Swimming under water is like flying

Just driving back from iQuest class and listening to CBC and there was mention by a syncronized swimmer that swimming under water is like flying.   I never thought about it like that.  I love snorkeling and one of the fun things I have done when I get the chance is to grab a rock, take a deep breath with my mask on and free fall along an underwater rock face.

I have always wanted to try flying a small plane, but for the many reasons that we make up not to do things, I did not even try.   But this sensation that you get of floating, weightlessly, under water is very similar to flying just in a much more resistant medium, water not air.

Neat the way a few words over a radio wave can change one’s thought process and bring it to memories and a future of what one enjoys.  I hope to pass this concept on next time we are swimming in Lake Okanagan, which we did yesterday at Gallately, or in Wood Lake, or Kalamalka Lake or Shuswap Lake.

Involve

The word “Involve” has come to me in many contexts this week.  And I thought it worth exploring in text, if only for my own written outlet.  We all get asked thru our days, do you want to do this task, can you do this, can you pick this up, can you drive me here, do you have this project finished.  And we ask others these questions as we need something from them to move on with what we do.  We involve others for consultation, to get possible solutions to problems.   We hear from others of opportunities that we, our company or some knowledge we have can assist in the solution.    People are continually striving to determine the best possible solution to a problem / opportunity.

Let’s start out with the web definition of this word “Involve”.   I took the second one in Google, Farlex Free Dictionary.

in·volve//

tr.v. in·volved, in·volv·ing, in·volves

1. To contain as a part; include.

2. To have as a necessary feature or consequence; entail: was told that the job would involve travel. See Synonyms at include.

3. To engage as a participant; embroil: involved the bystanders in his dispute with the police.

4.

a. To connect closely and often incriminatingly; implicate: evidence that involved the governor in the scandal.

b. To influence or affect: The matter is serious because it involves your reputation.

5. To occupy or engage the interest of: a story that completely involved me for the rest of the evening.

6. To make complex or intricate; complicate.

7. To wrap; envelop: a castle that was involved in mist.

I’m liking number Five…

5. To occupy or engage the interest of: a story that completely involved me for the rest of the evening.

Now for those of you who know me, if under this defintion I’m telling the story, usually you make popcorn, for the rest of the evening…   I’m working on it.  Shortening my stories, get to the point.   That is what this blog is about…   I write it, you read it, and when we see each other face to face we can talk more about you.   Make sense?

When we think about what we are involved in, how did it happen?   What are the categories…   Friends, spouse, Father, employee, team mate, son, homeowner, car owner, bike owner, loaner on items, banks, clubs, social media, professions, cities, volunteering, events.  Everyone has their roles and they evolve as we grow and change as our situation changes or we change or those around us ask or need us to change.   Also I need to think about what keeps me involved.   Is it the thing or the people, the encouragement, adding value, making a difference, sharing information, helping.  Is it the pat on the back, a warm hand shake, a man hug.   Is it looking into someone’s eyes, deep into their soul to see how much they care for others around them.   And me knowing that being near this person is a good thing.   Feeling the light of their presence.  Knowing that if I was to stumble and fall into a dark valley that those people who are able to shine light on even the darkest situation are there.  A phone call, a drive to their house, an e-mail, a FaceBook post.   Wow, it is great to have relationships with people.

Have you ever got involved in an e-mail conversation, a Twitter Reply, A blog post comment, a FaceBook wall post, walked up to someone new at a function, asked a question in a class or presentation?  What are we all doing when we do this?  Do we all desire to be understood?   Do we also have a massive appetite for new information?  We desire to be genuinely interested in other people.   Have you ever got involved with a group of people who meets regularly just to talk?  How can it be that people just spend time together and find topics of interest that can create laughter and tears, improve mindsets and curb worry?  Come at problems from a new angle.  Determine a next step when our minds have either forgotten what to do, or have just never experienced this before.

It seems that all that each of us has is ourselves and to survive in this world whether it was in the 1800’s, 1900’s or 2000’s we need to be involved with others.   Anyone agree?   I’ll watch for your comments, this is a conversation.

The man in the mirror, Identity

I have been given a once in a lifetime chance to attend work out classes at IQuest, a Kelowna Fitness Facility.    It was a prize won thru the Kelonwa Gospel Mission Bikeathon in June 2009.

During a spin class today, I was taking advantage of the mirror to adjust my feet so my legs went up and down straighter so as not to hurt my knees.   And later using the mirror to keep my back straight and watch the free weights go up and down.   It has been 2o years since I did a class because I was not holding my back right and could not get out of bed the next day !!!!!!

Then, I noticed something…   I said to myself, “Hey, that’s me”.   Not a Facebook picture, not my profile picture on Linked In or Twitter.   Not a photo on the wall or a picture in an album.   That’s me, live, right now.   And I’m working out.   Heart rate up, strengthening the core.    This is incredible, including the sweat and red face.

The man in the mirror.   Is that what everyone sees?   It is, that’s me.   My Identity is who I am.

I’ll be honest here, when I slowed the work out due to the pain of exercise, I looked away from the mirror.   I don”t really enjoy seeing myself, and especially when I fail.   But failure is inevitable, it is a sign of risk, of growth, of change.  It is a chance to learn, to improve.   And continuous improvement is all there is when we are adults.

In one hour making little adjustments in the mirror, I felt like I changed.   Let’s put the spot light on our Identity.   Who am I?  And the better question who am I striving to be.   Mind, Body and Soul….

Brian Tracy comes to mind as I reread for typos…    he taught positive affirmations…   “I like myself”.

Someone stop me when the narcissism kicks in, PLEASE.

Power in 3, 2, 1

Power in 3, 2, 1 is a command to look within ourselves and pull to our next level of energy.

What amazes me is that whether it is the challenge of a hill when you are walking, tightening the tension on a stationary spin bike, digging your paddle deeper in a dragon boat practice or executing a process or procedure in our paid work, what we need is there.   How can that be?  In most situations does the human mind, body and soul have unlimited power?

Think about a situation you are in where there has been a call for Power in 3, 2, 1.   Do you think about it or just do?

In the case of the dragon boat (I might need to give these dragon boat stories their own category soon !!!!), each of the 20 people paddling has developed a stroke that they are comfortable with.  Each paddler through the practice is working to improve that routine, as it is done 72 times per minute, so each person wants it to be as efficient as possible.  Here comes the call for Power in 3, 2, 1.  Focus in the boat, look up the boat, and on the 1 each paddler does what they think is an increase in the stroke.   Guess what happens?   The boat accelerates.  People have looked within themselves, their circle of influence, and found the next level of energy to propel that vessel forward.

Now in the case of these sports analogies, you can’t just show up in a 2.5 minute race and expect to have unlimited power.  There is some training involved, training is involved everywhere work, relationships, parenting, etc.   Training though is the responsibility of the individual.  If someone chooses to go to a hockey school or train for a half marathon or go twice per week to IQuest, that is their choice, again reaching within.

Now Finish, that’s another blog post !!!!!!    And don’t forget about Start !!!!!!

The possibilities are endless, even with small seeds

So I took my advice and went to look into the face of a SunFlower.   We have a few if you need one.

Have you tried that?

The pattern is amazing, it starts out with all the seeds lined up in a circle, an then spirals inward in a curve.  When your eye follows the lines created there is almost a vortex.  It appears to go on forever, endless.

If you touch it with your finger, you see it is an optical illusion.

Hard to imagine how that complexity, but mere simplicity, exists in our lives, as last time I looked I’m not a yellow sunflower that grew out of a seed.

We have patterns, ours have so many possibilities.  Endless.

The next page is unwritten, write a new story

I heard these words on Wednesday from a friend.  The next page is unwritten, write a new story…. Have you every heard this before?    And I mean really heard them?   I believe I have read them, had some small experience with them, but on Wednesday I heard them.

About 10 years ago I met a man who used to ask people, “What book are you reading?”.  I’m not sure who taught him to ask that question, but I have come to think it is a good question.   Most everything we pick up from previous generations, previous people comes from books.  (And of course doing, failing, plan-do-study-act)  Have you ever picked up a book you did not understand?  Did you put it down again, thinking there was nothing in there for you? Do more and more books have lots of pictures?

This same friend has a goal and has achieved reading 30 books per year.  That is a good goal, so good I’m going to steal it, do it, track it.   So when someone who reads that many books throws out a recommendation, and he throws down the challenge that the book is short and can be read in an afternoon, it is only 140 pages, I think you need to find it, buy it, read it.   Wouldn’t you?

There was only one copy left at Bell Tower Books Ltd.   Can you believe that?  And if there had not been a delay in the next pick up, I might not have got it.  So I finally found the hammock at about 2:30 pm while I was waiting for the next call from the crew (my daughter and her friends) to move them around Kelowna.  I joked when I picked them up that their Taxi was here, and something about a flat fare or run the meter.   I got one laugh out of 4, I’m no Jerry Seinfeld.  I think it was hard for them to relate because they have not taken many cabs, at this stage in their lives, parents drive them everywhere or they took one cab one Christmas in DisneyLand.  One needs to experience a cab in Montreal in February, rushing for your plane, to get the real cab experience, but that will be another blog post.  I think  there is a cab story from China, another blog post.  So I made it to p. 44 in the afternoon.    There is 147 pages, which my friend did tell me, and I see that on p. 147 he enters a title of “One last thing”.   I did not read it…  I am a big mystery novel fan.   it sounds like a good way to end a book, or what might be a book originally written as a series of blog posts.   Imagine that.

So this book is called, “Tribes, We need YOU to Lead Us” by Seth Godin.   Now I only remembered the title of the book from my friend so I’m waiting for a Linked In mail back to confirm the author is right, but hey another book for 2009.  I guess I should have recorded the title and the auther into my Blackberry, what was I thinking?  That could be a new habit for remembering these kinds of recommendations.  So, the title of this post is, “The next page is unwritten, write a new story”.   I hit page 42 and Seth Godin is writing about “The F Word”.     Then on p. 44 he writes, “Not easy to admit, but essential to understand”.   These written words are resonating with me, so I’m excited to keep reading the book.   I’m 99% sure what I have written so far this morning is not yet resonating with you, the blog reader, who through some click thru has ended up here and taken the time to explore this particular topic.   Probably the better thing to have done was for you to run out and buy the book, “Tribes” or borrow it, or find it in the Libary.   But for now you are reading this blog post and I thank you.   I’m hoping you will comment on what you are thinking when you read this.

The next page is unwritten, write a new story…. what does this mean?  How does hearing this and knowing this set me, my wife, my family, my friends, my work mates, my teams up for success?  Is it that anything can happen today, in a free world?  Is it that if through my conscience mind I identify a Big Rock (see other post) (high importance, low urgency) goal and plan my week and live the habit that the future changes.   I’M GOING TO SAY ABSOLUTELY.

So I’m going to do more reading of this book, “Tribes”.  During the recommendation of the book, my friend noted he had given it to his CEO, who has been impacted by the information.   That’s motivating isn’t it?   Have you, in your career, ever shared an idea with the CEO?  Seth mentions, “I’ve encountered thousands of people walking around with great ideas.  some of the ideas really are great; some are merely pretty good.  There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of ideas.  Ordinary folks can dream up remarkable stuff fairly easily.”   And as we have all seen in our lives ordinary folks can make a small change that has a ripple effect.  Taking the time with a coworker who has frustrations and does not feel heard or understood.   Or even the simplier one, we have an idea to improve our job and we make the change, shorten the process, fill a need in the market place.  The power is within us all.

Now that’s motivating, I’m going to end this blog post here.

The next page is unwritten, write a new story….

(ps…  in a presentation skills class I took in 1990, they said, and one of the main things I remember is tell them, tell them again, and tell them a third time)   Sorry for the repetition, but I personally wanted to remember what my friend had said in terms of writing a new story.   Most is of this blog is telling ME what I heard this week.   The other thing I heard is most people, especially at the age of 11, DO NOT do what they are told.   But maybe, just maybe, or now I’m thinking for sure, I’ve been telling way, way too much.   Involve sounds like a better word / process.

Things one finds in Twitter, thank @crystalflaman

101 Simple Ideas To Create A Ripple Effect

1. Buy coffee for the car behind you @ the drive thru
2. Smile at a stranger
3. Strive to become not only the best in the world but the best for the world
4. Be happy and share your joyous mood
5. Really strive to live in this present moment
6. Recycle
7. Slow down in every way
8. Let the car in front of you into your lane
9. Get some exercise (every day)
10. Play with your kids (every day)
11. Go for a stroll alone or with a loved one
12. Call a friend you have not talked to lately
13. Say “I love you”
14. Hug someone today
15. Eat completely healthy for one week – and see how it feels
16. Fill every Sunday only with things and people that matter most to you
17. Meditate
18. Laugh out loud
19. Make someone else laugh out loud
20. Listen
21. Focus on what is important (not urgent) today
22. Call your mother
23. Buy yourself flowers
24. Send a card in the mail to someone
25. Read a good book and share what you learned
26. Always stop to buy lemonade at lemonade stands
27. What inspires you? Put more of this into your life
28. Sponsor a child around the world
29. Become a “big brother” or “big sister”
30. Make your personal health a top priority
31. Be kind to yourself – treat yourself today
32. Take the dogs for a walk at your local SPCA
33. Volunteer for your favorite charity
34. Sponsor a family at Christmas
35. Go on a vacation – rejuvenate your spirit
36. Spend time with someone who needs you
37. Have a garage sale & give the proceeds to charity
38. Refrain from gossiping at work
39. Stay late to help a colleague at work
40. Roll all those pennies you have at home and donate the money to the Boys and Girls Club
41. Become the most positive person you know
42. Tell someone you love that you “believe” in them and hold a positive vision for them
43. Give a small amount of money to Kiva (www.kiva.org) where $10 could change a life
44. Buy a bouquet of daffodils & give them away, one at a time, to strangers walking down the street
45. Bake a huge batch of cookies and invite your friends over for tea
46. Offer to help fix whatever your neighbor is working on
47. Tell your kids that you love them
48. Show up as yourself, nothing more, nothing less
49. Get in touch with your favorite teacher from school – and tell them what they meant to you
50. Really listen when someone is speaking to you
51. Have the courage to do something that really scares you – every week
52. Make a list of 5 people who made a difference in your life and tell them so
53. Make a list of 5 people who you would like to make a difference towards and do so
54. See yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you completely and unconditionally
55. Take a break with a co-worker you don’t know well and get to know them a little
56. Try to remember the names of your most frequent customers
57. Write that book you always wanted to write
58. Discover your passion & share it with the world
59. Inspire a child to discover their passion
60. Gather your closest friends and have a monthly “random act of kindness” afternoon
61. Create rituals at home & at work that are fun, lively, humorous and/or inspiring
62. Cut your neighbors lawn
63. De-clutter your home and office – and donate items you do not want to the Salvation Army
64. Make today a day of expressing only positive words and thinking only positive thoughts
65. Organize a “pot-luck” lunch to connect withcolleagues at work
66. Play a practical joke (good taste) on a co-worker
67. Send flowers anonymously to someone you love
68. Invite neighbors you’ve never met over for a summer evening of “bocce” out on the lawn
69. Become an organ donor
70. Give blood at your local Red Cross
71. Send a “thank you” note
72. Leave chocolates on the desk of a colleague
73. Visit your local senior center or nursing home and visit or read to the elderly
74. Perform some sort of “community clean-up”
75. Volunteer at your local “soup kitchen”
76. Give yourself the gift of solitude for an hour
77. Breathe deeply on a regular basis
78. Do something today to reduce stress in your life
79. Teach your children and grand-children the act of giving
80. Help build a home with Habitat For Humanity
81. Take school supplies to kids in need when you go on vacation
82. Give a scholarship to a child with Room To Read (www.roomtoread.org)
83. If you cut your long hair, donate it so that it can be made into wigs for Cancer Survivors
84. Conserve energy, electricity and water
85. Ride your bike instead of driving if you can
86. Don’t wait for Valentine’s Day to express your love to that special someone
87. Help someone with car trouble
88. Strive to align all aspects of your life with your values and integrity
89. Get rid of your “to do list” and focus on what’s really important in your life
90. Focus on your sharing strengths and delegate your weakness
91. Look for the good in every situation & have faith
92. Look people in the eye when you speak to them and show your undivided attention
93. Enjoy the journey – every moment of every day
94. Relax
95. Spend time focusing on your “inner gifts” and how you can utilize all of your talents in your work and life
96. Apologize for mistakes you have made in the past
97. Ask someone for help
98. Create a positive vision for yourself, people around you and the planet
99. Realize the incredible power of your thoughts and intentions
100. Get a group of friends & family together, on a regular basis, to develop ways to create a ripple effect in the world around you
101. Be kind to yourself – you are a source of miracles
102. ________________________________________
103. ________________________________________
104. ________________________________________
105. ________________________________________
106. ________________________________________
107. ________________________________________

Remind me to get this book, “Tribes”

Straight copy for the Chapters web site:

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It’s our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they’re enabling countless new tribes to be born- groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. And so the key question: Who is going to lead us? The Web can do amazing things, but it can’t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals- people just like you who have passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips.

If you think leadership is for other people, think again- leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma leads a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, runs her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. All they have in common is the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.

If you ignore this opportunity, you risk turning into a ‘sheepwalker’- someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don’t do very well these days.

Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers…. It’s not easy, but it’s easier than you think.

Shattered, how do we cope?

We are all driving down the road of life and are constantly bombarded with messages.  Little pushes to alter our course.  The easiest ones are the green light, red light.  We stop, go, we wait.  Do you watch movies?  Most North Americans do.  This week I was driving home from work and got a call, can you grab this item at the drug store.  Ok.  While at the drug store I was asked to wait, so I went to the Movie store, not with the intent to get a movie as we are trying ZIP.CA, where the DVD’s come in the mail, more just to see what was out there, kill some time waiting.  As is usual in the retail business, once I got in the store, I made an impulse purchase and grabbed the movie, “Fragments” with 5 or so people acting inlcluding Forest Whitaker and Dakota Fanning. Have you ever noticed how many people it takes to make a 1.5 hour movie?  OK, back to the story as I suspect some people have stopped reading, to make popcorn.   Did you count the messages that the world provided for me in my drive home from work?  We see many things, especially at 80 km per hour.   Now this blog is not intented as a movie review.   And you might ask how did I pick this movie, and the answer would be pretty random, and probably by the cover image (a gun shot hole thru a window) and a quick read of the overview, “Shots ring out and the early morning tranquility of a diner shatters”.  That is from the back cover.  “As survivors pick up the pieces, they find themselves transforming in the most unexpected ways as they cope with the aftermath”.  Interesting word in there, “cope”.   Do we pick movies by our emotions at the time?

So let’s get a definition of the word cope:

cope ¹ // (kp)

intr.v. coped, cop·ing, copes

1. To contend or strive, especially on even terms or with success: coping with child rearing and a full-time job.

2. To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them: “Facing unprecedented problems, the Federal Reserve of the early 1930s couldn’t cope” (Robert J. Samuelson).

It’s a movie about change.  Something we all deal with everyday.  In the movie the character of Anne Hager played by Dakota Fanning reads a line at the end of the movie while driving out of town in a car.   The movie began by her and her mom driving into town in a car.  With her mom dropping her randomly at this diner, where she sits with her Dad and her friend. In walks a man with a gun, who ends up shooting a number of people.  Just as a random thought, we did watch Collateral this week with Tom Cruise.  Another movie about shooting people, I think in that case they were witnesses in a big drug business case.  So here is the movie line, what you have all been waiting for as you read my musings, and for copy-write purposes this movie is by winged films inc and probably has a writer by I was not able to find that yet in the printed or web documentation.  Maybe the writer will see my blog and comment, possible, not probable.  Here we go…   and as you read this, and you have a thought.  Send me a comment on this blog, it could prove for great web conversation on coping with change.  We need to remember that what we think is very important.   Twitter is exploding a business based on giving us all that simple ability, share what you thing, and your followers may read it.   So I went and checked Twitter at this very moment to see what the next thought was….. and it was something about Microsoft…  imagine.

“In an ordinary world, we trust in where things belong.  Everything has a place and believing in that makes us innocent.  And through the days under the same sky, we hope, dream and love.  We find and lose our way.  Endings are beginnings and moments like pieces fit together again”.

Go and an look at a sun flower.  There is order.   It was pointed out to me yesterday morning, before this movie, that when a squash plant grows up a trellis, the stock knows to grow strength in advance of the future weight of the squash.  The plant is growing ahead on how to cope.  The objective of the plant is to bear fruit.

Thanks for reading….

Consideration

Definition of Consideration given by Stephen Covey on p. 101 of his course book.

CONSIDERATION:  Willingness and ability to seek and listen to others’ thoughts and feelings with respect.

And then the Wiki Dictionary….   (the web is crazy the amount of info we have at our fingertips)   Of course reading the definition above over and over, in its magnificent language will help us more with our WIN WIN agreements and balance.

consideration (plural considerations)

1. The thought process of considering, of taking everything into account.

   After much consideration, I have decided to stay.

2. Something considered as a reason or ground for a (possible) decision

   The rascal’s consideration a prank at the teacher’s expense would make him his mates’ hero cancelled the consideration the principal’s paddle will surely make him reconsider

3. The tendency to consider others.

   You showed remarkable consideration in giving up your place for your friend.

4. A payment or other recompense for something done.

   Sure I’ll move my car, but only for a consideration.

5. (law) A matter of inducement for something promised; something valuable given as recompense for a promise, which causes the promise to become binding as a contract.
   • 2007, Wikipedia:Contract:

     Consideration is an intention to create legal relations.

   • 2008, A contract:

     In consideration of the perfomance of B’s obligations hereunder, A hereby grants to B’s personal license.

So the trick is to have the SKILL for consideration and to balance this with Courage.

Those who can do this create effective Win – Win Agreements.   If you are reading this and have a burning desire, please share via a comment a recent WIN WIN agreement you created.    If you need a framework to tell your story, the elements are:

Desired Results

Guidelines

Resources

Accountability

Consequences

My quick example is swimming with my son.  He wants to swim with me and has the courage, willingness and ability to speak this thought.  I have the opportunity to listen and after a few days of planning a trip to the Shuswap, booking holidays from work, negotiating other schedules and interests, loading 4 people in the van, driving in the rain, lunch, beverages, groceries, hikes, feeding hunger, skiing, boating, rain….    there is a spot, a spot I love.  Important to note that my wife did most of the hard work to get us to the Shuswap.  He had asked me Friday evening to go in for a swim when it was dark, and I said no, my first response was negative thinking only of being cold.  It was 15 C, not the usual 35 C.  Then a memory of swimming with my mom at night, mad that I didn’t act, possible consequences that he won’t ask again.   Then on Sunday, the boat stops almost perfectly at the spot.  He had asked again, Dad let’s swim.   We jump in off the boat and swim to this small beach on the Shuswap.   We come out of the water hold up our arms together and I shout “FREEDOM”.   Then we sit in the water for a moment and talk.  This is wonderful.   Win Win, a memory for both of us.  It does not take much to build relationships, but it takes all of who we are to have the courage and consideration to achieve a Win Win.

As a footnote the “FREEDOM” shouting is a Wild at Heart thing.   I joined many men at a place called RockRidge in 2004 and we shouted this up the valley.   By chance, mostly due to boredom and I was not involved in the choice, on Sunday when we got home, the movie BraveHeart was pulled off the shelf, old technology VHS, and we watched it.  A bit gruesome for an 11 year old, but it is in this movie that the shouting “FREEDOM” is portrayed as men fight for their country.  We were not fighting for our country and on the edge of death.  We were working on our relationship and for me fighting a scarcity mindset.   The better choice for us all is thinking abundance, there is plenty out there for everyone, and more to spare.