Sunday, 31 October 2010

Apologies for the multiple postings

Yesterday I posted the same photo approximately 12 times! Yikes! Sorry about that, it's to do with the intricate content plumbing that I have set up with my Twitter and Posterous accounts. Twitter said it wasn't posting my picture, but meantime every time I tried to post, it was successfully publishing to Posterous - and here. And a lot of other places! Ah, live and learn.

I'm going to unplug posterous from here. No use duplicating exactly the same content, and in fact Google could penalise me for it. I'm still working out the different roles each blog should play, the fun problems of someone who likes to try things.

Friday, 22 October 2010

I like my glasses

This is my second week of four-eyedness. My drivers license renewal was a reason to do what I'd needed for probably years. It's a little weird and I got headaches the first week or so, but I'm quickly getting used to it. And the benefits are great, like:

* I don't need an HD tv, just seeing it clearly is good enough!
* I can see people I know on the street (you know, to either greet or avoid ;)

weird thing is, I forget that these aren't sunglasses and that people can see my eyes. When I go walking I tend to really make eye contact with people I pass by, which doesn't really matter with sunnies. But with glasses - it's a bit awkward at first, but y'know what, I think it's pretty cool! What's your glasses story?

Sent from my iPhone
www.sy-engage.com

Posted via email from Simon's posterous

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Fab thing about the Kindle is the screen savers. Make me feel all intelligent and well-read by association

Will is pretty powerful (who's Will?)

Okay, so Will is not a person, it's a character trait.

In Jim Collins' book Good to Great he talks about the level 5 leader, someone who shows a perfect balance of humility and iron will. 

Abraham Lincoln is a good example. He was humble - when things went well, he assumed he was lucky. When things didn't go well, he took responsibility. 

But he also had a strong will to see things change. He had an agenda that was bigger than him, and he served it - and persuaded others to do so as well.

I've pretty much got humility covered (I'm one of the most humble people I know ... yeah, I know how that sounds...) but I could do better in the will department.

Maybe I need to get in touch with my roots. My mother tells me I wasn't a passive child. Temper tantrums! On at least one occasion I needed hosing down. (If you know me, you may be surprised at this)

What I do know is that when I'm decisive, I'm happier. This is borne out by the research. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman talks about flow, saying we experience it when we're active and goal-oriented, such as working or playing.

From the book:

"Americans surprisingly have considerably more flow at work than in leisure time. In one study of 824 American teenagers, Mike (Csikszentmihalyi) dissected free time into its active versus passive components. Games and hobbies are active and produce flow 39 percent of the time, and produce the negative emotion of apathy 17 percent of the time. Watching television and listening to music, in contrast, are passive and produce flow only 14 percent of the time while producing apathy 37 percent of the time. The mood state Americans are in, on average, when watching television is mildly depressed."

Woah. I wonder if that's different for appointment viewing or DVDs, because I get a great deal of flow from a good movie or TV drama... 

But I digress. 

Pursuing strong will, if you're like me and can be a bit too "go with the flow" at times, is likely to not only make you more effective - but also happier. I've been consciously going in this direction; it works. 

(A note on the photo: I actually found this when searching Flickr for "tortoise". It's worth reading the description on the original photo page)

Posted via email from Simon's posterous