Hedonistic StoryJacking – From TED to you!

The Architect Bjarke Ingels is something of a wunderkind.  Mixing his passion for sustainability with his passion for architecture and beauty.  I saw this TEDTalk several years ago, but a recent conversation brought it to mind again.

I am sharing this video for several reasons.  First and foremost it is freaking cool!  Seriously, you need to watch it and be inspired.  But secondly and also uber important, his thinking is so far outside the box that the world has created that it blows your mind when you start thinking about what it takes to think in such innovative ways.  You have to give up what is known and be willing to dive into possibility.  You have to be curious about doing things in new ways, you have to be willing to ignore the nay sayers (to include you own internal negative dialog) because you are so solid in your own truth that you just blow by those voices, and you have to be courageous as you work the journey.

What would you want or be driven to be curious about?

What if we all started thinking outside the boxes of our own lives?

What would you be willing to look at and give up in order to reach your potential as a person, and share your gifts with the world?

This video gives me hope.  As human beings on this planet we can, if we decide to, undo the messes we are making.  We can stand up and demand that our Governments become innovative, we can demand the same from industry, and we can decide to make changes that support life.  The video also shows how a country, like Sweden, can think outside the box and change how it does business.  Right now Sweden needs trash, yep, you heard that right.  They are importing trash, because they now can’t make enough of their own to power their power plant, which now heats over 900,000 homes and provides electricity to over 250,000 other homes. (facts from Avfall Sverige) It blows my mind.  What a terrific StoryJack, from waste to energy.

I don’t spend time cultivating my phobias.  On the contrary, I explore them for missed opportunities.  Bjarke Ingels

My most important take away is that if Sweden can do this on such an epic scale, what is stopping you and I from transforming and StoryJacking our own lives?

What idea or situation have you been sitting with and allowing to molder, instead of acting on?
What negative self talk or discomfort do you need to explore for opportunities?
Do you think, that maybe, it’s time for a personal revolution? Hedonistic StoryJacking!

Lie Spotting & When Lies Benefit Us

“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Mark Twain

This is a fantastic TED talk, given by Pamela Meyer, which helps to build our understanding about lying.  It’s interesting when Pamela talks about how lies are a cooperative acts.  If you don’t want to be deceived, you need to develop your awareness about what you really want, because liars play on your wants.  This came up for me just today, because of a scam I just got caught in on Facebook.  I saw a “Free Southwest Airlines Tickets!” and on one hand I knew, “too good to be true…” and still had a part of me stumble into the free ticket trap and invite all my friends.  I wanted something for free, they got me with the lie.  So, knowing that we all lie, to some degree, and some are much better liars than others, this is a fun TED talk.  Enjoy Pamela Meyer’s as she educates you and helps you to develop your awareness.  Maybe you will step lightly past the next person trying to scam on you, that comes your way.

Another good talk is on the TEDtalk Radio from NPR a free podcast.  They discuss this issue of deception and it can help you understand even more.

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/311863205/why-we-lie?showDate=2015-04-03

The radio show talks about ways that we might lie to ourselves and how some of those lies might actually help us.  I know for myself I have a strong Optimism Bias, one way our brains make us believe things.  Most entrepreneurs have this same bias because we have to believe in ourselves in order to take great leaps and create businesses!

Stop Screwing Yourself Over

This is a really great TED talk.  Mel Robbins really calls us out on why we don’t get what we want.  “Getting what you want is simple, it’s just not easy.”  This TED talk is  worth a view.  Stop telling yourself that you’re “Fine,” she says it’s time to force yourself to take action.

Develop your Positive Intelligence

Shirzad Chamine at TEDxStanford 

What a great TEDtalk!  By understanding your inner saboteurs, you can challenge all the negative self talk, and then start listening to your inner sage.  The guide to being happier and more successful is inside of you.  Develop your Positive Intelligence.

http://positiveintelligence.com

 

 

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Apparently it is not as simple as “yes or no.”  Kelly McGonigal talks about a Harvard study that shows that, how you think about stress matters.  If you see stress as bad, causing illness, and hurting you, it will.  Almost magically, the crucial difference between the stress that makes you sick and the stress that doesn’t hurt you at all, is how you think about it.  The mind is truly a powerful tool.  When you change the stress story, and you see stress as your body’s way of rising to a challenge, you fundamentally change your body’s reaction to the stress.  Your body believes your thoughts and your stress response becomes healthier.  It’s brilliant!  This is a great scientific example of changing the your world with your thinking.

Fearless Empathy

This is is a great TED talk, about the need to have both determination (spine) and empathy (heart).  Vanessa Inn talks about how fear divides these two aspects that make up each of us, and why finding balance between the two extremes helps us to manifest our gifts into the world.  She also tells a great story about her own process of moving through fear, and changing the story she had been telling herself.

 

What is Your Body Saying?

Something like 80% of our communication is non verbal.  Do you know what you’re “saying” when your not talking?  Amy Cuddy looks at how we read other peoples non verbals unconsciously, always making assessments about what they are ‘saying’ to us by reading their body language, and yet we are often not aware of how we are being perceived.  Our non verbals govern how other people think and feel about us.  So, an interesting question was posed, do our non verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves?  So, Amy looks very closely at the non verbal communication of power, or lack there of.  Can you fake confidence and does it help?  We know that our minds change our bodies, so could our bodies change our minds?  What do the minds of the powerful look like compared to the powerless?

Our bodies can change our minds… our minds can change our behavior… and our behavior can change our outcomes.  Brilliant!

 

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This is a nice video about some key aspects of success.