TLC

"Much of education is oriented toward making a living instead of making a life." Dr. Roger Walsh. 

In his wonderful TEDxUniversityofNevada talk "Hackschooling Makes Me Happy." Logan La Plante introduces the happiness research of Dr. Walsh. (It's worth watching the 13 minutes video--especially with your kids). 

"When I grow up, I want to be happy." Logan says, and presents Dr. Walsh's 8 key TLC's or Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes as the user guide.

1. Exercise
2. Diet and Nutrition
3. Time in Nature
4. Relationships
5. Relaxation and stress management
6. Recreation
7. Religious or Spiritual Involvement
8. Service to Others or Contribution

So many of us are oriented toward making a living instead of making a life. In the juggling of priorities, the happiness ball keeps falling on the ground and rolling under the couch where it lies forgotten--along with dust bunnies and stale popcorn. 

What if juggling priorities is the wrong way of going about being happy? What if leading a happy life is more like making (and eating) a really good picnic in which there are the most delicious ingredients eaten in good company in a gorgeous, quiet setting? 

We tend to think This or That, rather than This AND That. I can make money or be home with my kids. I can work hard or have good relationships. But maybe the key is to blend or stack. "How can I do this and that and that and this? How can I build a good career and be happy and work with people I like and get outside during the day and contribute and pray and have fun?".

In healthy lives and companies, there is evidence of people blending what makes them happy into their work lives. There are walking and running groups where coworkers run through parkland at lunch. Or meal-shares where colleagues take turns bringing healthy lunches for each other. "Cone of silence" drinks where concerns are shared and worked through. Yoga classes, massage, meditation groups or sleep pods for de-stressing. Mentoring, volunteerism and fundraising campaigns build relationships and spirits while in service to others. Some, like the Mustard Seed combine TLC's by making delicious food in service to the homeless.

Hmm. You don't have to change things up too much to make life just a bit better. 

To help shift my thinking and doing, I'll make myself a report card using the 8 TLC's as headings and post it here when I'm done. At the start of each week, I'll look at where I'm feeding my happiness on all 8 fronts, then report back in to myself at the end of the week. Maybe I will get my boyfriend, and my mom and dad to do it with me? Want to join me? Who can you bring along on your lifestyle hack?

Poster Classic

A while back I wrote in Plumage and Dazzle how important it is to dress-up your town, your event, your message and your invitation to showcase the experience you promise to deliver. 

Wonderful Jean McAllister of the design house Dark Horse Company created this brilliant poster for the short film fest Bicycle Shorts. In it, is a great example of a classic poster, so beautiful you want to keep it on your wall long after the event is over.

Its energy, whimsy and colour extends a compelling invitation. An invitation sets the tone of what to expect at the party, so you want it to be lively and fun, then your guests arrive in the right frame of mind. Too bad corporate meeting invitations aren't this fun! Maybe they could be?

Stumping Goes Green

I thought this was a creative and green way to make campaign buttons. Kudos to Councillor Joanna McCallum for her creativity! Who would not want to sport one of these babies!

Quotable Quotes from (not so) Ordinary Folks

I've had enough of hackneyed quotes from famous people. 

Einstein's once novel quote,“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them” may be true, but I'm sick of it! 
Cited over and over again in order to herd groups toward innovative or design-thinking, it's a taser with dead batteries.

As an antidote, maybe even an inoculation against group-think, can't we draw insights from people alive and working alongside us today? I offer a small sample from recent experience:

Freshly home from back-to-back business trips in Las Vegas (really it was business) with some fun, wildly smart clients, and  Vancouver for a conference, I received an email from  design genius John Tong. The founder of +tongtong and his wife, Anne, had just returned from Milan. "Being able to mix business with pleasure is one of the secrets to living well." His quote summarizes precisely what I'd experienced during my two recent trips. 

While exploring key factors in identifying niche markets with a client, I'd posted into our collection of yellow stickies one which read "intuition". As I did, the man who'd made the suggestion earlier blurted, "Intuition? I didn't think that was allowed!"  Mike Smith, the President and founder of ReadySmith Advisers, summarized cultural bias in that moment.

The topic of intuition spiced many conversations throughout Vancouver's Corporate State event. The event is attended by powerful women in business. Kicking off the event, keynoter Sherry Cooper, the former Chief Economist with BMO Nesbitt Burns, balanced her data-filled financial forecast of the U.S. and Canadian economies with, "I trust my intuition in forecasting." 

In her opening remarks on the Auction Economy, innovation expert Karen Morris said, "My intuition is beating in my breast." Pure poetry. Later in that same discussion Karen noted, "Values and Innovation are inextricable tied." She illustrated how using a reference to John Donne's brilliant 16th century poem Valediction Forbidding Mourning, "If they be two, they are two so, as stiff twin compasses are two; thy soul, the fixt foot, makes no show to move, but doth if th'other do." Now that's a quote I never tire of but used to describe business relationships--that's new.

Of our obssession with discounted goods and services resulting in RFPs awarded to lowest bidder regardless of quality or ability to deliver, Karen asked, "What is the right price for the wrong thing?" Nudging Canadian businesses to innovate she prodded, "All businesses need to be asking 'How can I change what, how and by whom I am paid?'" Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Who was it who said, "Insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results"? Oh yeah, Einstein. Let's take the dude's advice and  sample the sayings of today's brainiacs. Go ahead, I dare you to float an original quote to see what can happen. 

Or as Evelyn Bailey, Vice President of Software with IBM said, "My job is to break glass and not accept business as usual."

Man in the Arena

Tonight while doing some administrivia, I listened to Brene Brown's  2nd TED talk on Vulnerability.
IN it she quotes Roosevelt and cites his quote as a lifesaver. It made me think about my nephews who are hockey players. I want to post this note on their Facebook walls next time they have a massive loss in the arena. Maybe I should even message them. Anyway, here from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910 :
                                      
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."


I really appreciate that part about the critic not counting. I've had a couple of finger pointers around me, and I tell you, inviting them to participate in that which they are criticizing in order to improve it sure has a way of sobering up their drunken revelry of blame. I don't feel shame for trying, nor a need to make excuses for the "do" of others. Cold and timid souls, enjoy the sidelines.

   download PDF of complete speech  

Prezi Issuu Slideshare

Recently I've been exploring how to make an interactive, narrative magazine online. Why? I can't afford to create one in print yet and a brilliant friend suggested I explore ways to use the internet to get the magazine out there.

What do I want from the online experience? Clickable links, non-linear narrative option, can translate to print (maybe), easy to view and use, fun, more exploration than passive viewing.

I've been wandering around shops in downtown Canmore Alberta,  and have found some truly beautiful, fun, intriguing things. And I'd like to write a little story to go with them.

I checked out Issuu first and it looks fantastic and intimidating. I'd need to be a real graphic designer to create something in there that looked any good. Or at least that's what it feels like to me. If we ever do a full-on print version of the magazine, you can be sure that I'll take those files and put them up on Issuu.
Check out Highline Magazine's Winter 2011-12 to see just how magazine-like the experience is. There are Issuu aps too for a better mobile experience. What I don't like is that the links aren't clickable so it's a more passive experience like reading a magazine. You are a viewer, not an explorer. It's linear.

Then I went to Slideshare thinking, "You can click on links and embed video on Slideshare." I also discovered that you can add audio too but it looks like a lot of flipping back and forth between iMovie and Slideshare, so I said, "Forgettabout it." Forget audio. Slideshare is linear too though, and while that has its advantages, I wanted to see what else was out there.

Last year I experimented with Prezi, doing meeting minutes from the Canmore Community Garden brainstorm in Prezi. It was fun to do, and a great way to organize lots of inspirational images. You can pack a lot visually into a Prezi inserting key words in text, but surround the word with pertinent images. I might have to experiment with Prezi again to create the magazine journey that I'm thinking of. The thing is, I like to do the work and leverage it a few times. As Highline does print files that can upload into Issuu, I'm pretty sure that Prezi doesn't work very well for offline experience. So the energy gone into making a Prezi doesn't translate into other media.

More research ahead...any suggestions anyone? Anyone?

Artistry and Styling

Previously I wrote about Plumage and Dazzle, and how we need to be mindful of it here in Canmore. You might say, "But Marty, Canmore is beautiful enough on its own. We don't want to take away from the view."

Looking for evidence, I stumbled on a fantastic wedding blog, Wedding Obsession, that shows how an eye for styling and artistry can contribute to creating the perfect ambiance by adding to the sense of place--celebrating the place along with the occasion. Author, Melissa Liu Gorman, really knows her stuff when it comes to the sheer entertainment and artistic merit fashioning a fabulous wedding, which, after all, is THE occasion in the life of many.

Melissa of 3 blog entries caught me:

1) I am blown away by the deft hand-eye coordination shown by Tara Whittaker, a Calgary photographer, who specializes in weddings. Her Retro Appeal Wedding photo shoot conjures whimsy and wholesome fun. As a promoter of Downtown Canmore, I'm thinking Scrabble-ads, billboards, skill-testing questions, competitions...

Who else wants to decorate their home in these colours?

2) Tara's Spring Zing Wedding which would be PERFECT situated here in Canmore. It also makes me want to meet Tara as she's clearly got a great sense of humour and an evolved aesthetic sense.

Mirror mirror on the...

 

3) A Burberry Styled,  winterscape wedding in a rustic setting with barn board and reddened foliage. Stunning mix of bark, burnished tones, and black iron accessories. Wow!

I love the Bride's dog "gown"!

Lovely details.

Pine cones are not just for Christmas any more.

The credits for stylists, event design, and photography are all on Wedding Obsession. Please go to Melissa's blog. You will be inspired! It's full of luscious creative juice. Pour a glass of wine, and enjoy!

Now do you get where I'm coming from? Plumage and Dazzle require creating a sense of occasion by celebrating the people and the space. Event Design pure and not so simple.