passion

09 Mar 2012 No Comments

You Can Start The Great Change

Rob White, a dynamic philosopher, author, teacher, successful entrepreneur and founder of Mind Adventure, presents a special guest post:

Student:  How does one learn to live his dreams? 
Teacher:  There is nothing at all that is complicated about it.  YOU BEGIN.
Student:  How do I begin?
Teacher:  You begin by ceasing to participating in activity that has been stopping you from living your dreams. You know what these activities are; you simply have been ignoring them too long. 

Might i ask you folks three personal questions?

(1)  What things do you do from a false sense of duty?  Stop it.
(2)  What things do you do from family pressure?  Stop it.
(30 What things do you do to please others?  Stop it.

You learn to live as you’d like to live by stopping yourself when you are living as you do not like to live. You must declare a Declaration of Independence from emotional chains that bind you to living as you do not like to live. Now that is a powerful statement.  Let’s look at it again: You must declare a Declaration of Independence from emotional chains that bind you to living as you do not like to live.

You are responsible for your the emotional chains that bind you … and you have the key to set you free.  
(1)  Empty your day of your habitual reactions. 
(2) Don’t fear the void when you empty your day of habitual reactions, and quickly your spontaneous nature will fill it with amazingly creative action. 

A person is a problem to himself as long as he mistrusts his superlatively creative nature.  Your superlatively creative side will never fail you.  Give it chance.  You can reverse things. You can rise up and declare your freedom from bad habits with mighty power. You may have to do it with doubt and trembling at first – BUT DO IT!

There is a right way and a wrong way to live with yourself.  You are now learning the right way.  Please yourself as your integrity directs you to, not as others direct you to.  When you do this, your awareness will grow: 
(1) You will find incredible opportunities that you never noticed before. 
(2) You will realize your unrealized potential in ways that you never began to imagine.

You have better things to do than waste your day in undesirable emotional states like intrepidation and doubt.   
“He is wise who is wise to himself” – Euripedes.

Blessings,  rob white

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , ,

10 Feb 2012 No Comments

Storytelling with Scott Anger

Yesterday I attended Content Strategy Los Angeles Meetup “Story telling for business with award-winning journalist Scott Anger” organized by Heather Worthingon.

I came to the event because I’m interested in improving my story telling skills and learning new techniques. About 20 people showed up at Coloft to hear Scott talk about best practices of story-telling and content strategy.

Scott, formerly a video content Director at LA Times, is currently consulting and making documentary films (one on Polish youth discovering its Jewish ancestry is in works). Scott had made many documentaries, especially from front lines.

Story telling is everywhere. All you do is storytelling one way or another: it is either our story or somebody else’s story.

We discussed why videos are not that popular in online newspapers compared to text and photographs. One of the suggestions was to provide subtitles to videos so that people can turn the volume off and not distract their coworkers by audio. Another reason was that videos are hard to skim, so a video should have a synopsis of what it is about and tags; then the viewer will decide whether to watch it or not. Due to no captioning provided, videos are considered to be time-consuming.

Measures of video usability are not clearly defined. The important criterion is not the clicks but customer engagement via sharing and commenting.

Scott showed us several examples of videos with great story telling: Girl Effect One and Girl Effect Two.  It is interesting that almost everyone liked the first one better, which was simple motion graphics (could be done in PowerPoint or Adobe After Effects).

In my opinion, in the first video the viewer is not distracted by imagery and moving objects and his attention is more focused on text and its meaning, which makes it very powerful. In the second one the viewer attention is diverted from text to images.

At the same time, I’ve noticed that at least in blogging, text+image is better than just text, as you need some visuals to help readers relate to text, but not too much to get distracted and unfocused.

We also watched ETSY video about Liberty Vintage Motorcycles, which was a great example of creating your story around the character. That video was part of the campaign to raise ETSY’s brand awareness via storytelling. The main character is likeable because he is very passionate about what he is doing and the topic he is covering.

The questions were: how do you know what content users want and how to engage them?  One of the ways is to ask them directly.

Scott mentioned that there is no PR as per se anymore but branding. Data is king (not content or cash). When you know what people want, you can reach them.

There are many different strategies both in content creation and storytelling. Good examples are Hulu, jivesoftware, Planet Money (fun and creative way to tell about investing), The American Life with Ira Glass.

Other suggestions: Make complex story simple, use Solution based storytelling. Check out Story Structure video on TED “The Secret Structure of great talks” by Nancy Duarte.

Ask your customers tell their stories. Ushahidi from Somali speaks use mobile SMS to gather content.

Someone from the audience gave this example: a business owner sent cameras to all people who received technical help from him, asked to video-record their feedback and mail those cameras back to him. It really worked and he received a lot of testimonials that he posted on his website.

Your story may not always be an epic one with character development and a story arc, but at least make it interesting.  Good quality content is very important nowadays, be authentic.

Story arc is usually about conflict and resolution by means of characters. If there are three acts in your story, state your conflict in act 1, then start resolving it in act 2 and come to resolution in act 3. In ETSY film, the statement/conflict was “What is next me?” and “America lost its usefulness”.

Then you would build your story with sequencing events: state event one and what your character feels about it, and then sequencing events and character reaction and development.

Another video we watched was “Mr. Toilet”, which was brilliantly done. It wrapped up with a strong call to action and I really related to it. It reminded me of another video I watched with Vijay Govindarajan http://www.vijaygovindarajan.com/, who spoke at Ted Big Apple Disruptive Ideas about reverse innovation on Feb 4, 2012.

Another highlight of the evening was a 13 min film made by Scott, which is part of the series Stoptortureinhealthcare.org.

It was funded by Open Society Foundation (George Soros). You can find two other ones Scott made about detention of prisoners in Cambodia and sterilization of women in Namibia. The film we watched was made in Ukraine and called “50 milligrams is not enough”. In Ukraine government regulation restricted morphine and other medication to relieve pain for hospice patients. To see the video, go to http://bit.ly/ymqDSg. Scott took 40 hours of footage, and I must say the story is very powerful. Quite a few of us were sobbing in the room and surely all were profoundly impacted by the film.

It was impossible not to feel the boy’s pain, but he was grateful to his friends and family for caring about him and distracting him from pain. The most memorable quote by the boy who was dying:

“I know that this life is nothing but a vapor, like from a kettle. It is not worth worrying that much. Because this vapor is our pass to heaven. Thank you for supporting me through my pain and my suffering. I’m grateful to you and God for it”.

Thank you, Scott, for your great work and for presenting at the Meetup. We learned so much from you.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

05 Jan 2012 1 Comment

2012 Global Happiness Conference Call

Edwin Edebiri, Chief Happiness Officer at I Am Happy Project, organized 2012 global conference call today. There were 5 presenters:

Marci Shimoff – Author, Teacher, Speaker

She is a celebrated transformational leader and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. In addition to authoring the worldwide bestsellers, Love for No Reason and Happy for No Reason, she is the coauthor of six of the top-selling titles in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a featured teacher in the international movie and book sensation The Secret.

Dr. Bob Nozik, M.D. – Physician, Professor, Author

The author of Happy 4 Life: Here’s How to Do, he is a physician who has studied happiness ever since discovering his own deep, inner happiness almost two decades ago. He was featured in “Best Doctors in America” every year until he retired. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco.

Dr. Brenda Wade – Psychologist, Author, Speaker

She is also an expert commentator for CNN and NBC’s Today Show and a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is the Founder of the International Love and Money Summit.

Dr. James W. Jackson – Author, Cultural Economist

He devoted the past 25 years of his life traveling in over 150 countries “delivering health and hope” to the world’s most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.‘s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. Now, he is sharing his field-tested and transferable cultural economic best practices for the positive transformation of individuals, organizations, and cultures.

 

Edwin Edebiri, MBA – Author, Speaker, Consultant

He has interviewed more than 1,000 people in the past year. Based upon their answers, he has come up with a list of 10 concrete things people can do to become happier. He is the inspiration behind the Global Happiness Summit and the founder of the I Am Happy Project, whose mission it is to spread happiness globally, one person at a time.

All presenters shared useful tips and stories on the topic of happiness. I really liked Marci’s story about a woman who cured herself from a serious disease by practicing loving kindness meditation for one year. She wished the best to other people: “May you be safe, May you be healthy, May you be happy, May you live with ease”. The power of our positive thoughts and kindness changes our physical bodies. There were other good exercises recommended like “I’m light and energy”, ”open heart”, Pollyanna and “don’t give in to you inner critic”. I also learned about books that participants wrote. My favorite story was Dr. Jackson’s life story, who said that he is the happiest when he gives himself away: his love, time and effort. “Life is where we direct our pupils”.

“Life is full of alternatives, and based on them we make choices, which lead to consequences, which determine our major happiness”.

“To be happy find someone around you and make them better of”.

“Find your passion and how your focus on that and helping other people will define your life”.

From I Am Happy Project website:

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. Happiness comes from deep within, and not from people, situations, or circumstances.

According to Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego: “When an individual becomes happy, the network effect can be measured up to three degrees. One person’s happiness triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only his friends, but his friends’ friends, and his friends’ friends’ friends. The effect lasts for up to one year.”
Since whatever we focus on grows, the aim of this group is to help members focus on happiness and to spread it at every opportunity.

Ten Ways to Be Happy by Edwin Edebiri:

 

1. Decide to be happy and make it your top priority.
2. Smile more and learn to laugh at yourself.
3. Volunteer your time one on one or to a group.
4. Donate your money according to your pocket, even if it is a dime.
5. Make time for the 3 F’s: Faith, Family & Friends
6. Create a list of all the things you are thankful for or that make you happy
7. Create a list of all the things that make you unhappy and find a solution or  ways to eliminate them.

8. Learn to manage your time and your money
9. Be active and make healthy choices

10. Create a goal or dream list and work diligently towards them

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , ,

30 Jul 2011 No Comments

Movie Called Happy

The Greater Good – The Science of a Meaningful Life posted an interview with the director of movie Happy:

“When Roko Belic was 18 years old, he traveled to Africa, prepared to see unspeakable suffering.

He was delivering money and supplies to refugees of Mozambique’s civil war, a group that he knew had been “completely brutalized”; some had had their arms, lips, or noses cut off in the conflict.

Roko Belic, director of Happy, a documentary beginning its theatrical run today.

But when he arrived, he was astonished by what he found.

“I saw people who were happy,” he says. “They were happy to be alive, but they were also singing and dancing. They had a zest for life that I saw missing in some of my friends back home.”

The experience challenged some of Belic’s most basic assumptions about the world. How is it possible that people who’ve suffered so much can seem happier than people who’ve grown up enjoying the comforts of the West?

He has pondered that question since returning from his trip. Now, more than 20 years later, he has made a film that answer it.

 

JM: So, five years later, based on all the interviews you’ve conducted and research you’ve read and stories you’ve heard, what do you think is the answer to that question you’ve been asking for your adult life: What are the keys to happiness that would explain why some people can seem so much happier than others who are better off financially?

RB: Well, it seems to me that some of the strongest aspects of a person’s life that can help them be happy are their relationships. Strong personal relationships are what Ed Diener, one of the leading happiness researchers, told us is really the key to happiness. He said you don’t have to like everyone or have a million friends. But to have at least a few people you really care about and love, and who care about and love you and will be there for you when you need them—that is one of the key factors in a happy life.

Another one is gratitude or appreciation. Being able to appreciate what you have—it makes a lot of sense that that would lead to happiness. Because if you are poor but you have a piece of bread to eat, and you can appreciate that, that appreciation makes you feel good and fulfilled and happy.

At the same time, if you don’t appreciate things—even if you have a private jet or a few mansions around the world or you’re extremely good looking—that explains why those things may not lead you to a happier life.

Then there’s a lot of research about values. This to me was one of the most interesting findings: that people who have what scientists call “intrinsic values,” meaning they value compassion and cooperation and wanting to make the world a better place, are more likely to be happy than people who prioritize what they call “extrinsic values,” which value things like social status, good looks, power, fame.

The reason why that’s exciting is that what you care about is within your control. In fact, a very significant part of our happiness, according to research, is within our control. And that’s exciting to me, because it means that none of us are cut off from the prospects of the possibility of a genuinely happy life.”

Read complete interview http://bit.ly/pOWGUH

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , ,

28 Jul 2011 No Comments

10×10 Wellness Week Launch

Today I attended SAMHSA Town Hall Meeting via teleconference. SAMHSA works to improve the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, alcohol and drug addiction treatment, and mental health services. I wasn’t sure if it will be related to happiness, but I dialed in and oh, boy, I wasn’t disappointed.  I felt that hundreds of organizations are working together and willing to share their resources to help individuals and groups to be well and stay well, no matter where they are coming from. Even if you are happy and healthy now, you need to know how to stay this way and help others to learn it.

As part of National Recovery Month, National Wellness Week is launched (September 19–25, 2011).

•Inspire individuals to incorporate dimensions of wellness into their lives

•Get involved by taking the Pledge for Wellness

•Join us at 10:10 a.m. and p.m. on Friday, September 23rd for the 10:10 Line Dance for Wellness

•Host a 10:10 Line Dance for Wellness Party and invite others to be part of this life-saving cause

Vision: A future in which people with mental and substance use disorders pursue optimal health, happiness, recovery, and a full and satisfying life in the community via access to a range of effective services, supports, and resources.

Pledge: To promote wellness for people with mental and substance use disorders by taking action to reduce early mortality by 10 years in 10 years

Wellness is not the absence of disease, illness, and stress but the presence of:

•Purpose in life;

•Active involvement in satisfying work and play;

•Joyful relationships;

•A healthy body and living environment; and

•Happiness.

 BHTalk is SAMHSA’s free social forum where you can:

–Tell your National Wellness Week activity;

–Interact with others doing Wellness programs; and

–Provide input about the 10×10 Wellness Campaign;

–Register at http://www.bhtalk.org and click on the 10×10 Wellness Campaign Group;

–Sign the pledge at http://www.10×10.samhsa.gov;

-Put yourself on the map by emailing 10×10@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Download full presentation in PDF WellnessTown Hall.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

09 Jul 2011 No Comments

Great Life Happiness Manual

I met Ricky a couple of days ago at “I’m happy project” meet-up in Santa Monica. I learned about his website, which I studied thoroughly and I found a lot of great quotes, posts,  audio and video material. This one is my favorite:

It remindes me this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI. The lyrics are taken from a famous essay — written in 1997 by Mary Schmich, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune — which gives some amazing advice for life, highly recommend everyone to watch the video or read this http://tinyurl.com/schmich-sunscreen!

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

07 Jul 2011 1 Comment

Live Group Testing of the Happiness Tool in Los Angeles, CA

There were seven of us in Urth Cafe in Santa Monica at 7PM on Wednesday. Due to traffic I was a little stressed, but “Peace of mind” tea cured it all. I was pleasantly surprised with overall attendance: 6 people showed up from 10 RSVPs which is pretty high.

We gathered in the courtyard, where it is more quiet, plenty of shade and more space in comparison to the main room. After quick introduction, participants scattered around the courtyard and completed the forms with 20 questions.

While I was entering numbers from the first set of forms into the Excel file and calculating participants’ happiness ratios, they wrote questions about their obstacles of happiness.  We rotated the second set of  forms among participants, so that each of them had a chance to answer other people’s questions. The questions were about romantic life, work life balance, connecting to people better, etc.

At the end everyone received two forms back: one with their happiness ratio and the other with answers to their questions. We had a discussion and the feedback was most valuable. Kim enjoyed giving answers, while writing her own questions was hard.

Warren said that he tried to answer questions as best as he could because he knew how important it was for the other person and that person’s happiness depended on it. He also mentioned that it would be nice to do this test every morning, because it is a good check for someone’s life. Warren was surprised at the complexity of the test. Even though there were just twenty questions, they do cover all sources of happiness and the happiness ratio is correct.

I was asked “What does the ratio mean?” and the answer is “of everything you want for your happiness how much do you think you have right now”. I was curious if the exercise helped to focus on what participants have or what they don’t have. Kim said that for her it was about understanding how many good things she has in her life and about being grateful for them.

I explained that this assessment could work both ways: it could either direct you to lower your expectations or help achieve what you need the most in your life (being more proactive).

As we drove back my friend, who also participated in the event, said that she wrote a question and the answer was not new to her but it was reassuring to hear it from a stranger, which just reconfirmed that she really needs to do it and really focus on it. Imagine that 100 people read your question and gave you 100 great answers. Even  if you don’t act upon their recommendation, it is possible that  you will be happier simply because so many people care about you and your happiness.

It turned out that one of the participants Ricky has a great website Lifelong happiness, he gave us special bracelets, which are part of the 30 day challenge. I checked his website out after the event and was very impressed. All the content on the website is to help people to achieve happiness in life. One of the quotes is ”Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. ~Mother Teresa”

As for the testing of the tool in San Francisco that was planned for June 30, only one person showed up who happens to be my friend :)  We waited for the rest of the folks in Epicenter Cafe for about 40 minutes and then went to Udupi Palace for an Indian dinner. I didn’t get upset that others didn’t show up because I realized that on Thursday before the 4th of July many people may decide to travel or run last minute errands, so I was totally fine with having a dinner with my friend instead. But that same day he introduced me to a guy who was really interested in the tool and I promised to send it to him. If I can help one person learn something that will help him find his happiness I’m happy.

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

21 Jun 2011 No Comments

Purpose+Passion=

Those, who don’t have the time for a whole week of audio course about Life of Purpose or don’t have the money to do Tony Robbins training, which I was told costs about 10K, but still want to learn about purpose and how to apply it to their lives, should try for free what I did last year at the Strategic Volunteering Workshop. It works!

It was one of those Mondays when you don’t want to get out of your bed, especially when you are not employed. I still made an effort and took the train to Downtown Crossing to attend Strategic Volunteering workshop at the Work Place.  I didn’t have any expectations, just signed up because I truly believe in volunteer work, to me  it means not giving something away but sharing and enriching ourselves and the world around us. I was curious to see what others have to say about strategic volunteering.

The instructor Mark McCurdy, also Founder and President of The Nonprofit Career Coach, delivered an interesting presentation to 10 participants. Main idea was to follow your heart, find what you love to do and focus on it… You would say that we all know this concept as it was mentioned in many philosophical schools, religions and books like The Alchemist and The Monk who sold his Ferrari, etc. True, but the twist is that you apply this concept to volunteering, meaning – not necessary leaving your current day-time job and switching to something else right away.

Volunteering is a way to connect you with your passion, which at the end may lead you to your perfect job you just don’t know how to find yet … As often we have one idea of what we want to do but in reality it may become  something different. As Tony Robbins said “Sometimes you need to lose your dreams to find your destiny”.

I also liked how Mark explained the process of finding what you love to do and implementing it, that is how to connect several elements which are  Passion+Purpose+Strategic Volunteering +Focus

Very often we only focus on passion or purpose but never connect both, never mind applying them to reality by doing volunteer work or seriously focusing on it. So here is what I got out of this workshop:

What is your passion/favorite hobby/interest or what are you good at? I like to ask questions and connect to people through conversation/story, also I’m interested in volunteering.

What community/population do you like to serve? To help unhappy lost people.  Because I was depressed myself in the past, I want to help unhappy people.

How do you think you combine the two into strategic volunteering?  Besides doing this blog and telling about volunteering, I may want to reach out to whole communities of depressed people and write newsletters for them about ways to get involved in volunteer work,  create workshops and events for them.

Focus on what you defined - narrow your goal and be consistent… I spoke to Mark that instead of general population I should focus on non-profits and groups that support communities of depressed people/victims of depression. Mark mentioned that “Collaboration is King” (not cash anymore). He also suggested doing video/audio interviews of volunteers/non-profits for http://nptimes.com/, which is almost like TV show about volunteering world. All I have to do is to focus on these ideas and act upon them – be proactive and reach out to those organizations/communities and create samples of my work.

Imagine that you were at the same workshop, what would you come up with? How many people do you know who decided to do something they are very passionate about even though it was not their profession and they became very successful by eventually pursuing it?

by polyachka in Happiness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,