Joyful Jubilant Learning

Avoid the News Years Resolutions Trap

It is that time of year where we cross over from one year to another. I have always felt that New Years Eve and New Years Day were just like any other day which leads me to ask...

Why do we make such a big deal of New Years Eve?

I am not talking about the history of the holiday rather the meaning behind the reason and need to make new resolutions. I am not suggesting that it is not a good thing to do because putting the past behind and looking to the future is a healthy discipline. Perhaps it makes us feel better to make some new ‘resolutions’ to cover the guilt and regret we feel. But I think there is a better way.

A Matter of Perspective

It does not matter whether you have had a good or bad year. Perhaps it has been a tough year with a lot of obstacles to overcome. Certainly, the families of those killed in the February landslides in the Philippines, families of the troops killed in the Iraq war are going to remember the year quite differently from most reading this post. In fact if anyone on earth has a reason to feel a sense of loss certainly the they victims do. Truth is even they have a choice.

We Always Have a Choice

Think of this. I choose to not attach big significance to the new year while others choose to attach a much more significant meaning to new year celebrations and the start of a new year. For some it is a reason for a party, others feel a sense of regret, and since our son started going to school it became the milestone he used to mark the end his school holidays.

In the same way that people choose to view the importance of any particular day (New Years, Christmas, Valentines Day etc.), we can choose to assign more or less significance to the events in our past.

It is the meaning we attach to the past year that makes it meaningful.

Frame It, To Change Your Perspective

Psychologists and NLP practitioners use ‘framing’ as a tool to frame the perspective of their clients. I am not suggesting that we use it in the context that professionals do but I want to share with you how I have used ‘framing’ as a business tool to deal with difficult situations.

Here is how they use ‘framing’ to bring about a change in perspective. Essentially, they get you to associate a different ‘meaning’ to a life event because they know that if you can view the event through a different frame of reference - the meaning that you assign to it will change.

Lets try putting this into a business context. 

Each day a new leaf

2006 calendar year comes to a close this weekend. It has been a full and eventful year for my family and for me personally. Considering many of the interactions we have had, I am sure your review would be full of similar highlights and significant events.

January saw (amongst many things) the publication of Aloha Rosa.

February was the advent of new templates for my Blogger sites.

March had much to chose from but one key link is my guest posting for Ronni Bennett.

April and spilling into May saw a series of conversations/interviews with Women and the Power of We which took place on the Blog Synergy.

May was a series of family celebrations: First communion, confirmation, graduation and multiple pictures to record the events.

June uniquely had 06/06/06 occur.

Ding Dong! Why I Write Business Books What I Learn

The door bell rang today and a UPS driver handed me a box. It contained copies of my second book, Tips and Traps for Writing an Effective Business Plan (available Jan-Feb 2007).

I finished writing this book in the spring and have only seen edited digital versions, until today.

It was really great to see the book itself, surreal in fact, which I should have expected considering my approach to writing these books resemble a sprint whereas fiction books can take years. I have noticed something happens as I come close to finishing a book, fear sets in.

The Fear Factor - Controlling The Inner Critic

I have found myself wondering if my best is good enough. However, as soon as I sense that fear I turn away from it and get back to work. Somedays it can be quite a challenge to ignore my inner critic, I choose to look at it as a personal challenge to contain and control my fears.

Whether you call it an inferiority complex, fear, or the inner critic unless that negative self-talk is quenched it will prevent you from finishing or even starting. Which is why I think many books take so long to get to store shelves.

Putting Yourself Out There For The World To See

Whether you are writing a book, starting, or buying a business putting yourself out there for all the world to see is an act of courage and ego.

You are saying to the world that you have something to offer and that they should trust you, all of which takes confidence, courage, and vision to lead others.

I have heard some say that they fear criticism and I have yet to actually experience any real criticism either privately or publicly.

A Sense of Responsibility

Dear Me, From Me

How was your Christmas?
I’ve got 364 more days to wait, and here I am, already jazzed up for the bounty of Christmas in 2007! So much so I wanted to share why with you.

On this, the morning after Christmas day, I was blessed with a very quiet house. After making myself some coffee, I sat to write my morning pages, those free-form stream-of-consciousness pages that author and writing coach Julia Cameron has recommended we practice, and I found myself creating a list. On my list were all the things I had hoped to get done for this Christmas but didn’t; grand plans that fell by the wayside to other priorities, distractions, and bouts of laziness. We had a wonderful Christmas Day, however Christmas is the kind of holiday where I’m always left knowing I could have done a little better. I always seem to end up remembering what I’d forgotten to do when the clock has no more minutes to give me. My list includes a lot of little things, things that probably don’t matter to anyone else but me, but my opinion counts for something too; it counts for a dissatisfaction with self that drives me nuts.

This year, my resolve loomed larger though, and those morning pages morphed into an entry for my Outlook calendar on Saturday, October 20, 2007.

The appointment: Start the Christmas Countdown

In the ‘Location’ field I wrote: Open me up, Read well, and Take Action to begin!

In the Notes field I wrote myself a letter. It begins with, “Dear Rosa,” and it ends with, “From the person intent on being a better you, your genius, Rosa”

Behind the Scenes: Collaboration on 12 Days

Objective: do something with the twelve days of Christmas for JJLN

Inspirations: Rosa's first challenge, Toni chimed in, Blaine goes with the flow, Steve adds his two cents, Terry makes a good suggestion, Rosa comes back, Steve finishes it

Rosa's challenge

Another idea/ day marker:

How about a joint posting from all of us on a Christmas Day message for
the blog on 12/25? Something short and sweet? Thoughts?

Since there are 12 of us, we could do something on the 12 Days of
Christmas spin?
Rosa

Toni chimes in

I am not much of a singer, but would it go something like this?

<insert 12 days of x-mas music> On the 1st day of learning, my teacher
said to me "Go and log into JJLN"

On the 2nd day of learning, my teacher said to me

Hehehehe,  wow still pre-coffee, but I like the idea of the 12 days of
Christmas.  Can it be a list of "If I could give a gift of learning to
my special someone, I would give...." Mine would probably be fearless
curiousity, or a great mentor.

Again, just thoughts off the top of my head.
:)
Toni

Twelve Days of Christmas, the Joyful Jubilant Learning way

With all the warmth and spirit that this holiday can bring, the group would like to share this version of the Twelve Days of Christmas with you. May you sing with us now, and join us for a future collaborative effort.

On the first day of Christmas,
my teacher sent to me
A joyful network for learning.

On the second day of Christmas,
my teacher sent to me
Two thoughts inspiring,
And a joyful network for learning.

On the third day of Christmas,
my teacher sent to me
Three blogging tools,
Two thoughts inspiring,
And a joyful network for learning.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my teacher sent to me
Four annual forums,
Three blogging tools,
Two thoughts inspiring,
And a joyful network for learning.

What more can we learn about Christmas?

Quite a bit!

How about this for your Christmas Eve Trivia:

Exactly when do those Twelve Days of Christmas begin and end?

Was there any significance to those twelve gifts which were chosen, or did they just make for some nice rhyming in the song?

Dennis Bratcher offers some answers here; compare your own to his, and see what more you’ve learned today!

What I Learned From Blogging This Year

Ben Yoskowitz at Instigator Blog has come up with a great blogging project, by posing the question "What Did You Learn in 2006?". Since learning is like breathing for me these days, I am more than happy to participate, both on this blog and on my own site, Ramblings From a Glass Half-Full.

Here's what I posted on RFGHF:

The one "Big Thing" I learned this year was the huge personal benefit of blogging itself - by committing to write something down 4 or 5 times a week I accelerated the learning process (by keeping my eyes open a little bit wider) and had a heck of a lot of fun in the process (a "twofer"!).

The 12 "Little Things" are the monthly tidbits of knowledge and realizations that I came to only because of this blog over the past year:

1. January - I learned that Southern Colorado is an undiscovered gem, and that I have at least a little bit of a photographer's eye.
2. February - I learned that renovating a house can easily spin out of control by an attack of the "might as wells".
3. March - I learned that I really like my name on a Starbucks cup (and the customer service that implies).
4. April - I learned that a Blackberry and Half-Fullism really can mix (really!).
5. May - I learned that a company can aspire to be "beautifully artistic" and profitable at the same time.
6. June - I learned that promoting a "collective consciousness" within a company can pay big dividends, especially if the team members are geographically dispersed.
7. July - I learned that a code writing donkey named Basil could help me with my creative writing AND create a virtual chain of new friends (Ben, where is Basil now anyway?).
8. August - I learned the 10 Secrets to My (and Your) Success .
9. September - I learned that Thomas F. Swift, one of the victims of 9/11, was a person I now miss quite a bit even though I never met him.
10. October - I learned that lurking behind and around me for some 42 years was a "soundtrack", illuminating and enlightening my memories and experiences .
11. November - I learned the Midwest was my one of my favorite blogging solar systems, and Des Moines was the epicenter. That day in Iowa was one of the best of my year.
12. December - I learned I have two little gremlins arguing with me in my head, "Harry Half-Full" and "Mopey Murphy", and Harry usually wins (thankfully).

Come to think of it, there were probably 100's of little tidbits throughout the year, but I didn't want to fill up Ben's blog............

To my fellow "JJLers" and all who love to learn, I wish you a Joyful and Learning-filled Holiday Season, and a fantastic New Year!

___________________________________________________________

Terry Starbucker is an operations executive for a service company who lives in Connecticut, loves business trips to the Rocky Mountain west,  and posts his musings and observations about "the optimistic side of the daily grind" in Ramblings from a Glass Half Full.

Learning through Blog Forums

I am a big believer in the bountiful goodness of blog forums. They are palena ‘ole, virtually without limits.

Sidenote; Palena ‘ole (without limits) is an underlying but key concept of the Managing with Aloha philosophy. As a management value, it means to create abundance by honoring your four-fold capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. As a manager, it helps you create an organizational culture of inclusivity, full engagement, and optimal productivity.

If you are the host, blog forums involve a great deal of work, however the benefits and the ending results are so magnificent, any resemblance to ‘chore’ in the compilation of a blog forum pales to nothingness in comparison. In fact, it is one of those things with which the work itself yields its own rewards.

My Talking Story blog has had the honor of hosting several forums, and this blog, Joyful Jubilant Learning, was born as a result of two of them, JJL’05, Learning 64 Ways and Counting, and JJL’06, Learning 120 Ways and Counting. Other forums will go by other names and will present different focus, but in my view, they are ALL about learning:

Blog Forums help us learn by

• Presenting alternate views, and spins on subjects we may not have considered in our normal habits of study. Sometimes I will get a contribution that at first reading makes me wonder, ‘Why in the world did this author think this was related to our subject?’ and then, in reading it again I will get it —I see the connection and receive the beauty of an aha! moment.

• The nature of the blog invites conversation, and in that moment we decide to comment and engage with the article we engage with its author. Instantly, should they decide to respond back, that author becomes our coach in the learning presented to us, for we offer them a positive feedback loop which is timely to their current train of thought.
  

A runaway success occurs when a positive feedback loop reinforces early success. Fast feedback loops teach you what's working and-more important-get you to change what's not.
---Seth Godin in Survival is Not Enough

• The author is but one of a community of readers and other commenters. As the original article gets added to, our learning increases in the most exponential manner! Conversation is in itself a learning catalyst, and again, it is Palena ‘ole, seemingly without limits. Any limit is self-imposed; we decide when we’ll disengage and stop the process.

• When we click into the hosting blog of a contribution, we can learn much more from the context of the article that we’ll find there in other postings. Sometimes the one forum contribution is a single installment in a series; it’s akin to the forum presenting an excerpt or chapter, and then at the blog itself we find the entire book.

• This rich context at the blog will also reveal the author’s ho‘ohana – the ‘blog work’ they do with purpose, with passion, and with full intention. We then learn more about how someone’s mission is demonstrated and lived, and how it gains the potential for legacy-building in the arms of their own reading communities.

• The name of the ‘world wide web’ is indeed a fitting one, for upon arriving at the blog contributor’s home you are very likely to find evidence of the linklove they practice within their extended communities. When you have found a like-minded learning coach in a blogger, you have found new learning library connections you never before knew existed. And wonder of all wonders, your new blogging friend is eager to make any introductions you might want.

• As the forum host, I will gain the additional treasures of much email conversation behind the scenes as the forum is prepared. The relationships I have with my contributors deepen because I learn more about them, and those relationships are priceless gifts.

These are but a few of the learning benefits with come with forums. Afterwards, the rewards grow even more. As the forum links begin to work their magic, contributors say thank you in the most heart-warming ways, and in the most creative ways.

Blogs & Community

Excellent paper available on Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community from Nancy White.  She writes:

In September, the following article of mine was published on the The Knowledge Tree. I decided I'd like to have a copy on my website, so I'm reproducing it here. I've added a little postscript to the end. Plus I learned yesterday that the paper was nominated for an Edublog award. More on that in a separate post.

Just a note to those seeing it as I first put it up, I have some work to do to put the graphics on my site, so it may be funky till I work out the tweaks. The tables about 3/4 of the way down are easier to read in the word/PDF versions. I'll also get a PDF up here as well, but in the short term I'll link to the copies on the Knowledge Tree site!

Click to download the print versions Blogs and Community Word.doc (447 KB) or Blogs and Community PDF(427 KB).

Click to access the recording of the live gathering and conversation in which we furthered this exploration.

A long read but well worth it. You can also listen or download to print and read with good old hardcopy if you choose.

 

Plenty of food for thought and discussion. Thanks, Nancy!

 

Steve Sherlock is your collaboration teammate who believes commencement begins everyday.

 

 

PS - Nancy's blog was featured in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Blogosphere this week.

 

 

 

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