We learn best from making mistakes. To improve, find ways to make mistakes:
Slow down. Forcing yourself to go slower breaks habits as well, and is a perfect way to uncover adaptations that weren’t apparent at normal speed.
Speed up. Go much faster than normal. Sure, you’ll screw up, but in the process you’ll break up old habits, adapt to new conditions, and find improvements.
Break a complex task into component parts. Almost every task includes discreet steps. Pick one, deconstruct it, master it… then put the whole task back together. Then choose another component part.
Measure differently. Pick a different measurement than you normally use to analyze performance. Measure speed instead of accuracy, for example, or use video or audio. (A friend taped four initial meetings with prospective customers and identified several bad habits he was unaware of. Watching yourself isn’t particularly fun, but it’s darned objective.)
Stumbled across this today (via one of my google alerts - Daniel Coyle). Makes sense to me, though it is hard to watch yourself in video's.
Each campaign has its moments - those moments that take you by surprise, capture your imagination, make you realise with crystal-like clarity why you are doing what you doing and, best of all, put a smile on your face.
Tonight I just had one of those moments for this Campaign, with all of us in a line doing our one-arm kettlebell exercises to the beat and rhythm of this song - Born this Way. Kettlebells will never be the same.
The Video is in production and on task for a northern summer release and World Premiere in Tampa Bay where the International Dragon Boat Community will come together to view it for the first time. Stay tuned ..
Carmen, Lisa, Karen, Tamara, Jo, Rachel, Frank and Gio (and all the others that have ventured to Concord on a Tuesday Night) you have made the fitness testing workouts so much fun. You encourage and inspire me to be better than I thought I ever could be. You make me realise how lucky I am to be involved in this experience we share on the Road to Tampa.
Thank You.
My mama told me when I was young We are all born superstars She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on In the glass of her boudoir
There's nothin' wrong with lovin' who you are She said, 'cause He made you perfect, babe So hold your head up, girl and you you'll go far Listen to me when I say
I'm beautiful in my way, 'Cause God makes no mistakes I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way
Don't hide yourself in regret, Just love yourself and you're set I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way
Whether life's disabilities Left you outcast, bullied or teased Rejoice and love yourself today 'Cause baby, you were born this way
I'm on the right track, baby I was born to survive
I'm on the right track, baby I was born to be brave
Karen, Carmen and Lisa - Born this Way - Twist - Just warming up - Fitness2u / Concord (Tue 14 Jun 2011)
To do what you like in your work, separate from the buzz. [..]
slow down [..] If you slow down and concentrate on the kinds of images that bring you real joy you'll find a tighter bond with your own work.
Stop looking at all the sharing sites - When you turn off the outside influences and sit quietly with your own thoughts about art and photography you begin to understand the way you like to see and share art. That's valuable. Everything else is unconscious imitation.
Do a project - Consistency of vision and subject are worthwhile goals for all artists. Set yourself to the task of creating a body of consistent work. Choose a subject that you love and explore it in depth. Ignore everything else.
When you choose to do a project have a a goal - Wouldn't it be great if it changed some lives? But no matter where it ends up I will have met interesting people who've taken charge of their own lives and excelled. What fun role models. And the art will be my souvenir of my time spent with them. The prints will be part of the sharing.
Start thinking beyond the screen - [..] When you slow down and do your art try to go through the whole process of bringing an image to life before you rush out the door to fill up more memory cards and hard drives.
Really explore the images in front of you. Edit them down. Make them perfect and then print them large [..] Print them till you love them. And learn from the process of presentation. Learn what you like to see, big. The art becomes both portable and present when you pull it off the screen and onto paper. Be sure to go through the whole process so you understand in your gut what you've really created. It will slow you down [..] and focus it on doing work that makes you smile. You are the first audience.
Finally, forget the online critiques - Find people in your own town, city, region whose work you admire and approach them about forming a sharing circle. Just like a writer's group.
Having a project will move you to take chances. [..] You'll need to discipline yourself to do the [..] And you'll need to learn how to finish.
Having a goal for your work gives it extra meaning.
Sharing the work with live people standing in front of you builds real confidence in the work. Having real critiques is painful but helps engender real growth. Helping real, human, non-virtual friends succeed with their own art is part of a rewarding virtuous circle. Embrace it.
From A few ways to increase your connection to your photography (*) by Kirk Tuck (*) - Thu 23 Feb 2012.
Paulo Coelho says, "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation."
I'm not fatalistic, and I still believe that we make our choices. Nothing is pre-destined to the point where we're no longer required to act on anything. But I believe that signs guide us to the right path, so that we can achieve our dreams sooner.
These signs are found within us, in the stillness of our hearts, in the deepest recesses of our being.
To actually see them, and recognize them for what they are, we have to clear ourselves of all doubts, fears, and worries. We've got to remove the trappings that stay stuck inside us. We've got to know who we really are and what we're really meant to do. It's a painful task, but it will be even more painful to go through life not knowing our life's purpose, our life's worth.
Listen to your heart. Just try.
(I've always been a mind-over-heart person, but the moment I listened to my heart everything just fell into place. "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.")
From Paulo Coelho-isms (Dedicated to my friend, Ellen Joy) (*) via Five Years in Paulo Coelho’s blog (*) and Five Years in Paulo Coelho’s blog (*).
Stumbled across this today. Funny how things work out. Here is a photo from around the initial post was made. Always puts a smile on my face.
Smile - Jenny after a long Chemo Session that day - Kogarah (Jul 2003)
Water - Lac Nere / Haute-Pyrenees (*) / France (Tue 22 Sep 2009)
Paulo Coelho (*) writes On the Journey (*) of Writing (*):
It’s not always an easy task, sometimes it’s very challenging (*), but this is what I do and this is what I like. So the journey itself is the miracle (*); it is the blessing (*). There is no point to reach. You have to travel (*) your journey with joy (*), hope (*), and challenges (*) in your heart (*).
via Paulo Coelho Discusses the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Alchemist (*) by Paulo Coelho (*).
Another formative book (*) I read shortly after Jenny's passing. Jenny's Oncologist rang me about six months passing to see how I was going. In the conversation she mentioned the The Manual of the Warrior of Light (*) and thought I might get something it's pages. So, it was a natural progression to The Alchemist (*) and a dozen other of his books.
The warrior knows an old saying: 'If regrets could kill…'
And he knows that regrets can kill; they slowly eat away at the soul of someone who has done something wrong and they lead eventually to self-destruction.
The warrior does not want to die like that. When he acts perversely or maliciously - because he is a man of many faults - he is never too ashamed to ask forgiveness.
If possible, he does his best to repair the wrong he has done. If the injured party is dead, then he does some good turn to a stranger and offers up that task to the soul that he wounded.
A warrior of light has no regrets, because regrets can kill. He humbles himself and undoes the wrong he has done.
If we have some regrets (founded or unfounded) about something (and we all do at times), then this is not a bad way to think about things. (Note: promise to write something different and more positive next time :-)
The above is a short video Vern put up on Youtube on 18 Nov 2010. He talks about the importance of Winning the Workout, a term he first heard at a conference.
