The Sixth Sense

How ordinary people become monsters … or heroes

Another fascinating talk from TED.com.

Here’s the description: Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.

What do you think?

Inspiration

Some days I feel like I could write three or four different blog posts. Other days it seems as if I don’t have a single ounce of inspiration.

I guess that probably means that when I have multi-blog-post-inspiration I should write them all down and store them for later. I’m just pretty rubbish at that.

The question that all of this is triggering in my mind is actually about how we get our inspiration. Why is it that some days we are more inspired than others? Are there things that we do that trigger inspiration?

I know for me that reading from many varied and diverse sources is crucial. Reading has a kind of popcorn effect in my brain. I triggers one thought which then triggers another one, and another one. I love it.

I love reading a fascinating article or a book about something new. They stimulate my brain and prompt fresh, creative, and more inspired thinking. I love movies too that stretch my imagination and kick start fresh thoughts in my mind.

Now, like it says in the image, inspiration isn’t everything. In fact, turning inspiration into something meaningful is mostly hard work. The idea comes in a moment; the implementation can take hours, days, weeks, or even years. But, without inspiration, we would never have the motivation to persevere. So inspiration is vital if we are going to create anything worthwhile.

What are the things that keep you fresh and inspired?

Death and Conflict

(Smile…it won’t be that bad!)

I want to start this post with two more quotes from ‘Story’ by Robert McKee:

“Story is a metaphor for life, and to be alive is to be in seemingly perpetual conflict.”

“Death is like a freight train in the future, heading toward us, closing the hours, second by second, between now and then. If we’re to live with any sense of satisfaction, we must engage life’s forces of antagonism before the train arrives.”

Can you imagine a good book or movie that doesn’t have some significant conflict at the heart of it? Conflict is what keeps us engaged in a story. It isn’t always in the form of an enemy of course. Inner conflict can be just as engaging as the villain in a James Bond movie.

Why do we get bored of any story that doesn’t have a sense of conflict at the heart of it? I suggest it’s because it isn’t real. Conflict is core to our lives. We might not see it in such stark language, but somehow we know this deep within our souls.

The people we admire didn’t get there by accident. Richard Branson’s conflict with BA in establishing Virgin Airways is legendary. Mother Teresa didn’t live her heroic life without conflict. And, whether we recognise it or not, we all face conflict on various levels every day of our lives.

So, here’s a conversation starter. What does conflict look like in your life? What are the things holding you back from realising your potential? What/who is opposing you making the most of your life?

What do you think?

A.J. Jacobs: My year of living biblically

Thought this talk by AJ Jacobs was quite fun and interesting from TED.

Here’s the description: Speaking at the most recent EG conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically — following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.

Resting from and for work

Over time I have heard lots of varying thoughts on rest. Most of these have been helpful in one way or another, though I had being told that this is how I must rest.

It was apparent from the conversation the other day that we all find different things restful. The key is not to identify rest as what others say is restful for them but to find the things that are restful for you.

Using broad strokes, it seems there are however two ways in which people rest. Some people are ‘doing resters‘ and others are ‘being resters‘.

Again, I don’t think there is a right or wrong here. It about identifying the things that reenergise us. For me personally, I need do nothing time to feel rested and refreshed. I need space to just be. I might right. I might listen to music. I might, literally, do nothing.

For others - like my wife Rachel - this is as close to hell as she can get this side of eternity. She likes to be doing something. Needs some kind of agenda or focus. And, typically, wants to be around others. This is how she recharges.

As a quick throw-in here, knowing how each other rests in a marriage or partnerships is going to help a lot!

Anyway, none of this links with the title so far. It’s one thing to know how we rest, it is another thing to understand why we rest. Like anything, if we don’t understand the why, we won’t value it.

I have seen two categories of people when it comes to the why of work. There are those who work, work, work and then pretty much collapse in exhaustion. They find themselves resting from work (not always by choice!).

Then there are those who see that our design as human beings is such that we are wired for work. Things start to go wrong when we’re not working. And so we rest in order to be able to do work.

My suspicion is that most people’s approach to rest is that of resting from work. Our approach to work is that it is something that we quite like to not have to do. We live for our rest (weekends, holidays, etc).

I actually think we need to understand rest in both senses. We work hard, give everything, and then take a deserved break. But we also need to understand that work is part of our make up as human beings. We need to find ways to connect purpose to our work that goes deeper than a pay check.

When we connect our work to a larger sense of purpose and meaning it makes sense that we rest in order to be able to give our all to that. We take time to get recharged so we can give our work our best.

What do you think?

The real difference between liberals and conservatives

I watched this TED video on my iPhone coming back from work today and found it really interesting. It was eye opening and provocative. Definitely worth 18 minutes and 42 seconds of your time.

Have a watch, and share your thoughts!

In search of truth

Enjoyed this on Paulo Coelho’s blog today:

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.

- What did he find? - asked one of the friends.

- A piece of Truth - answered the devil.

The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man’s soul - one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.

- Aren’t you worried? - said one of his companions.

- He found a piece of Truth!

- I’m not worried - answered the devil.

- Do you know what he’ll do with the piece?

As usual, he’ll create a new religion. And he’ll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth.

Any thoughts?

Familiar anyone?!

My friend, Chris, sent me this yesterday which I thought I’d share with you all:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
on the table, and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
since I’m going to be near the mailbox
when I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my checkbook off the table,
and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
so I go inside the house to my desk, where
I find the can of Pepsi I’d been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks,
but first, I need to push the Pepsi aside
so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm,
and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi,
a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye — they need water.

I put the Pepsi on the counter and
discover my reading glasses that
I’ve been searching for all morning.

I decide I’d better put them back on my desk,
but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
fill a container with water, and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight, when we go to watch TV,
I’ll be looking for the remote,
but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table,
so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs.
But first I’ll water the flowers.

I pour some water on the flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
get some towels, and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall, trying to
remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The car isn’t washed.
The bills aren’t paid.
There is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter.
The flowers don’t have enough water.
There is still only one check in my check book.
I can’t find the remote.
I can’t find my glasses,
and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I’m really baffled, because I know I was busy all day,
and I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
and I’ll try to get some help for it,
but first, I’ll check my e-mail….

Anyone struggle with this?!

How do you rest?

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ‘rest‘ lately. You know, taking some time out, having a day off, slowing down, chilling out, etc.

I want to explore this some more in future blog posts but, as part of this focus, I wanted to generate some conversation about this first.

Something I’m pretty convinced of is that rest looks different for each of us. For me, being around lots of people is not at all restful. For my wife Rachel though, so is so energised and refreshed being around others.

For one person, reading my be restful. And for another, climbing up a mountain may just be the restful tonic they need.

So, here’s the question. What do you find restful? How do you like to rest when you get the chance?

What do you think?

Social techiquette

Technology isn’t new. Every generation sees new technology emerge. Interestingly, as we progress forward, we stop even seeing things as being technology. They are just part of life.

Today we think of the internet, mobile phones, and iPod’s as technology. But we’re so familiar with the telephone, television, and washing machines that we don’t think of them as anything else but normal.

When something is fully integrated into life, we no longer thing of it as technology.

It is fascinating watching people sometime argue against technology whilst failing to comprehend all the technology they utilise day in, day out in their life.

Whenever something new comes onto the scene, one of the challenges is working through the appropriate etiquette. Getting the bus into work every day, it amazes me to see the percentage of people who have ear phones in listening to their personal music player.

The dynamics of people flowing to and fro in city life has fundamentally changed. We are now isolated individuals moving about largely insulated from the people around us. We are locked into our own worlds.

Couple this with the rise of social networking sites, and there is less and less personal face-to-face contact with people; particularly people we don’t explicitly know.

The danger this presents is that we become increasingly rude to the strangers who cross our paths. We behave with less and less humanity. People become less personal.

Not that I am anti-technology or think that online social networking is bad. In many ways, some of the richest relationships I have with people have been enhanced with the online, virtual connection.

But the question I was to raise is whether there is - or should be - an appropriate social techiquette for how we interact with other human beings when utilising technology.

Take the iPod. One of the things I made a conscious decision to do was make sure I never speak to someone with my earphones in. When I get on and off the bus and communicate with the driver, I always take the earphones out. I do the same when waiting in line for a sandwich at lunch.

I guess, to me at least, that is just good manners. There’s a time and place for being lost in my own world, enjoying my music. But it’s also still important for me to connect, and engage with the people around me.

That’s just one example. What do you think? What would be appropriate social techiquette for us all to use to make sure we stay connected to the real world around us?