Showing posts with label TED talks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TED talks. Show all posts

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Serious vs Solemn

Designer Paula Scher gets serious on this TED talk (so popular it got translated to 14 languages!).




Some interesting phrases:

- Sometimes the best way of [getting serious] is being completely unqualified for the job

- After realizing you have become solemn at your work, go back and rediscover what you can play with, fail with, be arrogant, foolish, or completely ignorant about and go about being serious again.

Things to think about: how serious/solemn are we? How to go push ourselves to move around that cycle?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The happy secret to better work

Shawn Achor talks about the happy secret to better work in this TED talk video. 15 min very well spent (find video at the end of this post).

This video comes to complement very nicely a book that my sister recommended me: A general theory of love. I haven't finished reading it, but from what I have read and the video I gather that there is a lot of research about how our feelings are related to chemical reactions in different parts of our brain. With such understanding, one thing that we can do is basically train it to think more positively. This, of course, requires the good and constant practice of certain activities. The speaker recommends the following to create a lasting positive change:
  • 3 gratitudes
  • Journaling
  • Exercise
  • Meditation
  • Random Acts of Kindness

Sounds funny/weird/awkward, but since I started practicing yoga more regularly and a bit of meditation a couple of times a week, I feel the change.

That's why I am making this a personal project for February. Starting from yesterday I will email my sister one satisfaction that I had throughout my day (and she will e-mail me hers!); I set up a google spreadsheet with a table where I will record 3 things I am grateful for (you can't repeat!), and I already signed up for yoga twice a week for this semester. Let's see how it goes!