Category: Uncategorized

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week…

ON Happiness by Will Marre:

PONDER THIS: It turns out that money does really buy happiness…but not in the way you might think!

RESEARCH SAYS: Charitable giving is scientifically proven to benefit the giver as much as the receiver.

It works just like a positive feedback loop: giving makes people happier, and happier people give more. And it’s not just about money. Any time you give—whether it’s your time, your affection, or your creative resources—your brain rewards you with a shot of feel-good hormones, and a bright new outlook on life and love.

YOUR CHALLENGE: Think about what your greatest talent is. Do you excel at a particular skill—creative, athletic, mental, relational?

Identify a person or group who could really use the resource you have to give. Give it and tell us how you feel and what you learned.

Share your results here or on our Facebook page

Did someone forward you this email? Want to receive tips like this and other great content directly in your inbox? Then sign up here to join our email list.

Past Tips:

#9 – Laugh It All Up

#10 – Practice Freedom of Expression

#11 – Create Your Own Ripples

(Thanks Will)

Motivational Moments with Zig Ziglar from Nightingale/Conant:

“It’s not what you’ve got,  it’s what you use that makes a difference.”

—Zig Ziglar (1926-2012):Esteemed author and beloved motivational speaker

Happy Post-Thanksgiving Week!

I do love the JFK quote: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

It reminds me that love and gratitude are verbs and constant and repeated practice means “behaving into them” regularly so they become habits not just fleeting feelings or seasonal rituals.

Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect as my karate teacher used to love to say…

This week’s posts share some common themes:

• The law of reciprocity– where largesse begets largesse
• The abundance principle which contradicts the scarcity principle and trusts there is enough for everyone
• Attention as the currency of the new economy
• The Law of Concentrated Attention– where what you focus on manifests
• It is Better to Give than to Receive-The only things you keep in life are the things you give away

Post-Thanksgiving thanks giving…

First, my friend and bestselling author Steve Farber is doing something outrageously cool. He is sharing his greatest gift.

Steve’s bestselling book has inspired leaders, business people and educators alike.

Here is what one kindred spirit had to say about it. “The power of the principles within LEAP to change lives, organizations and communities is irrefutable. These principles are timeless and will work in any situation where hearts and minds are willing and unselfish. They will continue to transform me, my building and my community.” –David Pinter, Principal, Ft Caroline Elementary School, Jacksonville, Florida

I was with Steve recently at the California School Library Association’s Annual Conference Leadership Day in San Jose, where Steve generously offered a digital copy of this bestselling book FREE to every educator in the United States!

Here is what he has to say…

Personally, I’m deeply thankful for the educators in our world–those teachers, principals, superintendents, admins, librarians, and support staff who every day devote themselves to the nurturing and development of our next generations of leaders. I believe that’s what educators really do; they’re leadership developers in the most profound way. That’s why I’m happy to announce that my publisher and I have made my book, The Radical Leap Re-Energized, free to any and all educators. Some of my biz associates think this is…um…unwise–they can’t see the “business validation” in my doing such a thing. But that’s never stopped me before 🙂 So…If you’re an educator, or if you know an educator (you MUST fit in one of those categories, right?) please go and/or send your educator friends to www.LeapForEducation.com to download a free copy of the book. We have around 5 million K-12 educators to reach here in the US alone (Audacity!), so I invite you to spread the word far and wide.  Until next time with Love, Energy, Audacity, and Proof. Steve Farber

In the same spirit, can you help me spread the word and get this into the hands of as many educators as you care about?

If it is easy to do, it is easy not to do so don’t wait- ADVOCATE!

—

There are No Coincidences- New Discoveries About Happiness

Ok as I am writing this, I get the following message from Will Marre who graciously keynoted at our Annual Martial Arts Mini-Camp at UCSD earlier this month…

New discoveries about the nature of happiness tell us that happiness is not just the pleasant outcomes of fortunate circumstances. Indeed, we can all create deeper and longer lasting feelings of happiness whenever we want to. In fact our actual circumstances have a much smaller impact on our sense of well-being than our inner life and our outer actions. Happiness is actually something to be directly pursued rather than something to wait for. Here are the three top ways science says make us feel happy.

1. Thanksgiving, or actually gratitude: We can learn to be world class at feeling grateful for good things in our lives. This is not as easy as it sounds. Our default thinking takes the good things of our lives for granted while we focus our attention on what’s unpleasant. A tip to increase your feelings of gratitude is to focus on one specific thing at a time. You could focus on your health and energy, your children, a warm home, a loving friend, or a comfortable pair of shoes or the taste of chocolate. Whatever it is, you only feel grateful when you focus on that one thing. Now imagine your life without it. The contrast of feeling loss deepens our appreciation for what we have right now. Next, tell someone what you’re grateful for and why. Going public with inner feelings increases positive brain chemicals and brightens happy emotions.

2. Give: We now can observe brain activity of givers and receivers and it’s clear that it is the giver who feels more happiness through giving than the “getter.” I remember at age 5 receiving a red fire engine for Christmas. I wanted this fire engine so badly that I begged Santa for it. Repeatedly. Endlessly. Sixty years later my mother told me she still remembered that Christmas because I had been so elated. She told me I could not have possibly been happier in receiving the fire engine than the joy she felt giving it. Turns out that science backs her up. Givers have more positive brain activity than receivers.

3. Growth: Our sense of our personal power arises when we are confident we can select meaningful goals and achieve them. This is called self-effectiveness or self-efficacy. Self-effectiveness gives us confidence and generates self-respect which are directly associated with happiness. If you can imagine being a better, more capable person, take steps to advance yourself. Just starting on a more positive course will trigger optimism, inner resolve, and confidence — all happiness builders.

So now you have three things you can do intentionally to increase your happiness; gratitude, giving, and growth are the rocket fuel that launches us into a higher orbit of joy. These three actions are the core habits of happiness and life satisfaction. That’s why Thanksgiving is such a potent holiday. It’s a day to reflect on the large and small sources of joy. It’s a time to pitch in and help at whatever needs to be done. Don’t let the lower emotions of Black Friday bargain hunting become your theme music for the holiday. Rather mindfully promote gratitude, giving, and growth and see how you feel.

Being happy is something you create. Something you can do. Happy is a verb!
Will
—

Intrigued by Reciprocation and What it Fosters?

This happened to be in the news this week…

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/26/165570502/give-and-take-how-the-rule-of-reciprocation-binds-us

—

So Many Verbivores So Little Time…

Since so often we are time starved, let’s make the most of every moment…

It only takes one smile to offer welcome…
and blessed be the person who will share it.

It only takes one moment to be helpful…
and blessed be the person who will spare it.

It only takes one joy to lift a spirit…
and blessed be the person who will give it.

It only takes one life to make a difference…
and blessed be the person who will live it.

by BJ Gallagher

Finally, a Musical Leaf?

This is pretty cool…

Click here: YouTube – ??Musical leaf-Whispering Hope

Thanks this week to Steve, Will and Larry

Stay grateful not hateful and musical not whimsical…

Love,
Neville

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit.
Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

–Arthur Schopenhauer

Happy Soul Food Friday for Thanksgiving Week!

My heartfelt aspiration for you is that you have many things to be grateful for this holiday season, and that we all take a moment to share that attitude of gratitude with the people that matter most to us in our lives.

As the perfect antidote for the typical holiday season fervor of material spending and crazy consumerism, that begins with Black Friday and continues through Cyber Monday and now Mobile Tuesday, here are some soul food gifts to share with your loved ones. They cost nothing but are indeed priceless, validating that Einstein knew what he was talking about when he said, “Not everything that can be counted, counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” :

First the gift of humor (and lateral thinking):

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional. Scroll down for each answer.

The questions are NOT that difficult. But don’t scroll down UNTIL you have answered each question!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend…except one.
Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers.

Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

—

Now for some other meaningful thanksgiving holiday gifts.

*** The FIRST gift is the gift of time.

“Just being with someone can be of great comfort to that person”.

*** The SECOND gift is the gift of good example.

Most people learn fundamental attitudes by observing other people.

*** The THIRD gift is the gift of acceptance.

People often begin to change when they realize they’re being accepted for what they are.

*** The FOURTH gift idea for those who are so often busy and distracted these days is the gift of privacy – that is, time of one’s own.

Too often, we smother people with questions and demands on them and their time.

*** The FIFTH is the gift of seeing the best in people.

“How can you see a ‘fine’ picture of someone close to you – when that person doesn’t always seem to be so fine?
*** The SIXTH gift is the gift of self-esteem

Not crippling others by nagging or criticizing – especially those we love. That’s particularly a tough one for millions of people every day.

*** The SEVENTH gift,  might be the giving up a bad habit.

*** Number EIGHT is the gift of self-disclosure.

Bottling up feelings and resentments deprives the other person of truly knowing who you are.

*** The NINTH gift idea is the gift of helping someone learn something new.

It is an investment in their future happiness.

*** The TENTH gift is the gift of really listening.

“Few of us know how to listen in an effective manner”.

*** The ELEVENTH is the gift of fun!

It’s important to help those close to you to find the fun in ordinary, small events.

*** Finally, the TWELFTH gift is letting others give to us.

“When we let others give to us”, “and when we can accept their gifts in a gracious and mature manner, we may be giving them one of the most important gifts of all.”

—

A Thankless Profession? We can change that!

As we extend that attitude of gratitude to those that touch our lives most meaningfully, please let’s not forget our teachers who give so much, and get thanked so little. Take a moment right now to thank a teacher for their hard work, dedication, enthusiasm and willingness to go the extra mile for our students and their families. In addition to your priceless gratitude, Mission Fed will serve to memorialize their service and esteem them for their great work! It is easy, just click here: https://www.missionfed.com/im-thankful

—

We’ve highlighted Dogs and Cats but let’s not forget the Birds:

Enjoy these glorious pictures

Click here!

Thanks this week to Debra S., Larry H. and all the teachers that inspire me and make me a better person!

An abundance of blessings for you and yours as we enter the Holiday Season.

Pay it forward, you can’t take it with you…

Love,

Neville

“The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of

immortality.” –John Quincy Adams

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Musings from DreamForce 2012: The Largest Technology Conference on the Planet

Recently, I was afforded the opportunity to attend DreamForce 2012 the largest technology conference on the planet, which was held in San Francisco with over 95,000 registered guests and 950 breakout sessions. DreamForce completely blanketed downtown San Francisco including the Moscone Center and all the adjacent hotels and featured notable keynotes by the likes of General Colin Powell, Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin companies, Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, Dr. Dean Ornish and Tony Robbins to mention a few.

It is purported that70% of businesses today are using social which in turn provides a $1.3B boost to the economy.

Social has become one of the two top ways to connect with customers, all made possible by the convergence of “cloud, social and mobile spheres”. Trust and transparency foster authentic connectedness and rightly applied the social revolution can become a TRUST Revolution as “what happens in Vegas ends up on Facebook.”

There are 6 ways to move the needle on your business imperatives using Social; Sell, Service, Market, Collaborate, Work, & Innovate- but they ALL begin with Listening. Sentiment Analysis, Crowd Sourcing, Collaborative Design & Intention Analysis all are made easier through the advent and application of social media. Brand is the sum of all these conversations. Today we call it Social Business but soon it will simply be referred to just business as usual…

DreamForce featured more than 75 sessions to choose from on the Marketing/Social Media track alone. Here I was forced to prioritize, schedule and then move maniacally like a presidential candidate from venue to venue in the final days of an election cycle- but it was totally worth it.

One of the most enlightening sessions was a session entitled Metrics that Matter in Social Business Innovation by John Hagel of Deloitte & JP Rangaswami Chief Scientist of SalesForce.

Here these two thought leaders helped me reframe Social not as an emerging fad but as the centerpiece of community in the digital age.  We are and have always been creatures of community. Eons ago, community occurred around the camp fire. Fast forward thousands of years and community was in the town square. Fast forward yet again, and community is engaging via social media. This is why if Facebook was a country, it would be the third most populated country on earth!

Social technology has brought a new age of interaction to the business world, turning nameless faceless data made up of social security, phone numbers and FICO scores into real people that demand to be treated as such.

The 4 ways to measure the true impact of social media include:

• Financial:Has revenue or profit increased or costs decreased?
• Digital: Has the company enhanced its owned and earned digital assets?
• Brand: Have consumer attitudes about the brand improved?
• Risk management: Is the organization better prepared to note and respond to attacks or problems that affect reputation?

The collaboration of shared knowledge, shared experiences, and shared content are the core of social business value. However, interactions in social media aren’t here today and gone tomorrow. They can remain in recorded history in perpetuity. Clearly, the expressed sentiment of customers and employees is critical to the successful design and implementation for any business. Social will provide new vistas of value in the future as well as open the organization to new risks.

Here are some interesting social media stats-

• More than 600 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each month with average user spending 20 minutes per visit & 23% of Facebook users checking their account five times or more every day
• 1 million accounts are added daily on Twitter & average time on site is 13 minutes
• Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing & Yahoo combined – 32 billion
• Pinterest is the fastest growing social media platform to achieve 10 million unique visitors & average time on site is over 14 minutes
• LinkedIn gains two new members every second & average time on site is 8 minutes/session
• YouTube handles 20% of the entire internet’s traffic and has over 4 billion views per day

Side Note: “Four more years.” A short enough message, but one that has set Twitter’s record for the most new tweets-per-second record, reaching 327,000 a second at its peak. The message was sent from U.S. President Obama’s Twitter account at 4.16am GMT, once Obama’s re-election to the White House for another four years became certain.

Technology is a great servant but a horrible master. With smart phone adoption the fastest of any technology in human history, and today with more smart phones on the planet than toilets and toothbrushes, access to information (resources) is unprecedented. It is our resourcefulness in using these technologies to inform, educate and shape our workplaces, educational systems and customer experiences that becomes critical. To quote Rangaswami, “Health services will not get better if we design better thermometers.  Measures don’t work to make things better in Healthcare and Education. It’s how we do it that changes the quality of the outcomes.”

The more things change the more they stay the same…Human constants such as valuing trust as the basis of all real relationships, the importance of connectedness and community and the need to be heard & valued remain constants.

These constants however meet the dynamic and disruptive forces of globalization & emerging digital technologies at unprecedented rates of change that in turn are upending our business models, dis-intermediating conventional systems and processes, and creating new opportunities for innovation and value creation.

Brand no longer resides in the purview of one brand manager or brand champion, and now is shaped by thousands of customer encounters and experiences that good or bad will be shared across the digital community and ecosystem in a heartbeat. The best we can do is create the conditions for an authentic brand experience, then listen well and act quickly as the era of the connected, self-directed consumer and empowered citizen continue to build steam and shape our collective future, redefine the nature and contract of work, and add another step on the ladder of the history of that social, relational, communal being we call human.

Who Am I

Interesting what each of these young people turned into. See if you can guess the answers…

Click here!

15 characteristics of an excellent entrepreneur

Adapted from a recent blog written by Tim Bell

Kelly O’Neil, in his “The Secrets of Success” blog, outlined 15 characteristics of an excellent entrepreneur. This is a result of his association with extraordinary and successful entrepreneurs. In his blog, I learned that excellence is not inborn–it is something you have to work at. A high performing entrepreneur values his word and looks for ways to improve himself and his business. Unlike others who dwell on problems, he finds solutions to them. He learns from his mistakes, considers suggestions from others, and excels in his undertakings. He is willing to take risks and to do what needs to be done. These traits eliminate mediocrity. More specifically, O’Neil identifies these 15 traits as markers of true excellence. Great entrepreneurs…

-Aren’t just working for the money. They care about their company beyond the profits and take great pride in its performance, impact on society, and ability to help others through its offerings.
-Are truthful. They do what they say they are going to do, when they say they are going to do it.
-Embrace opportunities. They look for — and find — opportunities to improve themselves, their work, and their business.
-Are focused on solutions. They don’t bring problems to the table without recommending a solution.
-Focus on CAN. High performers focus on what they can do rather than what they can’t accomplish.
-Don’t blame. When they make a mistake they own it, fix it, and learn from it.
-Are busy, productive, and proactive. High performers are out there getting the job done.
-Are life-long learners. High performers constantly work at educating and improving themselves.
-Consistently do what they need to do. No matter how they feel or what curves life has thrown their way, they get it done.
-Have a desire to be exceptional. They will typically do things others won’t do.
-Accept feedback. High performers aren’t just open to feedback, they are more likely to act upon it.
-Set higher standards for themselves. The result? Greater commitment, more momentum, a better work ethic and (of course) better results.
-Are more interested in effective than easy. High performers look for the course of action that will produce the best results over the long term.
-Finish what they start. Even when it’s not fun.
-Are resourceful. They figure it out and get it done….

In summary, excellence is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution, and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.

A Commercial On a Building in Berlin

Amazing

Click here!

More to Learn from Dogs and Cats

Click here

Thanks this week to DreamForce, and to the imitable Larry H for innumerable sharing and excellent pairings!

Pay it Forward…

Love,
Neville

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week:

Have You Checked Out BizTown?
This week, after a prideful morning exercising my civic duty and being grateful to be able to vote on election day, I had the further good fortune to join my daughter’s 5^th grade class at Junior Achievement’s BizTown in San Diego.

http://www.jasandiego.org/2012/educators/elem_biztown.php

If you have never hear of it or been there, it is quite the experience as these 10 and 11 year olds invest many weeks at their respective schools prepping for “a day in the life of work”, in a real setting with real jobs getting real checks that get deposited at real credit unions (and of course banks).

5 years ago I was at BizTown as a parent volunteer with my son Arman, as Mission Fed launched our first ever Thank A Teacher Campaign with Cox and JA.

Here we are 5 years later on the 5^th Anniversary of the hugely popular Thank a Teacher campaign, that has generated more than 25,000 thank you notes to thousands of teachers at hundreds of schools all over San Diego county, and now we have a gorgeous Mission Fed branch in BizTown, where half the 12,000 kids that attend BizTown every year do their banking and cash their paychecks all year long.

Here are some pictures memorializing and personalizing the occasion with our daughter Aysha:

• Working as a Nutritionist at Kaiser
• Hanging with her pals Marina and Trinity on lunch break

• With her 5^th grade teacher Sue Yant in front of the Mission Fed Thank a Teacher table
• Making her charitable contribution at the San Diego Foundation to help Animals 
• With Joanne Pastula the President/CEO of Junior Achievement, San Diego

(Thanks Mission Fed, BizTown and Ada Harris Elementary)

For more information, here is a recent media story on the feel-good Thank a Teacher Campaign:

Thank a Teacher:

http://lajolla.patch.com/articles/local-students-thank-their-teachers
Be sure to spread the word as we share the love with our teachers!

(Thanks JA, Cox and Mission Fed and EVERY Teacher out there!)

Coping with Natural Disasters and Stress by Will Marre:

Last week one of Will’s clients asked him to develop a quick guide to help their employees deal with stress caused by hurricane Sandy. I thought you might be interested in what he sent out as I was.

Natural disasters are usually sudden, shocking, and stressful.  You are normal if your feelings range from disbelief and anger to numbness so don’t get down on yourself for being human.

Symptoms of stress overload are:
Recurring feelings of fear, worry, and anxiety

Difficulty making decisions
Feeling powerless and depression
Achiness and stomach pain

If you are feeling this way, please consider some dos and don’ts.

First don’t:
Isolate yourself from others
Overeat, drink alcohol, or take drugs
Watch too much T.V. news about the disaster which may deepen your sense of helplessness and upset
(disturbing visual images are the most re-traumatizing)

Do:
Create a daily routine that includes 7-8 hours of sleep, light exercise, stretching, and healthy food.

Invest time with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Encourage people to share their stories and feelings but don’t dwell on them or repeat them over and over.
(Repeatedly retelling of terrible events causes your brain to create deeper, more disturbing memories.)

Encourage conversations about:
– What you’re grateful for in spite of the disaster
– Acts of service, help, and heroism
– Any positive things you’ve learned or will do differently

Watch (if you have power or internet access) humorous shows or movies that actually make you laugh.
Laughing creates feelings of optimism.

No matter how busy you are snatch 30 minute breaks to do something you enjoy—read an inspiring book, play a game, call friends who are out of the disaster oven and talk to them about the good things in yours and their lives.

Help others.  One of the most stress resilient activities you can do is help others using your strengths and gifts.
We are each wired to offer help in one of five ways:

Teach: Teach the people you can touch these stress tips, how to make sure their water is clean, how to get their power back on, or any other helpful information.

Take Charge: Organize people so they can use their strengths, knowhow and resources to do the most good.

Create: Create methods, processes, and tools to help people get their lives back to normal.

Help: Directly lend a hand in helping others clean up their property, get an insurance adjuster, or any other direct way.

Fun: Spread joy.  Encourage gathering, organize parties, be the activities director to get people re-engaged with their fun side.

So are you primarily a teacher, leader, creator, helper, or party planner?  If you take a minute, you’ll see your gift among these five.  It’s what you do well that brings you a great sense of satisfaction.  Give your gift.

Enrich your private life.  Take time to meditate on what you’re most grateful for now.  Tell others what you’re grateful for.  Stay fully present with others, hug, hold hands, enjoy moments of sacred silence where feelings of love are shared without words.

Every disaster is an opportunity to grow, serve, and love.  The quickest way to heal is to both give of yourself and take care of yourself.

We don’t need to wait for a natural disaster to engage on some of these life enriching activates. Any time your life feels overwhelming is a good time to recharge your personal vitality.

(Thanks Will)

 Finally, the Gift of Dog:

These quotes will touch your heart!

Click here

(Thanks Larry)

Stay Soul-Filled Everyone!

Love,
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!

Today for your Soulful Pleasure:

Did You Know that this week is the actual  500^th Anniversary of the Sistine Chapel?

With talk of restricting access so the art will be preserved for the next 500 years, here is a panoramic, up close way to view this masterpiece in a way never possible even if you are there.

This virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel is incredible and purportedly done by Villanova at the request of the Vatican.
Virtually view every intricate aspect of this MICHELANGELO’S MASTERPIECE.

JUST CLICK AND DRAG YOUR ARROW IN THE DIRECTION YOU WISH TO EXPLORE
In the lower left, click on the plus (+) to move closer, on the minus (-) to move away.

The choir sets the tone so make sure your speakers are on.

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

I shared this at the very beginning of Soul Food Fridays but it definitely deserves a revisit…

So, what’s your masterpiece?

 

The Public Purpose of Public Education

While from an un-expected source this is a terrific and thought-provoking article that is worth reading!

http://www.ucc.org/justice/public-education/pdfs/Message-13-web-version.pdf

Thanks Wayne O.

 

What’s going on in the garden?

This tremendous state of the art photography from a TED talk on the Beauty of Pollination will blow your mind!

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

Thanks Larry H.

 

There is Art and then there is ART!

Enjoy the depth and complexity of a one-of-a-kind genius in Victor Molev

Click here

Thanks again Larry H.

ESCAPE FIRE Opening Today in San Diego:

I mentioned this powerful documentary on how to save our broken healthcare system in a previous blog. This movie specifically addresses a variety of critical issues, including integrative practices.

Click here

Here is a link to the theatre:

http://www.fandango.com/townsquarestadium_aaawj/theaterpage

Thanks Nancy J.

Stay Soul-filled and BE SURE TO VOTE next week!
Love,
Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday!

This week…

Humor:

Recently we heard about love from the 4 year olds, now let’s explore real SAT answers from some 16-year olds…

The  following questions were part of last year’s SAT  examination

These  are real answers (from 16 year olds).

Q. Name the four seasons

A.  Salt, pepper, mustard, and  vinegar

Q.  Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink

A.  Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes  large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists

Q. How  is dew formed

A. The  sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire

Q. What  causes the tides in the oceans

A. The  tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the  moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins  the fight…

Q. What  guarantees may a mortgage company insist  on

A. If  you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed

Q. In a democratic society, how important are  elections

A.  Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election

Q. What  are steroids

A.  Things for keeping carpets still on the  stairs

Q.  What happens to your body as you  age

A.  When you get old, so do your bowels and you get  intercontinental

Q. What  happens to a boy when he reaches  puberty

A. He  says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery

Q. Name  a major disease associated with  cigarettes

A.  Premature death

Q. What  is artificial  insemination

A.  When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the  cow

Q. How  can you delay milk turning  sour

A.  Keep it in the  cow

Q. How  are the main 20 parts of the body categorized (e.g. The  abdomen)

A. The  body is consisted into 3 parts – the brainium, the borax and the  abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax  contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains  the five bowels: A, E,  I,O,U…

Q. What  is the fibula?

A. A  small lie

Q. What  does ‘varicose’  mean?

A.  Nearby

Q. What  is the most common form of birth control

A.  Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium

Q. Give the meaning of the term ‘Caesarean  section’

A. The  caesarean section is a district in  Rome

Q. What is a seizure?

A. A  Roman  Emperor.

Q. What  is a terminal  illness

A.  When you are sick at the airport.

Q. Give  an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic  feature?

A.  Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like umbrellas

Q. Use  the word ‘judicious’ in a sentence to show you understand its  meaning

A.  Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.

Q. What  does the word ‘benign’  mean?

A.  Benign is what you will be after you be eight

Q. What  is a turbine?

A.  Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his  head

—

On Affirming Differences:

“The underlying philosophy is to ask not, ‘How smart is this child?’ but instead to ask ‘How is this child smart?’ –-Howard Gardner

I couldn’t agree more! This video will stir your soul…

http://mashable.com/2012/10/19/katy-perry-firework-autism-jodi-dipiazza/

—

Keep Your Kids Safe Online

Take some time to check out this valuable information from the San Diego Police Foundation on how to keep your kids safe.

http://www.smartcyberchoices.org/

—

We enjoyed the music and safety tips, now SHOW US YOUR PRODUCTIVITY CHOPS:

6 Tips on Productivity from Robin Sharma
What makes an elite performer isn’t how you show up when Plan A’s working. What reveals a true superstar is the way you deliver when your best laid plans are falling apart.

These are messy times. Days of intense volatility. A period of immense uncertainty. And one of the dominant themes in work + life these days is distraction (a constant stream of activities begging for our attention that in the end amount to nothing).

So the fight we face as Leaders Without Titles and as human beings on a mission to express our absolute best talents is to block out the noise so we get real work done. Here are some of my best strategies to help you do this:

 

#1. Get Great at Reverse Engineering: Engineers working with technology startups are masterful at taking a competitor’s product and breaking it apart – piece by piece – from the finished version to its initial components. After study, they then make their own product even better. Truly productive people do the same thing with their most valuable opportunity. They know the final result they are after and maintain acute clarity on it. Armed with this awareness, they reverse engineer this big goal into a series of small and actionable steps that they then put into a 1-2 page plan of execution. This strategy works for them. And it’ll work for you.

 

#2. Abhor Distraction: I fiercely fight distraction in my own life and teach the teams I work with at companies like Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Oracle along with the billionaires I privately coach how to do the same. Everyone’s fighting for your focus. And too many people are stealing your attention. Don’t be so generous in giving it to them – unless it’s for something that truly matters. So, clean out the distractions in your workspace and personal life. I just read that special forces on a military mission are kept in isolation from other teams and denied access to TV/Newspapers/Internet. Why? To PROTECT their focus so they deliver perfection on their mission. Pretty great metaphor for you and I, no? So please remember: Distraction is the greatest thief of time. And time is a non-renewable resource.

 

#3. Stop Multi-tasking: A recent case report shared a story of a medical resident who was using her cellphone to input data about the dosage of a patient she was attending. She was interrupted with a text message from a friend inviting her to a party. The resident replied and started a conversation. The only problem was she forgot to get back to her patient who then began receiving a near-fatal dose of the medicine. Open-heart surgery saved his live. But the larger point is that so few of us are fully present to the work/activity in front of us anymore. I see people on airport runways checking their Twitter feed. I see taxi drivers reviewing their emails. A huge competitive advantage falls to the 1 in 100 performer with the brilliance to develop the skill of becoming massively focused on the one thing in front of them. Truly a game-changing move.

 

#4. Build Rituals: Ok, this is another valuable tactic to unleash your productivity. When I studied the lives of People of Great Output like Stephen King, Winston Churchill and John Irving, I saw that they didn’t leave their productivity to the fleeting winds of inspiration. Instead, they instituted precise rituals into their daily lives that allowed their creativity to flourish. Stephen King, for example, sits down to work at 8 am every morning, in the same chair, with his papers set in the same way. His belief is that this obsessive consistency sends a signal to his mind to focus and deliver serious results.

 

#5: Launch at Beta: So many of us procrastinate by waiting for ideal conditions to get big things done. Here’s what I’ve learned from some of the software enterprises we’ve consulted with: launch at beta and then iterate to perfection. What I mean by that is stop waiting for perfect conditions or the perfect product before you get to market. Yes, I stand for ensuring anything you offer is best of breed. But sometimes putting off a project until it’s flawless demonstrates nothing more than your fear of success. And we both know you’re so much larger than that.

 

#6. Practice Productivity: When I was learning to ski, my instructor taught me about muscle memory. He made me practice many tiny moves over and over again sharing “this is going to build your muscle memory”, meaning that if I practiced the technique relentlessly, a time would eventually come where I could perform it swiftly, elegantly and unconsciously. Same applies to your productivity. Practice doing work that matters. Practice sitting in one place for many hours focused on a single result. Practice running rituals and elite performance routines that will lift you into the realm of world-class. Because as I know you know: Genius isn’t so much about genetics as it is about work ethic and sheer practice.

I hope these strategies have been of service to you. The world needs you at your productive best.

Stay Great,

Robin

—

Ready for Some Natural Wonder?

Enjoy the Canadian Rockies in HD. Go to full picture for the best viewing!

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4CMb7yj8Cyk?rel=0&%3bhd=1

—

Our Amazing Brain:

Red the hole thing.

This is weird, but interesting!

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If you can read this, you have a strangemnid, too. Only 55 people out of 100 can.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseaethe huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed this forwrad it

Stay Soul-filled…

Thanks this week to Mohit, Ron, Robin and Larry H.

Pay it forward!
Love,
Neville

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”– Albert Einstein

Happy Soul Food Friday!

Community Engagement:

Get Out Much?

In the past week, I had the opportunity to speak to both the KIPP: Adelante Preparatory Academy downtown, http://www.kippadelante.org/

and at a Dollars for Scholars Scholarship Showcase Reception at SDSU http://www.sdcoe.net/jccs2/?loc=dfs

While the audience was different some of the main themes were consistent with respect to Soul Food, so I thought I would share them and the inspiration behind them with you.

As most of you know ‘not everything that counts can be counted’. In people Character Counts. In organizations Living your Values and your Culture counts

At Mission Fed, Serving our Community thru Education is integral to our organizational DNA and it is who we are!

First some level setting:

There are certain things that are totally changing how we experience our lives not the least of which is the Rate of Change. For example, it took 150 years to go from thee and thou in old English to the common use of you and me. Compare that to how little time it has taken to go from typing on a keyboard to using a touch pad.

It took 38 years to sell 1MM TVs. Compare that to the fact it took less than a month to sell 1MM iPads.

Today the shelf life of knowledge is approximately 18 to 24 months

That means, much of what we are learning at the beginning of our college experience is already obsolete or irrelevant by the time we graduate!

This presents a challenge. How do we possibly equip young people for a world we cannot even anticipate?

First, rather than focus on one particular skill I believe it requires developing a battery of meta- cognitive skills that equip us for how to think, as well as how to learn.

I liken it to the Google metaphor as a meta-search engine or search engine of search engines that today has become the dominant force and a verb!

(more on this in a subsequent topic)

Second, today’s Networked, Interconnected world, now more than ever requires the social intelligence skills of Questing and Collaborating.

Questing comes from YOU!
You must be passionately and purposefully focused on your success
You must decide on your quest and keep your eye on the prize
You must turn Can’t into CAN
You must ignore your doubters and silence your critics
Questing comes from YOU!

Collaboration on the other hand comes from those around you
We ARE indeed judged by the company we keep
With a smartphone, and there are more smartphones on this planet today than toilets, you are within striking distance of whatever you need information-wise anywhere on the planet
Mentors and a support system scaffold you, as you architect the blue print of your life!
They are your sage advisors, your real friends and your guides
Whether as a “sage on the stage” or a “guide on the side” let us not underestimate the role each of us can play as co-collaborators in the success of other people’s lives!

Back to Questing:
Good old Tony Robbins (I got to hear him speak at Dreamforce 2012, in San Francisco) says there are three S’s you can focus on- to move the needle on your success outcomes.
These are in reverse order of importance

The first is your Strategy
What is your plan?
Do you have one?
Remember the 7 Ps: “Proactive Proper Planning Precludes Piss Poor Performance”

The second is your story
What is Your Story?
If you don’t like your story, can you change it?
The Past is not what happened but how you interpret what happened
The Future- can you create a powerful compelling vision of what you future will look like and then do everything within your power to make that a reality?
(We will get to the Present in a moment, get it J)

Some of us, as part of our story have been given labels including being labeled as “one of those kids”
Getting over labels like bad, crazy and lazy, poor, stupid, underprivileged, etc. is not easy
Rest assured, they don’t know what they are talking about. Make sure you reframe the labels

I have heard and share some of your stories of challenge and triumph. We know the degree to which you have struggled and worked to become who you are. Just like clothing, don’t wear labels that don’t belong…

As Jonathan Mooney, who I got to hear at the Empower Youth Symposium two weeks ago (see below likes to say), we must recognize we are NOT broken, we are not in need of being fixed. In many cases it is the system that is in dire need of fixing. Kids don’t suffer from dyslexia. Our culture suffers from dysteachia as a one size fits all, industrial age educational model is not the most effective and efficient to account for various learning styles, paces, intelligences and differences!

3 Things that made the difference for Mooney that might resonate for you:

1. People told me I was broken but it was the way I was treated that was  broken!

There are many ways to  get to successful!
“Difficult children make interesting adults”
– Questing means we are Intrinsically motivated by autonomy, mastery and purpose

2. The PEOPLE in our life make a difference!- Longitudinal Studies validate THIS is the predictive variable in success

We need:

    a. Advocates at home
b. Connectors in the School
c. Mentors in the world
Teaching style and pedagogy are not nearly as relevant as the capacity to CONNECT!
Questing and Collaborating seem to be the critical determinants of one’s success

3. Not just about remediating weakness but about SCALING STRENGTH!

It is about balancing the two aspects; a remediation agenda with strength agenda. Make sure adequate time is invested in what you are good at!

Oddly we focus on generalist skills in education but the real world wants specialization. To get good at something requires 10,000 hours! (Outliers) but with some caveats
Practice makes permanent, perfect practice makes perfect. We must do the right things right…

Mitigate weaknesses via:

• Support
• Teams
• Technology

The biggest part of Story is “Unlearning how I was taught to see myself”

Nearly 45% of entrepreneurs (have Dyslexia)
Innovative, Creative and Entrepreneurial qualities are not despite, but precisely because of learning differences!

The third S is your State!
Practice Fiero!  As Happiness Guru and bestselling author Grethen Rubin who spoke recently at the Atlantic meets the Pacific conference says.
Fiero is that universal body language we all exhibit when a goal is scored in soccer, or touchdown in football.
Motion creates emotion
“I can” physiology gets you game ready in the moment
Practice it now…

Any control freaks out there? The one thing we can all control is how we choose to respond to what happens to us. We are not a statistic

This is where the final ingredient in today’s mix comes in
The final ingredient, the icing on the cake is Resilience. Tal Ben-Shahar, a Positive Psychologist (not to be confused with a positive thinker) spoke eloquently to this characteristic in Deconstructing Happiness: the Science behind Contented Lives at the Atlantic Meets the Pacific Conference. Resilience is “An ability to recover from, or adjust to misfortune or change”.As serendipity would have it, it is another translation for the name of our karate school. Become a student of Research Resilience and make it part of your Mindset and Heart-set.

You deserve every success. You deserve to be happy but that doesn’t mean it is going to be easy.

My aspiration and blessing for you is simple…
There is only ONE you. Be yourself. By your best self.
Yourself is not narrowly defined at the limits of your skin. Your definition of self can expand to include everyone in your ecosystem. Bring in closer, those that are most committed to your success and that can help you get there.

Those with narrow definitions of self, lead narrow lives.
Those with wider definitions, lead lives not limited by self, but transformed by a new definition of what is possible.
Remember, challenged and challenging kids make for interesting people…

So to summarize:
Like the most interesting man in the world of Dos Equis Fame says “stay thirsty my friends”- keep that questing spirit fired up
Master the skills of collaboration– they will take you far
Fine tune your strategy and when you need to- refine it
Revisit your story and if you don’t like it, REWRITE it!
Change your state in this moment to make sure when opportunity knocks you are totally ready to answer the call.

I am so proud of you
You are redefining what is possible
I honor you, I salute you, I wish you only the very best on the next leg of your journey!
Godspeed!

Neville

“LOVE is our Soul Purpose”

Empower Yourself and Others:
More on  Jonathan Mooney at: http://www.jonathanmooney.com/
More on Positive Psychology at: www.talbenshahar.com
More on Grethen Rubin’s Happiness Project at: http://happiness-project.com/

There are also huge breakthroughs in educational technology! I am particularly impressed with Roger Stark and some of the results his team at Learning Enhancement are getting with their software.  Click here

Ok if you read this far it has been a touch heavy, so let’s lighten things up…

Push Button for a little drama in your life

For Your Artistic Side:

Enjoy These Amazing Sand Sculptures

Click here!

Special thanks to KIPP: Adelante Preparatory Academy, Dollars for Scholars, Atlantic Meets the Pacific, Jonathan Mooney, Roger Stark, Paul S. and Larry H.

Pay it forward!
Love,
Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday

On Personal Development:

“There is no failure, only feedback” is a famous martial arts adage in our system.

Reframing our past is a critical element to shaping our envisioned future.

One of the other key things is to ask the right questions.

What do you really desire in life?

Get some perspective here with Alan Watts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=siu6JYqOZ0g

Thanks Robin

On Education:

Are our Liberal Arts Colleges failing  us?

This interesting article raises some evocative questions…

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/how-liberal-arts-colleges-are-failing-america/262711/

Thanks KPBS

On Work Productivity:

Here are 21 tips to get you to your best productivity:

#1. Check email in the afternoon so you protect the peak energy hours of your mornings for your best work.

#2. Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action.

#3. Remember that big, brave goals release energy. So set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes.

#4. Mess creates stress (I learned this from tennis icon Andre Agassi who said he wouldn’t let anyone touch his tennis bag because if it got disorganized, he’d get distracted). So clean out the clutter in your office to get more done.

#5. Sell your TV. You’re just watching other people get successful versus doing the things that will get you to your dreams.

#6. Say goodbye to the energy vampires in your life (the negative souls who steal your enthusiasm).

#7. Run routines. When I studied the creative lives of massively productive people like Stephen King, John Grisham and Thomas Edison, I discovered they follow strict daily routines. (i.e., when they would get up, when they would start work, when they would exercise and when they would relax). Peak productivity’s not about luck. It’s about devotion.

#8. Get up at 5 am. Win the battle of the bed. Put mind over mattress. This habit alone will strengthen your willpower so it serves you more dutifully in the key areas of your life.

#9. Don’t do so many meetings. (I’ve trained the employees of our FORTUNE 500 clients on exactly how to do this – including having the few meetings they now do standing up – and it’s created breakthrough results for them).

#10. Don’t say yes to every request. Most of us have a deep need to be liked. That translates into us saying yes to everything – which is the end of your elite productivity.

#11. Outsource everything you can’t be BIW (Best in the World) at. Focus only on activities within what I call “Your Picasso Zone”.

#12. Stop multi-tasking. New research confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!). Be one of the rare-air few who develops the mental and physical discipline to have a mono-maniacal focus on one thing for many hours. (It’s all about practice).

#13. Get fit like Madonna. Getting to your absolute best physical condition will create explosive energy, renew your focus and multiply your creativity.

#14. Workout 2X a day. This is just one of the little-known productivity tactics that I’ll walk you through in my new online training program YOUR PRODUCTIVITY UNLEASHED (details at the end of this post) but here’s the key: exercise is one of the greatest productivity tools in the world. So do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then another workout around 6 or 7pm to set you up for wow in the evening.

#15. Drink more water. When you’re dehydrated, you’ll have far less energy. And get less done.

#16. Work in 90 minute blocks with 10 minute intervals to recover and refuel (another game-changing move I personally use to do my best work).

#17. Write a Stop Doing List. Every productive person obsessively sets To Do Lists. But those who play at world-class also record what they commit to stop doing. Steve Jobs said that what made Apple Apple was not so much what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore.

#18. Use your commute time. If you’re commuting 30 minutes each way every day – get this: at the end of a year, you’ve spent 6 weeks of 8 hour days in your car. I encourage you to use that time to listen to fantastic books on audio + excellent podcasts and valuable learning programs. Remember, the fastest way to double your income is to triple your rate of learning.

#19. Be a contrarian. Why buy your groceries at the time the store is busiest? Why go to movies on the most popular nights? Why hit the gym when the gym’s completely full? Do things at off-peak hours and you’ll save so many of them.

#20. Get things right the first time. Most people are wildly distracted these days. And so they make mistakes. To unleash your productivity, become one of the special performers who have the mindset of doing what it takes to get it flawless first. This saves you days of having to fix problems.

#21. Get lost. Don’t be so available to everyone. I often spend hours at a time in the cafeteria of a university close to our headquarters. I turn off my devices and think, create, plan and write. Zero interruptions. Pure focus. Massive results.

I truly hope these 21 productivity tips have been valuable to you. And that I’ve been of service. Your productivity is your life made visible. Please protect it.

Thanks Sharma

More Paraprosdokians:

These always seem to be a hit!

(Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech
in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or
unexpected; frequently humorous.

1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.

2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.

3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright 
until you hear them speak.

4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.

5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left. 

7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it
in a fruit salad.

8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is
research.

9. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

10. In filling out an application, where it says, ‘In case of
emergency, Notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR’.

11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the
street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute
to skydive twice.

13. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.

14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever 
you hit the target.

15. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than
standing in a garage makes you a car.

16. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.

Thanks Larry

Close Encounters of the Soul Food Kind:

Enjoy these inter-species experiences

Family-raised Grizzly Bear

One Hungry Little Mouse

Thanks Larry

Stay Thirsty My Friends!

Love,

Neville

Happy Soul Food Friday!
This week:
What Love Means to a 4-8 Year Old

What Love means to a 4-8 year old . .

Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it.

Touching words from the mouth of babes.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds,

‘What does love mean?’

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined

See what you think:

‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
Rebecca- age 8

‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’
Billy – age 4

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’
Karl – age 5

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’
Chrissy – age 6

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’
Terri – age 4

‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’
Danny – age 7

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’
Emily – age 8

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’
Bobby – age 7 (Wow!)

‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’
Nikka – age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday..’
Noelle – age 7

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’
Tommy – age 6

‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’
Cindy – age 8

‘My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’
Clare – age 6

‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’
Elaine-age 5

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’
Chris – age 7

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’
Mary Ann – age 4

‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’
Lauren – age 4

‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ (what an image)
Karen – age 7

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’
Mark – age 6

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’
Jessica – age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’

God Bless…

Thanks Larry H.

If you think your life is flying by and pretty insane then this should be a good reset:

SENSE OF FLYING – YouTube

Thanks Larry G.

Community Engagement and Serving the Community through Education

Like most credit unions, Mission Fed is a double bottom line organization. This means we measure our success not just strictly in terms of financial performance, but also with respect to social mission attainment. These are both integral parts of our organizational DNA. . The credit union movement was birthed on the notion of “people helping people and since time immemorial humans truly are “creatures of community”. For 50 years, as a member owned not-for -profit, we have served the San Diego community through education, providing time, treasure and talent via both our Community Relations department as well as our Mission Federal Credit Union Foundation to make a difference of consequence in San Diego.

Last month the MFCU Foundation provided support to the Foundation for Women, and other organizations that advance the cause of financial education, and I was privileged to attend the Foundation for Women’s 14th Annual Luncheon, “Honoring the Women in Our Lives”.

Here I learned some startling facts about our planet and our city.

20% of the world’s population owns 95% of the world’s wealth. In stark contrast, the bottom 20% of the world’s population, only owns 1% of the world’s wealth.

Within this wealth inequality there is significant gender inequality. Women do 2/3 of the work on this planet and produce ½ the food, yet they only earn 10% of the income and own just 1% of the land. In the US only 18% of the legislators are women compared to a whopping 56% in Rwanda. If you think this is just a problem in the developing world you are wrong! Today the local poverty rate is at a 50 year high with 33% of our 3.1MM population living 200% below the Federal Poverty Level & 80,000 women living in dire poverty right here in San Diego County…

Empowering Women and Young Girls is integral to making a difference in any community as this systemically moves the needle on lifting families out of poverty, fostering environmental sustainability, and bringing political stability.

Changing this reality is entirely different when you offer a hand up rather than a hand out and the Foundation for Women does just that with micro-financing and support programs.

Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure.

You can find out more about the Foundation for Women at http://www.foundationforwomen.org/

Foundation for Women is one great representative example. There are many others…

Whatever your comfort zone, philosophy, or appetite, I urge you to seek out opportunities to support your community and its myriad of causes in any way you see fit and make magic happen!

Dreamforce 2012:

A couple of weeks ago I attended the largest technology conference on the planet with 95,000 registered attendees, 750 session options and keynotes from the likes of Sir Branson, General Colin Powell, Dr. Dean Ornish and Tony Robbins to mention a few. Keep an eye out for this movie, Escape Fire a compelling documentary on how we can save our badly broken healthcare system. You can see the trailer at: http://vimeo.com/27450676

Are You An Awesome Team Member? Would people want you on their team or put another way would you want to be married to yourself?

This blog from Peter Barron Stark asks the right questions!

http://www.peterstark.com/2012/8-signs-awesome-team-member/?utm_source=Quest+-+October+2012&utm_campaign=EMployee+Engagement+HR&utm_medium=email

Thanks Peter

What Helps Teachers Succeed?

Hear from a 2012 Teacher of the Year on What Helps Teachers and Students Succeed from  PBS NewsHour | Sept. 26, 2012 | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec12/2012teacher_09-26.html

Thanks Cathy

Upcoming Elections:

While walking down the street one day a Corrupt Senator, that may be redundant, was tragically hit by a car and died.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
“Welcome to heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.”
“No problem, just let me in,” says the Senator.
“Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from the higher ups. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.”
“Really? I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,” says the Senator.
“I’m sorry, but we have our rules.”
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course.
In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.
They played a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and the finest champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who is having a good time dancing and telling jokes.
They are all having such a good time that before the Senator realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens in heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him, “Now it’s time to visit heaven…”
So, 24 hours passed with the Senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
“Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.”
The Senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: “Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.”
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell…
Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls to the ground.
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulders.
“I don’t understand,” stammers the Senator. “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?”
The devil smiles at him and says,
“Yesterday we were campaigning,
Today, you voted..”
Vote wisely on  November 2, 2012

VOTE FOR THE COUNTRY, NOT THE PARTY

Last but not least, enjoy these delightful Flower Rugs in Italy:

Click here!

Thanks Larry H.

Stay Soulful!
Love,
Neville

“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

— Albert Einstein