World Tour: Spectacular Cajas National Park in an Inter-Andean Valley
The only biosphere in the world stretching from salt-water mangroves to mountain paramo at 14,000 feet
Dear Friends,
I snuck in a photo trip to southern Ecuador a few weeks ago with my friend Steve Schutz, and and I’ve been remiss not sharing a few of the images. This set is from Cajas Park, which is now within the much larger Cajas Biosphere. Fabián Rodes of Nature and Culture Intl. was instrumental in putting together the biosphere last year from his Cuenca office. He assembled over 30 institutions to make it happen — not an easy task. Fabián was our guide for 7 edenic days.
Inspiration– An honorable loss is better than a devious win
While many in the US are disappointed about the USA’s World Cup results, in the wisdom tradition of the martial arts we say a “honorable loss is better than a devious win”.
Here is an illustrative story that demonstrates that character and sportsmanship of self-mastery in the final analysis are where real competition resides- not with an external opponent but with your best self!
This article made my day and I loved reading about this remarkable and inspiring incident.
Our true character is often tested in spontaneous moments like this.
On December 2, Basque athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai – bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner – the certain winner of the race – mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.
Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai’s mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.
Ivan Fernandez Anaya, a Basque runner of 24 years who is considered an athlete with a big future (champion of Spain of 5,000 meters in promise category two years ago) said after the test:
“But even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I wouldn’t have done it either. I also think that I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well.”
He said at the beginning: “unfortunately, very little has been said of the gesture. And it’s a shame. In my opinion, it would be nice to explain to children, so they do not think that sport is only what they see on TV: violent kicks in abundance, posh statements, fingers in the eyes of the enemy …”
This is amazing photography and brilliantly explained. We live in a
world of un-seeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible
to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie
Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras,
time lapses and microscopes. At TED2014, he shares highlights from his
latest project, a 3D film titled “Mysteries of the Unseen World,” which
slows down, speeds up, and magnifies the astonishing wonders of nature. Enjoy…
Slip Sliding Away:
This takes the Slip and Slide to a Whole Other Level!
Human Ingenuity at its best:
Some Out Of the BOX thinking
This NGO created as a Community Service Centre for marginalized families in urban slum and rural areas, Aarambh, wanted to help students who are not as privileged, with basic facilities, in order for them to be more comfortable at school. Most schools in Indian rural areas have two basic problems:
1) The schools didn’t have proper desks, which led to poor eyesight and a hunched back leading to bad posture and bad writing.
2) The students didn’t have school bags.
They came up with a solution which tackled both these problems at one go.
To make the portable desks they used discarded cartons which are economical and easily available. They then used a pre-set stencil design, which when cut and folded, created a slick desk which also served as a school bag. Amazing!
Make YOUR Life Into A Masterpiece:
Vision + Design = The Blueprint for the One Masterpiece that you will Create…
Make Your Life into a Masterpiece
The most important masterpiece you’ll ever create is your life. But to create your masterpiece you must first design it. You must have a vision of what it looks like. Once you have a vision and design it you can begin the process of building it.
To help you with your design you can ask questions such as:
What does your life look like when you are at your healthiest, strongest, and best?
What does your family situation look like while you are pursuing success in your work?
What matters most?
What priorities drive you each day?
What are you doing that makes you come alive?
What are you born to do?
What are you doing to live and share your purpose?
When you look back on your life what do you want to be able to say about it?
How do you want to feel?
What will you have wanted to accomplish?
What legacy will you have left?
I asked these questions at the peak of my unhappiness 13 years ago and realized that instead of creating my masterpiece I was building a piece of a junk. Over a period of a few weeks filled with a lot of walks and prayer the answers to these questions came to me and I began the process of designing and building my life as a writer.
For some the answers to these questions may lead you to a new career. However, for most, it will simply lead to changes that will align your life with the vision and design you have for it. For example you may need to exercise more and eat healthier to create your masterpiece. Or perhaps you may need to spend more time with your family because your masterpiece includes great relationships with your kids. Or you might realize that you are not spending enough time on your priorities and therefore your masterpiece is not developing like it should. Whatever your masterpiece looks like, your design will help you see what you need to do, or stop doing, in order to create it.
I also want to caution you to make sure you are building your masterpiece and not someone else’s idea of what your masterpiece should be. I know this well. My mom always wanted me to be an attorney. I planned on going to law school after college. When I didn’t get into law school, because my LSAT score was so poor, I gave up on the idea of being a lawyer. However, after getting my masters in teaching, opening several restaurants and running for city council of Atlanta at the age of 26 my mom’s vision for me still stuck with me. I ended up going to law school in Atlanta for a year and a half. But while taking my second year exams I had this strong feeling that there was something else for me. I stood up and walked out on my final exams and never looked back.
I recently spoke to a school where the wife of my friend from law school is the principal. My friend said when I walked out of the law school exams no one could believe it. He said it was legendary. But I don’t think it was legendary to quit. What I think is legendary is when someone stops trying to create someone else’s masterpiece and instead focuses on designing and creating the masterpiece they are meant to build.
You have one masterpiece to create and I want to encourage you to design and build YOUR masterpiece, not someone else’s.
I also want to encourage you to stay positive as you move from the design phase to the building phase. You will face challenges during the building process but always remember, negative thoughts are the nails that build a prison of failure, but positive thoughts will build you a masterpiece.
Stay flexible and adaptable through the process. It’s okay for your plans to change, especially when your plans must give way to the ultimate creator’s master plan.
And lastly, make sure you choose the right habits because what you do each day will become who you are. Your habits will transform your design, vision and plans into the masterpiece of your life.
Celebrating a Past Mission Fed Board Member- John Daily
This past I was privileged to be part of a donation to the American Cancer Society on behalf of long time Board member John Daily
Here are the poignant comments current Board member Ken Clark shared about John and his contributions…
John Daily used his wise counsel and gentle nature to help guide Mission Fed as a 21 year member of its Board of Directors – serving 2 – two year terms as Chair while our credit union grew from $121 million in assets with 29,000 members to $1.8 billion with 129,000 members at his retirement in 2008.
Dr. Daily brought honor to his beloved alma mater, USC, as he brought his best to everything he took on from Assistant Superintendent of San Dieguito Schools for 30 years, Board member of Mission Fed, Master Gardener with the San Diego Horticultural Society, volunteer with Quail Gardens, San Diego Fair & Solana Beach schools, and – most importantly – husband and father.
He was a smart, honorable, and generous man and I consider it an honor to have been one of his many friends.
Today’s donation to the American Cancer Society is to honor his memory.
This was a truly touching Mission Moment…
Enhance your personal brand with bling that is human-centered and soul-filled…
Dogs have long ago stopped being just animals. To us, a dog is also a symbol – A symbol of endless loyalty, of love given without asking for it to be returned. We look to the dog and hope to find its strength and love in us. We look to the dog and learn how to be true friends and true members of a loving family.
Those of us who have had dogs in our lives, know that there is much to say about this wonderful animal, and so we bring you a few touching and oh-so-true quotes on the matter.
Tis the season for Promotions & Commencements, Longest Days of the Year, Sorolla & America, Survival of the Nicest, and Celebrating Thriving “Heart”-ists
6th Grade Promotion
Hard to believe our Daughter Aysha is done with Middle School!
We’ve gladly invested 12 years of our time, treasure and talent in the Cardiff School District, and while I won’t be disappearing anytime soon, it certainly will be different.
Here is a compelling commencement speech referenced at the promotion by Principal Brian K. featuring Admiral William McRaven at University of Texas.
Make your bed!
It does take a village and here’s to all the volunteers EVERYWHERE that make our world better.
Congrats Greta O. for being selected as the 2014 Mission 2 Volunteer by the Cardiff SEA, and choosing you to direct funds to those parts of education you care most about!
2nd Annual True Triton Brunch
UCSD Celebrated another amazing Alumni Weekend, growing to over 150,000 alum making their mark around the world
Whatever your Alma Mater, here’s to “straight A’s” of a different sort:
Appreciation: Looking back, I hope you to feel darn good about what you did and how you felt in the time you invested in the causes that matter most to YOU
Affiliation: In this present moment, right now, I hope you feel deeply connected to and valued by your community- Thank you for all you have done
Agency: Looking forward, WITH YOUR HELP, we are creating a better world for those that follow through our agency
Be the Thriving “Heart”-ist You Were Destined to Be!
What We Can Learn from the Tortured Artist Van Gogh
This fine exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art and organized by Blanca Pons-Sorolla, the artist’s great-granddaughter, brings together masterpieces seen for the first time in America and Madrid and are truly awe inspiring! (see Sorolla quote at the end…)
Another Theory of Evolution- Survival of the Nicest
We simply can’t solve today’s complex problems with yesterday’s notions of competition and zero sum games…
USA Annual Philanthropy Numbers On the Rise: Giving Nears Pre-Recession Levels
No it’s not the Foundations and Corporations, but once again Individual Contributions that disproportionately contribute 73% of the growth to the 2% of GDP that constitutes giving in this country
Thanks for this week’s contributions of content and energy go to Brian K & the Cardiff School District, Greta O & the SEA, Mission Fed for steadfastly supporting Education, Suzanne B, Jim L & Tritons everywhere, Deirdre M, Bettina H, Frank P, Alan D, and the indefatigable Larry H!
Congrats Graduates!
Rightly understood, today is commencement for every one of us.
Pay it forward…
Love,
Neville
“Go to nature with no parti pris.
You should not know what your picture is to look like until it is done.
Thanks this week go to Heidi E, Harriette T,Larry H, Moshe E, Sarah H, Peter S, Karisa M and Laura K.
Pay It Forward!
Love,
Neville
“One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.”
No matter how wild the ride, it couldn’t compare to this…
Sometimes You have to be up Really High to Realize how Small You are…
Austrian skydiver and daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,100 feet above the Earth.
Seven GoPro cameras recorded the jump and GoPro just released this incredible footage, showing from a new perspective of what it was like from Baumgartner’s point of view.
Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver ever to go faster than the speed of sound!
Hold your breath and watch this, also watch the odometer as the speed increases and then decreases as he enters the earth’s atmosphere.
Monday brought Memorial Day with Blessings of Freedom:
Memorial Day allows us to honor those veterans who served our great nation, and recognize and thank our veterans and their families for the tremendous sacrifices they have made to defend the country. It is also a day of prayer for those service members who continue to serve in far reaching areas of the globe to help protect and preserve the rights and protections that form the foundation of the individual freedoms we enjoy.
Tues & Wed brought Transformation through Collaboration:
Thanks to all that helped create, curate, connect and celebrate purpose-driven leaders! We had a sold out event with a priceless experience thanks to a LOT of help from my friends.
Sometimes Extreme Capacities are found in the Un-Sung Workforce. A Job Interview not to be Missed. A Tribute to My Wife!
Someday…
A Bus Trip in the Himalayas
3 minutes on a bus trip through the Himalayas, that will give you pause
(Click on the picture)
Make Some day TODAY!
Cultivate the focus, persistence and grit that will get You to Your personal Everest:
If you have 27 minutes you might enjoy this video below from Robin Sharma
If you don’t take 2 minutes and get the highlights…
Implicit theory underpins our world view and self-identity
Set Mastery goals not Ego goals– Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
(not fame fortune and applause but getting better goals)
Cultivate the focus, persistence and grit that will get you to your personal Everest
Do Hard Things
Lean into your fear and Commit to the Mountain “The seduction of safety is often more dangerous than the perception of Danger”
Your limits are liars and your fears are thieves. Do NOT trust them!
So many of us are caught by the things we are running from…
Get to you know your Personal Story, then rewire it and rescript it
Goal contagion- We literally model the goals of the people we spend most of our time with
Every Visionary was first Ridiculed before they were ever Revered
Your perception of your potential will determine how much of your potential you live
Write your ending first, then live it every day -as every day is your life in miniature
Every day is a platform to get you closer to where you want to be
Inspiration drives Optimal Performance
You need to be inspired to achieve Amazing things (and have high levels of execution intelligence)
Keep your inspiration high. Make the time to be around art. Go to beautiful places. Your environments are unbelievably important in shaping your mindset.
The quality of your routines determines the caliber of your performance
Most are habituated and unconscious so run fantastic routines!
“Install routines of world class achievement”
66 days of practicing a new habit until you reach a point of automaticity
Get your habits right and then your life begins to transform
Proper food, exercise, “the 60 seconds student ritual” every day, less gossip, more celebration of other people
90/90/1: for 90 days, invest your first 90 minutes on that 1 thing
“The person who sweats more in training, bleeds less in war”—The Spartans
Mastery is a Process
The moment you think you are a master, you are a beginner…
Maintain the apprenticeship mindset, working on “YOU 2.0”
Don’t worry about the economy, create your own economy because people ALWAYS pay for Mastery and pay for the Best!
Go out into the world and rise to epic, aim for legendary and construct a life that makes history…
“If you have the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, you have NO RIGHT to keep it to yourself”—Jacques Cousteau
Robin says…
It took me months and months of going through my private coaching black books, pouring over my personal journals and weeks and weeks of painstaking work to make my latest free training video for you Neville…
…I poured 1000% of my passion, knowledge and love into it so it would awaken the deepest and greatest part of you…
…and as you’ll see by the comments under it, tons of people from across the planet are saying it’s the most inspirational and valuable one I’ve ever made.
Unlike so many of the quick yet “light on content” videos these days, this one is 27 minutes long because it has hundreds of my best insights and strategies on unleashing your potential and living an EPIC life…
Thanks this week go to Jim C, Larry H, everyone that poured their souls into the Transformation through Collaboration conference, Donna H, Linda B, Helene G, Robin S and ALL our Collective Intelligence Applied to the Greater Good!!
Pay it Forward!
Love,
Neville
“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.”- Denis Waitley
In the world of enterprise, it is so easy to separate mindfulness from heartfulness. In this CSRwire blog, http://bit.ly/1iPgaXt“The Resilience of Mindfulness: From Fear-based Leadership to Courageous Compassion”, Ron helps us think about these in a new light…
Cause is the Place to Be (BeCAUSE)!
The Countdown’s On…
After nearly 9 months invested in this labor of love, I can’t believe we are nearly at launch for this conference created at the heart of network science to catalyze creative cultures.
As we have learned, many traditional and long held views don’t stand up to current science or actual social network dynamics.
For example:
It is not the brightest actor that generates the best ideas, instead these usually come from the power of collective intelligence properly harnessed and applied (‘we not me’)
It is not the most determined or driven leader that creates success, but the one most able to unleash the energy and engagement in their enterprise and foster a culture of creativity and trust
It is not even fame and $ that are the prime motivators, but each individual’s deeper yearning to concurrently be valued and create value (significance not success is what matters)
Convention is need of an intervention!
In a hyper-connected world moving at warp speed, if you can’t foster a hyper-engaged culture based on the above, it won’t just be a matter of not keeping up…
Given the jet fuel involved, it won’t take rocket science to validate that this year’s AMA Cause Conference will serve as the Launchpad for Purpose-driven leaders, where Moonshot Thinking lifts our organizations to Defy Gravity, reach Escape Velocity and Realize our Mission.
If you are interested in attending I would suggest you sign up ASAP as we are nearly sold out.
Inc just posted a list of the top 50 Leadership and Management Experts and my buddy Steve Farber who will be speaking at the AMA Cause Conference is on the list at #21!
“Who you know defines what you know” as Alan Daly reminds us…
The vision of America’s Kindest City is to create a kinder and more sustainable San Diego in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors not just for the current generation, but for generations to come. If you’d that KIND of person, check out and ‘Like’ the America’s Kindest City Facebook page!
5-STAR Winning behavior in extraordinary organizations comes down to five things that Will will share at the AMA CC next week:
Adapt or Fail <http://thoughtrocket.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=db6c729d17829878c2b0c594c&id=9d9f20de9e&e=81282888ae> , produced a huge and thoughtful response from many senior leaders around the world. Responses confirm that leaders are having a difficult time getting the right things done on a timely basis in this time of ferocious competition. Several responses also brought up new challenges that I will deal with in future blogs.
One of the biggest questions arose from my assertion that attempts to train business leaders are failing. After all, it’s a pretty big statement given the thousand-plus business schools that are trying to teach business leaders around the globe.
The problem is business schools and companies are still training business leaders to succeed in hierarchies. Organizations where things get done through chains of command. These are organizations where critical knowledge is often centralized. Resources are hoarded and defended. Annual planning cycles lock people into priorities that quickly become irrelevant in the face of new competitive threats. The complexity of these large cumbersome organizations create bureaucracies that makes simple tasks and changes virtually impossible.
For instance more and more new clients are asking if I take credit cards. They want to know because the procurement processes are so broken that it takes weeks or months to contract with new suppliers. This locks them into old suppliers with old ideas and tired solutions. And change that takes weeks or months is a timeline left over from the industrial age. That’s a leadership problem.
Oh and one more thing… most employees don’t want to work for their employers. We know that because 80% of people who currently have jobs are actively looking for a new job on the Internet.
And Gallop just finished its worldwide engagement survey and once again found that over 70% of workers are not committed to their organization’s goals. The primary reason for that is that goals employees feel ineffective in their work. It is too difficult to succeed when people’s goals are constantly shifting. Employees feel exhausted from relentless stress caused from having highly demanding jobs with low control and autonomy. Again, it’s just too hard to get things done.
And the majority of employees find their work intrinsically meaningless… yet work is way too demanding for it to be purposeless.
Those are leadership problems.
They are big, sweaty, stinky problems.
These are not problems that can be overcome by getting 20% better at one leadership competency or targeting high potential leaders to go through a year-long program.
We simply don’t have time to develop the new leadership competencies needed one leader at a time.
So this is what I did. Five years ago, at the onset of the great recession I started a research project with students from the University of California San Diego and Clemson University School of Business. We named it Apple to Zappos. We set out to discover what leaders of persistently successful organizations were doing differently than everyone else.
I interviewed top executives of the best performing companies ranging from Apple to IBM to Nike to Zappos.
We looked at seven criteria–growth, profitability, innovation, employee engagement social responsibility, sustainability, and brand power.
We also examined best leader practices research from Teresa Amabile who is the Director of Research at Harvard Business School. I spent a year working closely with Joe Folkman of Zenger-Folkman doing a deep dive on their Extraordinary Leader research. We analyzed global research studies from Towers-Watson, McKinsey and Company and several others.
This was my conclusion.
Success creates successful behaviors. Leaders perform badly when they are failing. Employees perform poorly when they are consistently unable to achieve goals.
Put simply, leadership success, employee success and business success are united in a continuous virtuous cycle. Once that cycle turns downward… leaders get worse pushing the business down faster and faster while pushing their employees to continuous failure.
It is the primary job of business leaders to make it easy for their employees to succeed…that’s what creates business success.
I know, it’s simple. Yet few leaders get this and even fewer know how to do it.
So as I work in the war zone of 21st century helping companies who are fighting to stay relevant, profitable and growing I had to come up with something that was simply different than traditional leadership development.
The result is something I simply call 5-STAR.
It’s based on the finding that winning behavior in extraordinary organizations comes down the five things. Leaders and their teams must be…
Focused
Creative
Collaborative
Fast acting
Constantly improving
Simple but not easy.
This is not easy because people tend to be either both focused and fast acting or creative and collaborative. It’s yin and yang. This creates natural tension.
For instance in most organizations senior leaders are goal-focused and action- driven. Their implicit belief is the value is created by fast and flawless execution.
But that’s only partly true. If you get really fast at doing things customers don’t value you simply accelerate failure.
There is another large group in most organizations that are purpose-driven innovators. They are motivated to create new value. Value that really matters to people. They like to create and collaborate. They always have questions and their questions slow things down. This drives the focused-doers crazy.
The reality is for an organization to work you need both yin and yang. But you won’t drive business teamwork by going to a tepee and sweating together.
Our research of persistently great companies shows they create teamwork by winning together.
As I thought about the challenge of coming up with fast ways to transform leadership and culture I began to experiment with training teams in a leadership process that didn’t demand individual change. My premise is if you just follow the process you will start to win. Every team member will get engaged… and that will fuel a winning balance of focus and creativity and collaboration and action that drives continuous improvement…value, growth and profits.
Perhaps It is Time for a Cool Change?
Stay tightly Connected!!
Thanks this week go to Ron S, Steve F, Shannon Mc, Will M, the entire AMA CC planning team and presenters, & last but certainly not least my family for putting up with me for the last 9 months of over-investing in my civic spirit.
Pay it Forward…
Love,
Neville
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead
While we all try to create our own internal climate, inevitably the background does determine the foreground.
Here is San Diego we have experienced some very un-seasonable weather with significant adverse consequences as neighbors have lost their homes, and much of our natural environment has burned down.
Thankfully, so far there has been no loss of life!
Our hearts go out to those who are displaced and facing loss, grief and uncertainty.
Together, we can turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones…
Last week, I shared the exponential growth in natural disasters worldwide.
This week San Diegans have unfortunately got to experience them first hand…
Here are some tips to helping you with preparation in response to emergencies, as well as some positivity to keep us grounded and moving forward especially in challenging times.
If you are not in San Diego, I am sure you have similar resources in your neck of the woods!
Be prepared and Stay Proactive.
Photo credit: Robin Martin
Resources:
With the fires now popping up all over the county here is an important resource. The single most important thing you should do today is register your cellphone numbers online to get reverse 911 calls and texts. You will not get notification calls on your cellphone unless they are registered. You can do this at http://www.readysandiego.org/alertsandiego/ The web page is very clear how to do this in both English and Spanish. We hope this is helpful and please say a prayer to keep the amazing fire personnel safe that are working so hard on the front lines to protect our community.
In addition to the website, check out this app on iTunes:
SD Emergency
County of San Diego
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Reference, News
Sep 21, 2012
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Disaster Preparedness Starts With You.
Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so it is important to plan in advance: how you will contact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in different disaster situations. The SD Emergency App contains disaster preparedness information, interactive checklists to help you to create your emergency plan, build an emergency supplies kit, and when disaster strikes; the SD Emergency App will keep you and your family informed with emergency updates, interactive emergency maps, and shelter locations.
The County of San Diego Office of Emergency Services (OES) created the SD Emergency App to better prepare and inform San Diego County residents and visitors about disasters. With SD Emergency, the tools you need to plan, prepare, and respond in an emergency are right at your fingertips.
Follow us on Twitter @SanDiegoCounty and @ReadySanDiego
The antidote for complex problems is collective intelligence and collaborative solutions.
If it is all about me, we will never get to we!
Along with two other co-authors, we address this in an article that came out this week in the San Diego Business Journal, a conference I have been birthing for the last 9 months, and a Daily Goodarticle that allow us to help others- even when we are just playing with an app!
Thanks this week go to Robin M, Angie L, Hélène G,Andrea YC, Shannon Mc, Alan D, Steve F, Jim L, Charles T, the EFM team and everyone with a we not me orientation!
Stay strong, share your spirit, be grateful, and do good work!
Pay it forward and eat dessert first. The future is uncertain…
Friends … They love you, But they’re not your lover
Happy Soul Food Friday! 