That's another Storify

I was reading Mark Schaffer's blog post ‘ What Do I Write About? ‘,  the other evening, where he suggests that when we are stuck, we have the following options: “Look to your peer groups, look in your comments, look in your key words and Google it”.

I found his post very useful and I happened to repost it to Facebook, where one of my Facebook friends then thanked me for posting the article because she too found it very useful. She suffers from bloggers block, as I do.

As a blogger,  I understand exactly what this is like because I too have become stuck on what I should write about on more than one occasion and given that my blog is 'Funteresting' - intended to be both Fun and Interesting - sometimes doubt creeps in and I ask myself ‘am I generating either of those two states for my readers?’

However, I find that the interesting and fun things have a tendency just to show up and I notice them if I am aware.
Note that I did not say "paying attention".  Theses are different states:

• Paying attention is being conscious and bringing my focus to things (I go to it)
  whereas
• being aware is allowing things to come to me from my experience in the moment, into my unconscious and conscious states (They come to me).

There is always a pattern to things that when you start linking them together, be it peer groups,  comments, key words, Google finds  or simply what you become aware of. A story emerges.

So what of storify.com?

Storify is a web site where you can create stories out of postings from elsewhere on the web, such as Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, BreakingNews, Flickr, Chute, SoundCloud, Instagram, GetGlue, StockTwits, Disqus, Google, Tumblr, RSS Feeds, Embedded URLs and Storify itself.
 http://storify.com/tour gives a much better view on how Storify works
The “create” screen has two halves:

• A Media collection area where you can search external sites
  and
• A Story Pad where you can assemble your story
  and add your own commentary  and pictures,  as you assemble the story

It strikes me as a great place to assemble your stories even if you never publish them because you can layout your story, see it and gauge if it fits what you want to create. The ability to review the media that you use is extensive and it doesn’t stop there.

I also use http://ifttt.com (If This Then That) another site where I can link together different elements of various websites together to take actions across sites or as ifttt themselves say “Put the internet to work for you”
Storify is one of the sites listed by ifttt which means I can automate my media collection amongst other things. For example, here are some of the recipes created by other ifttt users:

• “If someone tweets a mention of me, it goes to my StoryPad on Storify” - created by jeffthechimp
• “Send starred Google Reader items to Storify” - created by kopischke 
• “#instagram to #storify” - created by ajbatac
• “Post story on #storify, send it to #facebook” - created by by fr33q

Storify allows you to ‘Export’ your stories to Wordpress,  Tumblr, Posterous, Drupal and Mailchimp although, for whatever reason, I have never achieved exporting to Wordpress directly however using Scoop.it!‘s bookmarklet I can post a summary of the story direct to Wordpress and can add my comments there.

Grabbing the HTML code from Wordpress also allows me to blog in Ecademy.com

Happy Blogging!

5 Horrifying Facts You Didn't Know About the Space Shuttle - Forbes

See on Scoop.it - Funteresting Stuff
A very interesting article from Forbes.com. It would be easy to read this article from a negative perspective given the famous deaths that occurred but given the technology, what an innovative creation and icon of determination

 

Criticizing the Space Shuttle is like punching America in the face. After all, it’s been a symbol of national pride for thirty years.

See on www.forbes.com

Planning for disaster

‎"Most people plan by disaster. They think of what can go wrong and then they master it"

~Richard Bandler

Dr RICHARD BANDLER, Co-founder of Neuro Linguistic Programming and creator of Design Human Engineering(tm) and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning(tm), has always been and remains at the very forefront of new technologies.
For the past thirty years, Richard has dedicated himself to developing new ideas tools, techniques and models for the advancement of human evolution. His genius as a trainer is world renowned.
Thousands of people provide testimony to his ability to help them to live their lives with greater happiness and freedom. He teaches with humour and joy and continues to care enough to share his newest discoveries with us.

I haven’t got time

I have been saying and hearing “I haven’t got time” a lot recently.
It occurs to me that when people say “I don't have time'”, that they are are actually telling me that there is something that they are in fear of. They are actually leaving something else outstanding, resulting in a stuck state.
Usually this comes out of some sort of fear and the strange thing is that whatever the fear; it  is usually quite insignificant. However, time itself seems to have taken over. Their head is full on conversation about the very thing that they are avoiding. i.e. they are putting in double or treble the effort avoiding something, rather than just doing it.

Here is a link to a conversation about that very point:   what-would-you-like-this-to-procrastinate-about-this-week

So the answer in these situations is not a time management system or even priorities. 

It is usually to do with some form of prior experience where there may have been a failure, an embarrassment, an upset or something that tends towards the unpleasant. Something not to be repeated.

Breaking this down.

• They are not being honest in the words they are using to converse with themselves.
  At worst they have become a victim of their own self talk. It could be that they are not even saying anything at all related to the subject
• Their expectations are not being met or have appear to be precarious.
• A past routine has kicked in.
  The brain cannot unlearn anything and so if they have taught themselves a routine, the more they practice that routine, the better they get at it. The situation reminds them of a prior occasion when they used this technique.
  Like a robot off it fires and takes control.

As you can see all those issues come from past experience but the problem does not exist in the past.  It exists now. 
Some form of getting present is required, albeit meditation, a short, sharp shock, a crisis.  One of those get real moments, some form of upset or simply a change. Anything to break the trance that they are in. A Pattern Interruption, a Hypnotist would say.

A good state changer is Disassociation. 
Disassociation from yourself as a captive of time to becoming a Controller Of Time

Imagine floating out of your body and seeing yourself in your stuck position.  Float all the way around yourself – a full 360°.  Notice what you notice and then, as if you were a puppeteer, move parts of your body: 
Maybe add a smile to your face. Changing your body posture and relocate yourself  into a different position.
Make fine adjustments and introduce a relaxed posture!

Imagine a time that you were told in really funny joke or imagine a time when something really funny happened to you. You could even imagine that the place that you are in has transported itself to a hot sunny beach or to your favourite holiday destination. Substitute any good feeling here (the naughtier the better, I find! )
Try this one:   doreens-story
Imagine floating back in to your body and NOW:
Notice how different you feel.
Notice how different things look. 
Notice how different things sound
Notice how much silence there is
Notice the differences and
Notice how your state has changed NOW
Crank up all the good feelings
Get present to what needs to be done next and

JUST DO IT!

Easter is Happening

An amusing tweet I received from my tweet pal ‘KP’

@AyPee Easter is happening. Hope my family will behave. Last year was a riot. Police came around 3 times, 3rd time they brought their wives.

— KP (@jadarc) April 1, 2012

 

Have a great Easter!

Fly Right

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude"

~ Zig Ziglar

Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar
U.S. Motivational speaker and author. 
Born November 6, 1926

Image: Zig  Ziglar in March 2009 is  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar

DO Management

“ I don’t have a To Do list”

~ Peter Thomson

 

 

“ The only important thing to do is the next thing”

~ Michael Neill

 

“Manage by outcomes not presence”

~ the guy who did the presentation for Microsoft at ‘Business 2012’ at the O2 on Tuesday 20th March 2012

 

Timely reminders that we tend to forget

In the “Product Creation Goldmine” 3 day workshop that I attended, Peter Thomson explained how he manages his priorities. “I don’t have a To Do list. I have a Do list”, he said.

We can create endless lists of things to do. Don’t get me wrong, we have to make lists because it focuses us on the next thing we need to do and it can also give a feeling of satisfaction when the list is complete. Happy Happy   ….

A few years back I heard Michael Neill say something remarkably similar. He was saying forget the list, do the most important thing that you need to do next and then do the next most important thing that you need to do after that. Happier Happier …  

At the Business 2012 exhibition the Guy (I don’t know his name. I ambled in half way through his presentation) on the Microsoft stand, whilst presenting Microsoft’s Anywhere, said “Manage by Outcomes not Presence” Even Happier …  

I was timely reminded!

So why do we forget and get ourselves bogged down with big lists and then feel the pressure and probably demonstrate stress?
Because we forget. I don’t know why. I do it myself!

I think the key is set up something to remind you and feel really good about how free we are doing what we need to do.
Re(place your)mind yourself and bump up the good feeling.

I use Simpleology’s programme to help me focus, in particular, what they call the “Dream catcher”. I dump my thoughts into the Dream Catcher and forget about them until I “Start my day”, as they put it, which is another part of their programme. 

To be honest, I haven’t looked at any other time and thought management programmes. I got this from my friend  (“the famous”) Jo Dodds (I expect she might be embarrassed by that  - which is why I said it!) …    

So getting things done is getting rid of the things we need to do next whilst do what we need to do now and then feeling really great about how unpressured we really are and feeling good for no reason whatsoever.
We have the list. The list doesn’t have us!

As a former Business Continuity Manager, the main thing I learnt was gauge the impact and the urgency - What is the impact of not doing something?
- How urgent is the thing that has to be done? And then the overriding question:

Does it have to be done at all?

The combination of how urgent and what is the impact of not doing it works for me!
I check it off against my grid and re-sort my Simpleology accordingly and that allows me to Focus on what I believe is the most important thing:

How good can I feel for absolutely no reason

 

images thebestyoucanbe.org  imindshift.com  microsoft.com AyPeeCo
Jo Dodds can be found at jododdssocialmedia.com