Rapid Fire Learning | July 2007
Put on your kitchen aprons: It is time for Rapid Fire Learning!
If you are new to Joyful Jubilant Learning, this is our monthly drill for all lifelong learners in the community: We post this shout-out asking about the first 5 learnings that come to mind for you, stream-of-consciousness, quick as you can list them --- What have you learned in July?
We do this every month on day 6 before month-end, reason being that you can look over what everyone contributes (either in trackbacks or via the comments), and think of them as newfound suggestions; sort of like a Learning Menu. You can then choose 5 more new things to learn for yourself before the month is over ... one to spice up the coming week on each remaining day of the month.
All of our JJL contributing authors take turn hosting our shout-out (see all past RFL editions here), and I’m up, so here we go!
Sticking with my thought of spicing things up, here are my tasty ones for you ... these are the spices we find are used the most in the Say Kitchen:
1. CHINESE 5-SPICE (Sweet, sour, bitter, savory, and salty)
Yesterday, I encouraged you to start a Bigger Thinker’s List, calling it “What I Want to Learn.” Thanks to his generous comment here, I learned that Adam Kayce of Monk at Work had recently simmered up a similar meme he called What's Your Learning Edge? This one is a true multiplier --- check it out for all the edgy suggestions you can add to YOUR Bigger Thinker’s List!
Adam’s Challenge: If you’re not currently pushing the envelope of your intellectual horizons… or if you’re feeling a staleness in your life that you wouldn’t mind giving the ol’ heave-ho to… then I invite you to pick something that you’ve always been curious about, and dive into it with all the passion of a two-year-old on a playground.
2. GARLIC SALT
(Or maybe popcorn salt ...)
At the beginning of this month, that caramel, peanuts, and popcorn confection we know as Cracker Jack® came to mind for me in the most delightful way. Within my reading of The Starbucks Experience by Dr. Joseph Michelli I was learning about the 5 Principles that the coffee giant uses “for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary.”
The five principles I learned about are;
- Make it your own
- Everything matters
- Surprise and delight
- Embrace resistance
- Leave your mark
“Surprise and delight” turned out to be my favorite one!
3. MUSTARD POWDER (preferably Coleman's)
I am confidently certain that any JJLer will tell you they think books are magic. In July we all experienced quite a phenomenal book feat; 8.3 million copies of a single book release sold within a single day. My personal take-away from that feat, known to us as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was this: We all have magical powers.
The magic is within the written word. We call those magical powers ‘writing.’
Yes, it is something I already knew, however it is also something I keep learning about. I am one of the few who has not yet read any of the Harry Potter sagas, yet I am still grateful for the learning of what Ms. Rowling has caused to happen!
4. GINGER (there are 7 types I know of in Hawai‘i alone... we have four of them in our yard)
On July 07,2007 we learned that what started as a brainstorm of seven different words starting with L could turn into something magic, and we called it the 7 Wonders of Joyful Jubilant Learning.
Wow. Just thinking about it still blows me away.
Listen, Laugh, Learn, Link, Love, Live, and Leap to Wonder
5. INAMONA (A Hawaiian seasoning for raw fish)
Just as there seem to be a whole host of welcoming ways to use inamona in preparing Hawaiian poke (raw fish), this month I learned once again that I only need to turn to our generous Ho‘ohana Community for more learning about our universal values.
This month our forum was all about ho‘okipa, the Hawaiian value of hospitality. Check out these contributions at Talking Story; fifteen articles on hospitality as of this writing, plus eight more that Maria Palma collected in her Customer Service Carnivale!
Okay, YOUR TURN!
Pick your own 5 Spices, and eat up all the bloggy real estate you want to in the comments. Or flash-cook and sear the RFL stream-of-consciousness way: Tell us what you have learned this month as a simple list, no links needed... our looking for them can be part of our learning :-)
The welcome mat leads to your kitchen now ... Let’s cook up a Rapid Fire Learning pot-luck!
1) Distraction vs. Opportunity: I gave up my paid blogging gigs as I sensed my creative energy was being eaten up blogging for others while I was unable to make the kind of progress I expected working on my business. This month has proven my theory and I learned to focus my creativity on Kaizen of my business.
2) Better Questions: I learned the power of not settling for my best by posing, ruminating, and answering bigger and better questions pushed my capacity, capabilities much further than I dreamed.
3) Self-Imposed Limitations: I learned that self-imposed limitations take root in my thought life and to pay closer attention to editing my thoughts.
4) Thinking Inside the Box: I did a training this month titled 'Thinking Inside the Box' and I was pleasantly surprised how receptive the group was and the positive impact it had in helping this team focus on what they already knew and had but were not using. Fascinating stuff.
5) I learned that the people reading my sibishere.com blog and who was actually it was quite different.
51% of my visitors are solo-entrepreneurs.
42% are just starting a business.
41% have been in business more than 5 years.
Pretty cool month for learning.
P.S. I learned what a dynamic and great group of learners we have on JJL when a small group of use got onto the Sirius Satellite Radio channel 114 from 8 AM until 9 AM (Eastern time) on Monday July 16th Benjamin Bach, Phil Gerbyshak, EM Sky and Steve Sherlock, and yours truly were interviewed by host Karen Salmansohn. We are eagerly awaiting the MP3 and will share it when it becomes available!
Posted by:Greg Balanko-Dickson | July 26, 2007 at 07:02 AM
Rosa, I love your 5 spices approach to listing your learnings this month!
Greg, love your Better Questions learning - that's sooo important.
Here's mine (and you'll see why I haven't written much this month):
1. I can cope well with the coldest winter in many years here in Brisbane, as long as the sun is out!
2. Winter holidays at the beach are fantastic, because there is no requirement for bathing suits (for the adults anyway:) and you don't overheat going for long walks on the beach (luckily the sun shone the whole time:)
3. Sometimes you need to step right away from something in order to be inspired and motivated to continue
4. Getting away from it all, even for just a drive in the country for the day, can change our whole perspective on things
5. I also learned not to leave it so long before taking a break in future. I cannot work solidly for 6 months without taking a week or two off to clear my mind and refresh my spirit - my productivity and effectiveness really began to blur before I took some time off.
Posted by:Karen Wallace | July 26, 2007 at 06:05 PM
Outstanding lists Greg, David and Karen, thank you for sharing them with us!
Day 5, 4 to go… I started my day with 5 more! Curry, White Pepper, Paprika, Cinnamon and Chili Flakes …
Just learned of five new concepts [or you can think of them as new phrasings to make us think harder] from Alex Steffen of www.worldchanging.com (do grab their blog feed) via a TED video clip at Adam Kayce’s Monk At Work. An inspiring and hopeful way to spend your next 20 minutes over a cup of coffee. Learn about
1. World Changing
2. Leapfrogging
3. Collaboration and Copyfight
4. Serious Play
5. Beautiful Tools
Here is the link – Mahalo nui loa Adam!
http://monkatwork.com/2007/07/27/gratitude-friday-all-around-the-virtual-world/
Postscript: David has told us about TED before; here's his JJL archive link:
http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/joyful_jubilant_learning/2007/04/ted.html
Posted by:Rosa Say | July 27, 2007 at 08:02 AM
Day 4, 3 to go… here are 5 more! Basil, Tarragon, Rosemary, Nutmeg and Hawaiian Sea Salt …
Reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, and he says these next 5 things about Elimination; I can definitely learn better habits with my productivity and am all for learning to weave them into my day today! [The list of 5 that follows are direct quotes from his book, except for where within these paraphrasing brackets.]
To start, open your mind up with this: "Just a few words on time management: Forget all about it. It is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination."
1. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions. The options are almost limitless for creating "busyness."
2. Being Effective vs. Being Efficient: Effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Efficiency is performing a given task (whether important or not) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient without regard to effectiveness is the default mode of the universe.
3. Two truisms to keep in mind: 1) Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. 2) Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.
4. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.
5. [Pareto's 80/20 Rule can be applied by dissecting your business and personal life through the lenses of two questions:] 1) Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness? 2) Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
Ferriss says that for an entire day, he put aside everything seemingly urgent and did the most intense truth-baring analysis possible, applying those last two questions to everything from his friends to customers and advertising to relaxation activities: "Don't expect to find you're doing everrything right—the truth often hurts."
Gulp! I am glad today is Saturday … Aloha for now; time for me to start!
Posted by:Rosa Say | July 28, 2007 at 07:23 AM
I love the spice idea Rosa. Since we're all going to be cooking, I'll get some music together from the festival and share it soon. Then in each our kitchens, we can dance and cook, no matter the weather, hot or cold, winter or summer!
Posted by:Steve Sherlock | July 30, 2007 at 03:41 PM