Have a Holiday Every Day

Holidays are a state of mind.

What is it about being on holiday that we find restorative and refreshing?

The lack of work, the extra sleep, and the books we read (or don’t read)?

Is it the fishing, walking, swimming, the new places we see?

The answer is yes to all, but perhaps the greatest part of being on holiday is that we take off the masks we wear, or allow the expectations we have of ourselves to be relaxed. Many of these things can be incorporated into our daily lives.

Holidays are not about gathering your thoughts, but rather clearing them. This can certainly be done daily.

No matter how busy we get through the year all of us can & should experience a “holiday” moment every day. Although I think it’s a learning curve for all of us we should be determined to take even a few moments each day to enjoy just “being”.

Daily holiday hints

• Walk around the building at lunchtime in the fresh air
• Read a book for pleasure
• Stare out the window for five minutes.
• Go off-line for a while
• Have an early night
• Spend quality time with your family and friends
• Exercise
• Allow your eyes to “glaze-over” and daydream
• Add your own holiday hints.

Reduce stress in your life by taking time out everyday just to be you. Being an authentic “you” will help you in your work, family, social life and community life. Just “being” should always come before “doing”

Have a holiday every day

Paul S Allen

Be Creative

Without the crowds adulation would an artist play, write or create?

A true artist, writer, musician or other creative person will always create with or without the crowd, as it is an inherent need within them to do so. For some they have to write, they have always a note book to record thoughts, others take photographs of things they wish to paint. What ever the method the creative person is always looking for an outlet for the gifts they have within them.

What are your creative gifts?

Don’t limit yourself to thinking about poetry, music, art or dance. What do you do that you find releases your creative flow?

Carpenters love to create fine furniture. gardeners love to grow vegetables or flowers, some people love to create and organize large events.

Being creative allows you do realize what you are good at and are passionate about, it is an important factor of a successful life.

Be creative, innovative, imaginative, think, dream, sing, dance, move, knit, sew, cook, it is within the capacity of every person to be creative at some level. It is what we are meant to be.

Be creative today, start doing something, anything, but allow yourself to be creative today.

Paul S Allen

TEDxDunedin (A Reflection)

A reflection on the first TED^xDunedin event held December 4, 2009.

The thought processes I find myself having when attending events like this, seem to wander from what the speakers are actually saying to the implications of what they are saying. I found the process of the TED^xDunedin event to be a dialogue rather than just speakers talking to a crowd. This dialogue is more about a meeting of minds rather than sharing of words.

Some bullet points from the night…

Phil Osbourne (University of Otago) “The Power of Free”

• “Customers happy with value don’t complain about the price.”
• “What are you going to do when your competitors go free/style?”
• Most important  “The future is not about business as usual”

Matt Ayres (Polson Higgs)

• “What happens when your model of service is under threat?”
• “Your most valuable asset for the future is your insight into the problem your organisation exists to fix”
• “The future is inside the people you serve”
• “Fundamental for all organizations… it is about serving people better”

Jason Leong (The Distiller/Pocketsmith)

Growing up great, this was about the thought that business start ups are like “orphans” and that a model of incubation where a group of start up businesses are in an environment where they “Contribute – Collaborate – Share” is important.

Daniel Belton (Good Company Arts)

Daniels presentation was of interest to me as the video of dance that he showed caused me to think about the convergence of two seemingly opposite views, the rigid and the fluid.

The rigid and the fluid need each other to work in harmony; in fact one without the other is structure without life or chaos. As Itay Talgam has said in another TED video “You need process and content to make good music” Process is the structure, whether in business or other activity, and content is what makes it “human” or alive.

A quote from Daniel “[it is] Important that we don’t just “look” but we “see”.”

There was also a video from a neurological specialist talking about her experience when she had a stroke, describing the differences between left and right hemisphere thinking, the left hemisphere being structural the right being experiential. The encouragement from the speaker (Jill Bolte-Taylor)^1. was to spend more time on the right hemisphere to spend more time in the metaphysical and creative side.

This video matched well with all the people presenting tonight as the only way to move on is to change the way we think, and to do that we need to be creative in all areas of life and business.

To achieve great new things we cannot do what has already been done.

The world is changing around us whether we like it or not. How we respond to change will determine how we will cope and how we will fit in the future.

Please check out the TED^xDunedin site.

This was a great event and look forward to continuing the dialogue.

Paul S Allen

^1. The video by Jill Bolte-Taylor

http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Getting Started

Things to consider before starting something new

The following are some ways to help you with the big picture stuff when thinking about setting up a new business venture or other project.

What are your motives for starting? Be aware of them if it is to make money, great, if it is to benefit the community great, but be able to define what the motives are.

What do you want to achieve? Do you know how you will measure the success of your new venture? What does success mean to you?

Keep a diary or journal of your thoughts/ideas/processes that you have. The big thing here is writing it down for a permanent record, many great thoughts are lost in the blink of an eye.

Research, research, research; do your homework; people will expect you to be the expert.

Protect your plans and intellectual property, you may need to talk to a specialist legal adviser for this so be prepared to spend some money.

Get alongside successful people; glean advice from their successes and failures.

Stay up-to-date with what is happening in the world and especially in the community where you expect to set up.

Do not take failure personally. Many things can happen to cause plans to change, learn from all of your experiences good and bad.

Be as objective as you can be.

Take time to develop the vision. You need to be able to see the full big picture.

Dream big but start small.

Remember the bigger the vision the more small details matter. Foundations need to be very strong to be able to support large structures.

If, on investigation, an idea doesn’t work don’t proceed.

Sometimes ideas may be sometimes “No” “Not Now” “Not Yet” “Not before…”

Be certain of your own values and ethics, they will drive your idea forward and give it strength.

Paul S Allen

Unlocking Your Vision

Unlocking Your Vision

How do you get a vision for yourself or for your business? Here are some clues to unlocking what your vision could be.

1. Passion: What are you passionate about?
2. Learn to dream: you are allowed to dream, what does your ideal world look like?
3. Be moved/motivated by what is going on around you: Watch the news, read the paper, be aware of what is going on.
4. Be aware of the needs that are around you.
5. Look to your own skills: what are you good at?
6. What makes you mad or angry?
7. What frustrates or annoys you?
8. Build scenarios of the world you would like to see.
9. Brain storm ideas: by yourself or with others
10. Collaborate with others
11. Read books especially biographies and non-fiction.
12. Never stop learning
13. Learn to value all of life’s experiences.
14. Devine inspiration/enlightenment. ***
15. Impartation***

***Devine inspiration or impartations from others are great but remember that you have got your own very capable brain, use it.

Both businesses and not-for-profit organizations have this in common; they provide solutions to a need or problem. The questions need to be asked…

What problem do you want to solve?
What problems can you solve?
Is there a problem to solve?

Recognise that you may be only part of the solution. Collaboration may be required to see the whole vision achieved. This will require good honest appreciation of your own abilities and those of others. Humility is the key here.

The key to fulfilling a large corporate vision is to have a good understanding of what your own personal vision is, and that everyone within the organisation understands what his or her own vision is.

Each vision is like a cog in a machine, some are bigger than others, some are different shapes than others, but they all need to fit together to work properly. The bigger the cog the slower it turns but the harder it is to stop. It is only in recognising the purpose of your existence that you can truly be effective in a larger organisation. If every cog were identical no advantageous motion would ever be achieved.

Do not confuse mission for vision. A vision gives you the direction to travel whereas a mission gives you the mode of transport to get you there. Example I have a vision to see London, England, my mission is to get there on a plane. My vision is not to “be” a plane.

Do not be bound by what you currently see, a vision is something that seeks to change a current reality.

Paul S Allen