Posts Tagged ‘motivation’
Posted By Aly Juma / 22nd May 2011
Welcome to this week’s links!
In this New York Time’s article, the impact of technology is explored and how it helps us, as much as it hurts us. In essence it looks at the problems raised from an over-reliance on technology, which is a very real problem.
Last week I wrote a piece on news, which you can read here. The center of the piece was the controversy surrounding Common’s presence at the White House. In this unedited video, we get Bill O’Reilly from Fox News going head-to-head with Jon Stewart on the Common controversy, politics, and more.
Being in the presence of greatness is one way to gain great inspiration to motivate yourself to achieve. In this piece from Zen Habits we look at how to find greatness to inspire ourselves ranging from authors to role models and more.
The following are some tips from Conan O’Brien and his creative process, done for the Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People piece. There are some intriguing tidbits on creativity and having fun, needing pressure, preparation, and more.
Its important to pay attention to our minds, just as much as we focus on our health, and one way is through meditation. The Guardian goes in detail on what meditation is and its numerous benefits.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Posted By Aly Juma / 8th May 2011
Welcome to this week’s links! And Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
A great post from Zen Habits blogger Leo Babauta reflects on the lessons learned so far over his 38 years. There’s some great points in there that I think apply to all of us, especially the very last one.
Although the death of Osama took over headlines, I watched Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner on April 30th, which was quite enjoyable. I like how Obama is using humor to effectively communicate his messages, and its much more entertaining than a cut and dry speech.
When we have truly innovative ideas, its hard to discern if they really are that great or they’re absolutely ridiculous. The key becomes sharing the idea with others, but this can be a scary proposition for most. This articles touches on two ways an organization can create an environment open to ideas, both good and bad.
I’ve recently talked a lot about motivation, accountability, and incentives, and stickK seems to be a great tool to get us to start taking action. stickK is a web tool that allows you to define a goal, the stakes, referees, and supporters, all in an effort to help you accomplish your goals. I’m looking forward to trying it out and seeing if it works.
There’s been a wide range of responses to Osama’s death, which I touched on in a recent blog post. This being the case, New York Times has come out with this interactive graphic, showing the range of these responses based on comments made by readers – its pretty interesting to see visually.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Posted By Aly Juma / 6th May 2011
The following video created by the RSA is based on a lecture from Dan Pink and his book Drive. In the book he basically explores what motivates us and how what we think we know about motivation is far from the truth. He covers topics such as incentives, rewards, growth, punishment, and more. In the lecture he focuses on the dynamics of rewards and punishment, which you can check out below.
A lot of interesting things to think about here. I’ve always found these topics fascinating and this in particular reminds me a lot about the area of behavioral economics, which is essentially about the irrationalities of our behavior. Check out Dan Ariely for more about behavioral economics and for more by Dan Pink, visit his blog.
Posted By Aly Juma / 17th April 2011
Welcome to this week’s top links!
This article from Bruce Nussbaum makes the bold statement that design thinking has failed and its time to move on. It’s an interesting piece basically outlining why he thinks we’ve gotten all we can from this process and its now time to move towards the next big thing: Creative Intelligence.
Influencers is a short documentary about influential people and how trends become contagious in todays world. In this short in-depth series, Steve Stoute talks about the concept of cool, culture, communication, and collaboration. You can watch the full documentary here.
I’ve been a big fan of infographics and how they present information in a visually pleasing, yet effective manner. One of the best resources I’ve found for infographics is GOOD magazines website, where they have a large collection of high quality graphics covering a range of topics.
This article from Smashing Magazine, talks about the battle between Inspiration vs. Working Hard and how working hard always wins. It goes further into why inspiration doesn’t really work, despite our infatuation with it, and how ultimately its our hard work that will lead us to success.
TED has recently decided to take the venture into education with their latest initiative through TED-ED. TED-ED is essentially a new platform focused around the TED community creating and shaping how TED can use its resources to enhance education. Become part of the Brain Trust to share your ideas today.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Posted By Aly Juma / 24th February 2011
You know all those things you wish you could do or want to learn to do “someday”. Well the key to fulfilling those wishes is using your free time effectively. How you spend that extra 30 minutes or couple of hours in a day are vital to being able to achieve your goals. During that time you could…
- Watch an episode of your favorite TV show vs. Workout
- Play video games vs. Start your blog
- Mindlessly browse Facebook vs. Learn a language
- Watch video after video on YouTube vs. Create something
- Go shopping vs. Work on a business idea/project
Ultimately the choice is up to you, so the next time you have some free time, really think about how you want to spend it and what’s important to you.
