing experience.  I promise.

 
Here's the interesting story of a first-timer and her more experienced paddling partner. 

http://flyfishchick.com/2010/07/16/truth-in-advertising/

Winners finish in 35 hours - everyone must be complete in 100 hours.  Tell us how you do in 2011.

An excellent way to die . . .

Run 900 yards as fast as you can . . . oh, and there are six 1200 pound bulls, six steers, and 2000 people chasing you. Check out Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly's great adventure in Pamplona - Welcome to Tramplona.

Are you in flow?

According to the Harvard Medical School HEALTHbeat e-newsletter, focusing on things that make you happy can help make your life longer and healthier. When you find yourself totally immersed in what you are doing you reach a "state of intense absorption" or "flow." Here are the clues that you are in the flow . . .

• You lose awareness of time. You aren’t watching the clock, and hours can pass like minutes. As filmmaker George Lucas puts it, talent is “a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in—something that you can start at 9 o’clock, look up from your work and it’s 10 o’clock at night … .”
• You aren’t thinking about yourself. You aren’t focused on your comfort, and you aren’t wondering how you look or how your actions will be perceived by others. Your awareness of yourself is only in relation to the activity itself, such as your fingers on a piano keyboard, or the way you position a knife to cut vegetables, or the balance of your body parts as you ski or surf.
• You aren’t interrupted by extraneous thoughts. You aren’t thinking about such mundane matters as your shopping list or what to wear tomorrow.
• You are active. Flow activities aren’t passive, and you have some control over what you are doing.
• You work effortlessly. Flow activities require effort (usually more effort than involved in typical daily experience). Although you may be working harder than usual, at flow moments everything is “clicking” and feels almost effortless.

10 minutes of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Below is a fantastic 10 minute multimedia overview of Dan Pink's outstanding book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (narrated by Dan). The book explains how intrinsic motivation works and how each of us can find the surest path to high performance, creativity, health and well-being.

Retaining Intrinsic Motivation will Help the U.S. Stay Competitive

Since the 1960s, it has been widely accepted, and proven, that intrinsic motivation is "better" than extrinsic motivation. How is it "better"?  Well, over the past 40 years a litany of studies have been done showing that intrinsically motivated people are more creative, more innovative, more imaginative, and more likely to start new businesses than extrinsically motivated people. In addition, intrinsically motivated people show more confidence, interest, and excitement about tasks. 

They have enhanced performance and persistence as well. Not only that, intrinsically motivated people have better physical health and well-being, greater self-acceptance and self-esteem and better conceptual learning.  Furthermore, extrinsically motivated people are proven to be less creative and innovative. 

When people are born, it is believed that they are born mainly intrinsically motivated. This is not proven, however - it is accepted as fact, but unproven. Studies done on toddlers seem to confirm this belief.  The odd thing is that most adults - over 95% - are mainly extrinsically motivated.  So, what happens between toddler-hood and adulthood to move a person from being mainly intrinsically motivated to mainly extrinsically motivated?  What is undermining their intrinsic motivation? 

I'll post another blog about that soon......

In the meantime, let's talk about intrinsic motivation as it relates to U.S. competitiveness. In the past several years, U.S. companies have been actively outsourcing U.S. jobs to less expensive global countries (India, Brazil, China, etc.).  At first, it didn't seem to be too much of a threat since it was mainly routine, process-oriented jobs that were being outsourced (manufacturing, etc.).  But then it started to scare some of us, as the non-mundane jobs were being oursourced (financial processes, operational processes, HR functions, etc.).    

Still though....the jobs being outsourced are ones that can be broken down into a set of steps and repeated over and over.  In order to retain jobs and create new industries, the U.S. must have employees who are creative, imaginative and innovative.  Jobs and industries that rely on creative thinking, imagination and innovation cannot be duplicated elsewhere - they are as unique as the person who holds the position. How do we get people who are creative, innovative and imaginative - by building a society of intrinsically motivated people.  Does the U.S. currently have enough intrinsically motivated people to build this type of society and then industries and businesses around it........not even close.  There are reasons for that and I'll blog about that soon.  It's enough to say now though, that we have a long road ahead of us and it will require some serious changes in thinking around how we educate and how we motivate children and young adults. 

Shhhh . . . listen

How important is listening to your personal and professional success?

Here's what Tom Peters has to say from his book The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE . . .

A few additional takeaways from the book's section called Self . . .

#21. You Are Your Product—Develop It.

#22. Job One: Amuse Yourself!

#23. Fitness Power = Staying Power.

#24. Mental Gymnastics, Urgency Of.

#25. You Are Your Story! So Work on It!

#26. Develop Your R.POV8—ASAP!

What is R.POV8? It means remarkable point-of-view captured in in 8 words or less. It's based on the quote from marketing guru Seth Godin "If you can't describe your position in 8 words or less, you don't have a position." Peters interprets this not as a marketing strategy, but as a "profound statement." He suggests you ask yourself, "is what I'm up to doing remarkably different. And can it be captured in simple compelling language. Four, six, eight, ten, no more than 15 words. Consider, working on your R.POV8 is far more important than any "strategic planning" exercise.

Does time move faster as you get older?

According to Neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine, the brain records new experiences (especially exciting experiences) differently. When you experience something for the first time, more information and details are stored in your memory. These first memories are dense, and when accessed, time seems to have moved slowly. When we repeat the event, less information is retained and time seems to move faster.

So maybe one way to slow down the speed of life is to engage in new and unique experiences. In their book The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life, authors Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd share another way to slow down the speed of life . . . focus on past memories that are positive, live more in the present, and keep a positive, optimistic perception of the future.