Month: June 2013

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future;
it is something you design for the present.”— Jim Rohn

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

How can you apply design thinking to create a happier, more fulfilling, soul-filled life?

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is an analytic and creative process that engages individuals and teams in opportunities to experiment, create, and prototype models, gather feedback and redesign.

By definition design thinking is iterative, so rather than try to get it perfectly right the first time (as you will read below, “perfectionism can be a form of self-abuse”) you iterate, and by successive approximation do get there one iteration at a time.

In this model, there is no failure only feedback and no long planning/production cycle.

Cultivating the mindset of design thinking requires:
Empathy– Imagining from multiple perspectives with a “Person First” approach

Integrative Thinking– Embracing all salient features including seemingly contradictory ideas

Experimentalism– Trying new approaches and processes by prototyping

Interdependence– A team and integrated systems perspective

Optimism– A belief that THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY to make it better!

Taking the first letter of each of these and Old MacDonald had it right, “EIEIO”!

If you are committed to designing a better life here is some soul fodder…

1. The first set of pictures will expand your sense of what is possible

2. If design in the right blend of aesthetics and functionality, the second item will help us redefine beauty.

3. Beauty is indeed within as is happiness. The third submission is about debunking the myths of happiness from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley

4. Lastly, enjoy a dog story that will confirm the mind is not in here and the world out there, but the world is in here and the mind out there!

Love,
Neville

First: Click here for some fantastic photos.

True Beauty by Pam Thomas

Have you ever known someone who was absolutely stunning on the outside, but the minute they opened their mouth they became the most unattractive person ever?
There’s a reason for that.

And while I am not a psychologist, I’d be willing to bet you dollars to donuts, that regardless of their outward appearance, jealousy and insecurities, the need for constant validation, etc. where most likely running rampant internally. Sadly, those qualities and characteristics often lead to not-so beautiful outward behavior, i.e. cattiness, gossip, “It’s all about me” tendencies, negativity, as well as neediness … hence the diminishing attractiveness.

My friends, here’s the straight skinny… True beauty radiates from the inside outward. It is not defined by having flawless skin, wearing size 2 jeans, sporting cellulite free legs or a toned butt.

True Beauty …

.. is the person who shares a smile with a perfect stranger, lends a helping hand to someone in need, listens open-heartedly to a friend in pain, gives love unconditionally, or finds the joy in the small things. And it is my hope that you begin to recognize your true beauty which comes from your heart.

While I have given some examples of what true beauty is, I think it’s also very important to mention, that beauty is subjective. It’s not about comparisons, but rather recognizing and creating our own true definition of beauty.

So, how do we define beauty within ourselves?

The first step is taking responsibility for ourselves. What does that mean? Well, that means knowing that what you think about you, how you feel about you, what you say about you (and even about others), and how you show up each day is down to you. You are in the driver’s seat. You have choices and options, but in order to see those choices and options you have to create some awareness. As I mentioned in this week’s audio message awareness is critical to creating change and to not only radiating beauty from the inside out, but attracting good things to you. There is beauty in taking responsibility for ourselves.

Next, it’s being committed to being our most authentic selves. It is all too easy to try and conform, conform to societal expectations or other people’s opinions. This only serves to diminish and overshadow our true beauty and it sends a message not only to the world, but to ourselves that who we are just isn’t beautiful enough and NOTHING could be farther from the truth. When we can be who we are and know that it is enough, that’s when we begin to share our inner beauty.

It’s also about realizing that there is no such thing as perfect so it’s time to release the pressure and stop striving for perfection. I once had a student share a quote with me that really hit home; “Perfection is just a form of self-abuse.” Hearing that completely rocked my world, especially since I will admit that I am a recovered perfectionista of the highest order. Striving for perfection really equates to (yet again) telling yourself that you aren’t good enough as you are. That’s not only degrading, but it’s deprecating, and it truly stifles your own inner beauty.

And lastly, it’s being willing to be vulnerable. What does it mean to be vulnerable?

First and foremost, it means accepting that you are amazing, imperfections and all.

It means knowing that you are more than enough now and that you always have been. It means being open to sharing with your whole heart regardless of what others say, do, think or feel.

While it may be scary and while vulnerability gets a bad rap, it’s actually a beautiful place to come from. As difficult as it may be, when we are vulnerable we are able to reach out to others for support and assistance without feeling guilty, and most importantly, we come from our hearts rather than our heads where ego lives.

Please know something, being vulnerable does not mean becoming a doormat or being perceived as weak. As a matter of fact, to be vulnerable requires strength and the internal fortitude to stand strong in your own beliefs and in who you are.

Debunking the Myths of Happiness

http://www.dailygood.org/story/453/debunking-the-myths-of-happiness-jason-marsh/

Dog For Sale:

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: ‘Talking Dog For Sale ‘He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

‘You talk?’ he asks.

‘Yep,’ the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says ‘So, what’s your story?’

The Lab looks up and says, ‘Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so… I told the CIA.

In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.’

‘I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running…

But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.’

‘I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.’

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

‘Ten dollars,’ the guy says.

‘Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?’

‘Because he’s a Liar.  He’s never been out of the yard’

Thanks this week go to Alan D, The Daily Good, Larry H, and the unconditional love of dogs everywhere!

Pay it forward…

Love,
Neville

“You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?”— George Bernard Shaw

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Happy Soul Food Friday!

This Father’s Day Weekend: Touch and be touched by these inter faces…

Time travel back into the past with the images and faces-iconic photos both soul-filled and heart-breaking that irrevocably defined a generation

Time travel forward into tomorrow with futuristic advances in the present that will change the next generation

Finally, in tribute to father’s everywhere, Give the Gift of Time, as well as Finally Learn What a Father Really Wishes for on Father’s Day!

If this doesn’t float your boat, check for a spirit leak…

This deck of remarkable black and what photos, defined the 20^th Century:

Click here

Super-Natural Technology Inter Faces:

By now we’ve gotten used to touch interfaces in our daily lives – from smartphones and tablets to kitchen appliances – and it’s clear that there’s something more natural, and more direct about interacting with technology this way.  But if we’ve learned anything about technology lately, it’s that things move fast and the next innovation is just around the corner.  Here are three examples that will take our interfacing with technology in entirely new directions:

Leap Motion – https://www.leapmotion.com This small device turns any desktop or laptop into a finger-aware computer that supports fluid, precise drawing and gestural interactions just by placing your hands in front of the screen.

Table Drum – http://www.tabledrum.com

Table Drum is an app that turns your table-top tapping into real drum kit sounds.  Just teach the app what kind of tap should make what sound and you can start rocking the kick drum and high hat wherever you are.

Grab Magic

This interesting hack shows the potential of combining multiple devices – an Xbox Kinect and a smartphone, in this case – to pull off some some real magic and computer interactions typically reserved for Hollywood Sci-Fi movies.

Father’s Day Tributes:

Love = Time:

In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows.

Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one old photograph album after another.

Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly for the source that had drawn him here.

It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently opened the long buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart than his present aloneness.

Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a journal from his grown son’s childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before, or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children’s old junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.

Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.

Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the painful memory that his son’s simple recollections of those days were far different from his own. But how different?

Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he closed his son’s journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.

Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal. Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was leather-bound and engraved neatly with his name in gold, while his son’s was tattered and the name “Jimmy” had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time and use.

As he opened his journal, the old man’s eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were these words:

Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.

With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy’s journal and found the boy’s entry for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters, pressed deeply into the paper, read:

Went fishing with my Dad. Best day of my life.

~~~~~~

What a father really wishes for on Father’s Day

Each year, this holiday set aside to commemorate fatherhood brings me a remarkable gift that, for reasons too deep to explain, we fathers never tell you that we crave deep in our hearts. You, our children, give us your full attention in a spirit of appreciation and gratitude.

In the past, I feel like I’ve never managed to take full advantage of the moment. So I want to make up for it here, and to share with you, the children who have given me so much happiness and satisfaction over the years, the things that I truly want, not just today, but for the rest of our time together in this difficult and complicated world.

As I make my requests, please know that I am grateful for the cards and gifts I’ve received over the years. But I think the purest essence of fatherhood is to cherish the many intangible things that perhaps you, my children, don’t even realize that you bring to my life.

So here are my deepest wishes for a happy father’s day—and also for a truly happy fatherhood experience.

I wish, first and foremost, for your happiness and fulfillment as you travel through life. If I could choose one gift, and one gift only, it would be for you to cherish yourself as I cherish you.

I wish for you to set high expectations for yourself as you discover who you are and your role in the universe. I wish you to be bold in seizing opportunities for accomplishment, to consciously define what you want most out of life and go for it without fear or reservation.

I wish you to know that there will be setbacks in all of life’s endeavors, and in those times when you feel discouraged, to recognize, as I do, that you have more than enough personal resources to overcome anything you are likely to face.

I also wish you to allow me to be a resource to help you along your chosen path. As you go forward, I wish you would ignore and forgive the times when I interfere, and embrace the times when I encourage.

Whenever we gather together, whenever we connect (and be it often, regardless of the many distractions in our lives), I wish for my adult children to see yourselves and each other with the same unconditional love that mists across my eyes whenever I look at you.

I wish you to know that your love for each other is the greatest and most treasured expression of your love for me.

I wish that the children of my children will experience love, happiness and fun whenever we gather together as an extended family, so that the young members of our brood will grow up to associate, at a very deep level, their extended family with feelings of comfort and joy.

I wish for a gift almost beyond imagining: that my children will forgive the many regrettable times when I was unfair, impatient and so very far from perfect, the times when you were hurt by my words and actions, even though you did not deserve to be. Please know, even if I have not told you before, that I carry those memories as my greatest burden in life.

I wish you would remember, and preserve, and cherish the many times when we were joyful together, those times when I found a way to contribute to your happiness.

On this day set aside for honoring fathers, I wish that you would also honor your mother in the same spirit that you honor me, and recognize that she gave you more than I will ever be able to give you: she gave you life itself, in addition to her love.

I wish for more than these things, even though I feel like I have asked for so much already.

If you have any more capacity to give, then please know that I love you with a depth and power that I have never been able to express to you. It is possible that there are no words to describe this love; if there are, I haven’t seen them or heard them, and now, at this moment, on this special day, I feel like I haven’t searched diligently enough.

Know that I understand how poorly I have communicated this love over our years together. But what you have not heard nearly often enough, with nearly enough eloquence, is deeply and profoundly felt in my heart and in my soul.

If you can, recognize the truth of this one remarkable thing: I would not give up your presence in my life, the connection I share with you, for anything that anyone could offer me.

Think of all the precious things in the world. Imagine them piled up in front of you as high as the sky itself, and know that you are more precious to me than all of them.

These are gifts almost too great to ask for, even on this day set aside for me and for fathers everywhere. But if, somehow, I could receive these things that I have never before had the courage to speak of, you would give me a blessing as great as any in the eons-long history of fatherhood.

And finally, thank you for this wonderful necktie.

-From Bob Veres, Conversations With My Daughter

THE EGG

Nasruddin earned his living selling eggs. Someone came to his shop one day and said, “Guess what I have in my hand.”

“Give me a clue,” said Nasruddin.

“I shall give you several: It has the shape of an egg, the size of an egg. It looks like an egg, tastes like an egg and smells like an egg. Inside it is yellow and white. It is liquid before it is cooked, becomes thick when heated. It was, moreover laid by a hen…”

“Aha! I know!” said Nasruddin. “It is some kind of cake!”

The expert misses the obvious! Stay open my friends…

Thanks this week to Larry, Robin, Hillel, Marlaine, Moms and Dads Everywhere!

Love is ALL you need…

Neville

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.
One is roots. The other is wings.
~Hodding Carter, Jr.

Happy Soul Food Friday!

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.”—H. G. Wells 

Future–Proofing for Tomorrow– There is a Vast Difference between Financial Riches and Wealth

What is future proofing?

It is the process of trying to anticipate future developments, so that action can be taken now to minimize possible negative consequences, and to maximize opportunities.

It is about building a strong enough foundation to ensure long term, sustainable success.

Here are some future proofing factoids:

If you are working, your job is your #1 investment. Your education is your second most important investment.

Spend more time building a legacy than an inheritance. If you cultivate the proper work ethic and relentless passion for lifelong learning, and cultivate generators of value not just extractors of value, the next generation will produce their own annuity.

Money doesn’t cause problems, your relationship to money causes problems.

Most of us have a lousy relationship with money.

The same sadly is even truer with time.

Most of us have a lousy relationship with time.

How do I know? Well, we kill time, we waste time, and we spend time but rarely invest time.

Lousy relationships with both money and time cause a lot of problems both in the present and by extension in the future…

Maybe it’s time to revisit our relationship with time and money.

Interestingly, if you think about it, time is more valuable than money. You can lose all your money and earn it back but you never get the time back.

Today is unprecedented. Today is unrepeatable.

We never get today back to invest it wisely.

Do give BACK! Giving back is highly correlated with healthier and happier people.

“Gratitude is the ultimate antidote for materialism” We ARE spirits in a material world as the Police remind us…

This week:

Givers and Takers:

Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:

I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!

In Our Minds:

But first some Homographs & Heteronyms: English is such a Crazy Language we should be all committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.

You think English is easy?? Watch your language!

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.4) We must polish the Polish furniture..5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’ ?

Lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ‘UP.’

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,
so…….it is time to shut UP!
Now it’s UP to you what you do with this…

The Power of Giving:

Givers and Takers:

http://news.yahoo.com/secret-success-giving-not-taking-103000667.html 

Financial Literacy and the Fact$ of Life:

Glenda and Hillel have been working together on an idea/project to help parents discuss the sensitive issue of money/finance with their kids with “The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense”.  The reality is that kids are exposed to sex on the internet/TV etc. and they know more about sex than fiscal responsibility at an impressionable age.  Yet, few parents teach their kids the FACT$ OF LIFE.  So, where and how will your kids learn to navigate the world of “Money”? 

Glenda raised two daughters as a single mother.  She accumulated practical ideas and useful tidbits to share with parents who are hungry for fun ways to communicate effectively about this topic with their kids.  She has worked at nonprofit organizations for over 20 years and is an excellent organizer.

Hillel is a financial life planner.  Over the past 23 years he has had numerous conversations with clients about engaging their families in the conversation about:  allowance, saving, college, investing etc.  He founded a not-for-profit called: “Our Little Blue Box” dedicated to respectful family communication.

Their passion for helping bridge the gap of financial and money conversations is a driving force.

They would like to introduce this presentation to you, with the hope that you may consider us bringing it to your organization/family/school.

You are invited to attend their premier presentation – The Fact$ of Life: Teaching Children about Dollar$ and Sense:

WHEN:  Tuesday June 18^th, 2013 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm

WHERE:  4330 La Jolla Ville Drive, Suite 330, San Diego, CA 92122 (conference room)

RSVP at your earliest convenience (seating is limited):

To Register, please click: www.hkfinancial.com/future then click on Fact$ of Life

Refreshments will be served. There is no cost to attend.

With our kindest and best regards,

Glenda Sacks Jaffe                                                          Hillel Katzeff

858-546-8505                                                                     858-550-0425

Glenda.jaffe@sbcglobal.net                                       HillKat18@gmail.com

I learned about Mind Treasures recently and got very inspired!

Financial Literacy must be taught at elementary schools

In November of 2011, Education Secretary — Arne Duncan — urged the Advisory Council on Financial Capability to the White House to begin teaching financial literacy starting with kindergarten students.

Budgeting, along with other aspects of finances, may seem like complicated subjects for children as early as kindergarten. The secret to developing healthy financial habits, from early ages, lays in a unique approach to discover and develop hidden treasures of patience, moderation, responsibility, accountability, thankfulness, respect, generosity, truthfulness, and many other virtues.

By developing these hidden muscles we can raise a generation that will obtain, manage, and utilize various forms of wealth (knowledge, expertise, time, and money as well as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual powers) to build stronger and healthier families, communities, and whole a new world.

Check this out:

—

In Our Minds: From a post in Last Week’s Daily Kabbalah

Things often seem more daunting and difficult in our minds than they actually are.

In our minds, we make mountains out of molehills; we create big dramas out of tiny conflicts, and we see the work we need to do as insurmountable.

The good news is that you can always change your mind.

Spark Awesomeness!

Thanks this week to Arman, Michael J, Hillel, Alex, and Elisa.

Pay it forward…
Love,
Neville

“Be realistic. Plan for a miracle.”—Osho