Julian Treasure, who is in the business of making sounds work better, especially for people who sell things, gives a quick primer on how sounds affect us in this short TED talk. I especially like his closing comment, offering bird sounds, which he prescribes at a minimum of 5 minutes a day.
|
||||||
|
We often hear people say, “go with your strengths” but usually it’s said in jest. Most common approaches to self-improvement focus on personal weaknesses, finding out where you have shortcomings, so you can improve those and do well in all areas. Marcus Buckingham has a different idea. He proposes that it is our strengths that hold the key to living our most satisfying and successful lives. His new book, Find Your Strongest Life, makes the case for figuring out what you really do well, then altering your career and personal path to capitalize on those strengths. Only by intentionally imbalancing your life to do more of what you excel at can you achieve the happiness you deserve, he says. He speaks directly to women, because, as he quotes from compelling survey data, we are not as happy as we could be, and we are certainly not as happy as we were 40 years ago. To help sort out our strengths, he offers a free online quiz that defines a lead and supporting role. The book goes into some detail about the roles, so you can figure out what to do with the answers you get. This book is a quick read and a fresh take on self-help that I found convincing and useful. However, it falls down badly in the final section, Strong Life Tactics. Rather than a compelling action plan, he gives us a hodge-podge of questions and answers that seem far less organized and persuasive than the rest of the book. But take the quiz and read about your roles – you may be surprised. I had some great conversations with people I don’t normally see while I was away in Toronto. One friend recommended a conference called Gel, short for Good Experience Live, usually held in New York. Its user experience focus brings together creators and thinkers from various fields, making it somewhat like TED, but more affordable. Here’s an example from one held in Europe in 2006: Ted Dewan talks about his efforts to slow traffic with art events on his street in Oxford. I’m back from almost three weeks on a semi-vacation in Toronto. I started with a two-day conference, then spent the rest of the time meeting with family, friends and colleagues from a comfortable base in the west end. I like a change of venue now and then to get into fresh thinking about what I have been doing, or to contemplate doing different things. I achieved both and hope to write about that more often here. I spent my birthday away from home, but doing things I liked: reading, knitting, walking a dog, and finishing the day with an exceptional dinner accompanied by a delightful jazz trio, plus one. Thanks to dear family friend Vena for great conversation and very fine dining, and to Claire, for joining us! The next couple of days will be an immersion in what I do for a living, mostly, because I’ll be at the Idea Conference 2009. It’s all about social and experience design and you can bet that much of the conversation will centre on online communities and technologies. September’s arrival means the lazy summer is over, and the cool nights confirm it. I have had some welcome time for garden design and maintenance, visits with family and friends, a few short hikes, and a whole weekend of superb music, with only a few work projects to interrupt now and then. Soon the garden must be put to bed and I must shift into more disciplined work days, as my clients start to come up with things for me to do. September seems to have a freshness, an energy that is fueled by the shorter days and brisk evenings. Top of my mind is a getaway to the big city in a couple of weeks. My portable office and I will be camping out in the wilds of Etobicoke for a while, close enough to see lots of old friends and maybe be a tourist in downtown Toronto. Do you remember what life was like before the Internet? Even my generation and older may have difficulty looking back to when personal computer technology was new and amazing. Here are some videos that may help, what they call the “mother of all demos” from Stanford in 1968. Lead presenter Doug Englebart mentions, among other projects in progress, the ARPA network, the precursor of the Internet. My team at PMH declared me officially a five year survivor today. In cancer talk, that’s the major milestone to make, since statistically most recurrences diminish tremendously after that. We still watch and wait, but heck, another reason to celebrate! I went down to the catacombs to thank the people operating “my” radiation machine. The personnel have changed, but I know they like to see people who have made it. I’m off to the big city tomorrow to do a number of important things. First up is a routine visit to the wizard at Princess Margaret Hospital who blessed me with a cure almost five years ago. When checkup time comes around I always have to ask myself if I have earned it by smelling enough roses. No roses ready yet this year but the lilacs are sublime. On the next day I’ll visit a dear lady who unfortunately has not had the blessing I have. We’ll spend a pleasant hour or two chatting about this and that, and with any luck have a few giggles. With visits to sister, son and daughter, plus a few friends, I’ll be busy until Saturday, when I am speaking at the Editors’ Association of Canada national conference. Then it’s back home to smell the peonies. |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Lynda Sez - All Rights Reserved |
||||||