Your best just got better

How do you do that "task thing" in Outlook 2007?

Someone wrote in last week asking about setting up a "new task" in Outlook 2007. So, I put together a one-minute video here.

Thinking...in different ways!

In a seminar last week, someone asked about "thinking" and "goal setting." In my experience, I've found that there are more or less effective ways of thinking.

Not efficient (just thinking a lot, quickly, about what I've thought about before...) but effective (new thoughts, new innovations, new developments...) ways of thinking.

I know I'm a different kind of thinker. What can look from the outside to be "positive" thinking is really on the inside "directed" thinking.

Is it easy...Good God no! Is it worth it: absolutely, unequivocally YES!!!

"So Jason, how do you do it?"

I love (and I mean I really do LOVE) this question because it puts me in the learning. The real question is not "can you think in a directed why IF you need to," but...

• "When things are tough, when you are down, when it seems there's nothing left to uplift you, WILL you think in a directed way?"

There are a lot of things you could do (please, leave a comment below with your idea!), and I thought I'd just share a couple of my own ideas...

1) When I attend a seminar or watch a presentation, I write many notes in my notebook (for example, just the first 2 minutes and 47 seconds of this is enough to get me going...and writing Bill Strickland ). I realize that I can change my direction of thinking pretty easily! As a matter of fact, many years ago I was one of the only ones taking class notes in multiple colors. I found over time that one of the ways I learn the best is through visual variety.

2) Likewise, making goals attainable, attractive and fun in the process has taken me work and focus. I've tried a few things, including making collages, writing affirmations and creative visualization...I learned a lot of this through this book here: Creative Visualization. When I get a goal, I usually write it out (same goal, usually different words) on my bathroom mirror with a "dry-erase" pen. That way, I'm sure to see it when I'm getting ready for the day, and I'm sure to reflect upon it one more time before I go to sleep!

Finding what will work for you will ultimately be a process of trial and error. Try something; if it works...keep on doing it!

Where does creativity come from?

Over the past month, I’ve addressed some of the bigger questions we get to ask ourselves.

Questions like:

Who am I?
How do I serve?
What do I do next?

Of course, the field of education calls to me each and every day. Since volunteering as a tutor for migrant families in Santa Barbara County back in 1992, to donating my summer to a bilingual school in Argentina in 1997, to being selected as a “Teacher of the Year” [while teaching high school] in 2000, I have known it was calling to work in the teaching field.

When I left formal education, and worked as a consultant from 2000-2006, and since then starting my own coaching and leadership development firm in 2007, I have further solidified my resolve to be the guy who shares good information.

It is my intention, my goal, and my calling to create learning opportunities the help people reach beyond their current experiences and comfort zones; and, achieve more of what they want out of their lives.
To do all of that, I have found, it is imperative that I invite creativity and innovation into my life. That is here this post started.

One day I wrote in my idea journal the following:

How do I create the space to create?
What do I have to let go of, get rid of or do to gain the area I will need to be more innovative?

Over the years, I have come up with my own ideas on clearing space to be creative. It will be great if you share your ideas. Please leave some comments below!

How efficient would "Airborne Internet" access be?

I recently contacted a journalist for the Los Angeles Times regarding some research he was doing for an article on "Internet in the sky."

I'll be honest, for years I have had day-dreams of what it would be like if I could send e-mail, visit a website, Instant Message a colleague, or even call a client and run a conference (or video conference!). However, the secondary thought to that has been something along the lines of the following statements...

- My air time is some of the only "have to not do e-mail" time I have
- My air time is the time I get to read my novels, or write thank you cards, or leaf through magazines...
- ...of course, given a window of time, with certain tools (such as access to the Internet), different options are available.

I stand by my two quotes in this article (see the end of the article here), and I'm sure to experiment with this as soon as it's available. Stay tuned!

What's your "walking score?"

A friend of mine sent me this link (thanks James!), and I found it very, very interesting. My house...is a 0 out of a possible 100 points! What's YOUR walking score?

Be a scientist...about your life and experience

I am reading the book, Predictably Irrational, on my Amazon Kindle and besides loving the eBook reading experience, I'm finding the book to be a major force in my learning and development as a Social Scientist of the work-life management process. Here's a quote from the beginning of the book by Dan Ariely:

"AS YOU WILL see in the pages ahead, each of the chapters in this book is based on a few experiments I carried out over the years with some terrific colleagues. Why experiments? Life is complex, with multiple forces simultaneously exerting their influences on us, and this complexity makes it difficult to figure out exactly how each of these forces shapes our behavior. For social scientists, experiments are like microscopes or strobe lights. They help us slow human behavior to a frame-by-frame narration of events, isolate individual forces, and examine those forces carefully and in more detail. They let us test directly and unambiguously what makes us tick."

If you're looking for a book the "proves" a lot of what makes sense intuitively, and provides some interesting background and "more-or-less" objective studies, I recommend checking Predictably Irrational out of the library or at least reviewing the pages on-line...And, Click Here for the book's official website.

Have you ever wondered how to repay someone a favor they gave to you...but didn't know how or what to do? Check out chapter 12.

Is your business based on selling products AND services? If so, check out Chapter 1...you may get an idea that boosts your bottom line in a matter of months, if not days!

What if you lose your Smart Phone?

UPDATE: A one-minute video presentation here...

There is article in the Wall Street Journal today called, "Do Hackers Pose a Threat To Smart Phones?"

The author, Joseph De Avila, does a great job in letting us know the possible security risks of entering a "lot" of information onto a Smart Phone; he also gives some ideas on how to mitigate some of those risks.

One thing I have done (thank you for showing this to me, Jonathan!) is created a security "password" on my BlackBerry. Any time I want to "get in" to the phone, I have to type in a multi-character password. (Yes, I realize that if someone gets my Smart Phone, and they REALLY know what they are doing, it may not block their access...)

My thinking is/was, if I accidentally leave my BB behind, I can at least know that the person who finds it may not have instant/complete access to all my personal information. So, here's how I did it:

(You can click on the pictures below to see them more clearly...)

On the "main screen" find the icon for "Settings." Click on that icon to amend your BB settings.

Click on the icon for "Options." Click on that icon to change your security settings.

Trust... Do you have it, can you get it?

The picture from today's other entry is from page 55 of the May, 2008 issue of "Chief Learning Officer" magazine. The article is by Stephen Covey, and I enjoyed reading it. A few of my take-aways: (1) Trust is a noun AND a verb, (2) The future of the learning and development community is based on trust, (3) I really, really enjoy meetings-of-the-mind in a group of people who have worked to create trust with one another.

I finally got my wings...as an adult!

So, I am sure that many reading this have a memory of hearing about (or getting your own!) the wings that flight attendants used to habd out on flights. Well, after flying a combined 2 million miles over the past ten years...I finally got mine! Sure they are a sticker, but it is the thought that counts! (Thank you to our FA today, Lillian.)