What's better than being right?

Thought for the day, week, and month.

What's better than being right?

Perhaps it's being good!

Beware of stress

It's a much used and abused term, but if you get stress big time then you'll be in for a shock!  It's very unpleasant mentally and physically, presents a significant risk to your health, and its associated effects may hang around even after the original cause has been removed.

So the moral of that story is: avoid stress at all costs
- life is too short.

People don't understand depression - or stress

Someone's description of their depression.

Stress articles

News article about NICE stress report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8343074.stm

"Bad managers were the single biggest cause of problems, the group claimed."

"But it said simple steps such as giving positive feedback, allowing flexible working and giving extra days off as a reward could cut the impact by a third."

"... NICE urged employers to invest in training for managers..."


And today in the news:

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP51765

"Men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one, than those who let their frustration show, a Swedish study has found."

Present an Entertaining Case

Try presenting your case in an entertaining way :-)

See how that goes.

Your emotions are yours

Don't let your emotions be controlled by the behaviour of others!

Your emotions are your's to master.

Be Open to Collaboration

Having read The Cathedral and the Bazaar article I'm inspired to investigate this opportunity of open collaboration further...

What matters now?

Sometimes - perhaps too often - we dedicate lots of energy and concern to incidents in our lives that don't really matter.

Ask is the thing you're currently worried about now something that will be of concern tomorrow, next week, next month...?  If not then is there any point worrying about it now?

Don't worry, be happy.

Strength for Change, Patience, and Wisdom

A friend sent me this great quote:

"Please give me the strength to change those things that can be changed, the patience to withstand those that cannot be changed, and the wisdom to tell the difference"

Artistic educational tools required

Designers of educational tools must be artistic in their creation of brain-friendly environments. Instructors need to realize that the best way to learn is not through lecture, but by participation in realistic environments that let learners try new things safely.

Funderstanding: Brain based learning

A Solution? - You're having a Laugh!

The best problem solvers are those that laugh!

Funderstanding: Brain based learning

Fitness: time to improve

Not feeling fit and healthy this morning.
Need to schedule a fitness regime. Perhaps I can use a simple approach, searching...
Simple Quality Model: I can use this to improve my fitness.

You can never be sure!

Is the following statement true?

• In all aspects of life, you can never be sure of anything.

Example:
Traditional physics wisdom might suggest that light cannot be contained within a dimension smaller than half its wavelength. Yet a new technology [spaser: surface plasmon laser] demonstrates that this can be done.

Research Opportunities

• Simple quality model
• Planning tool
• Research support tool
• Tools for understanding
• Creative and inventive tools

Smile and be Happy :-)

Smiling and recalling something pleasant from the previous day helps to make you happier, according to a new experiment.

Volunteers who were asked to recall a pleasant event from the previous day were given an immediate 15 per cent boost in happiness.

Other techniques that helped to increase happiness included

• expressing gratitude,
  
• smiling and
  
• carrying out an act of kindness.

White Rabbits: June

The first day of June - looks like more nice weather today.

Excellence Award

Ah some recognition in the job, which is nice.

Bloody Alarm Clock

Rolled over to look at the alerm clock to find I should have been out of bed one hour ago! Blast. Start the day with a panic.

Project Scope: End Point

Project briefs may be poorly specified. So to get clarification and prevent unexpected extensions to a project half way through a project [!]:

Ask: what the project end point is - what is the criteria that indicates when the project has been completed.

Shopping Stress

Yesterday, a guy at the checkout yesterday said to the "assistant": is it just me, or is shopping stressful? I agree: even when you are buying yourself something new and exciting.

So how do we remove the stress and chill?

Wisdom

Wisdom is an ideal that has been celebrated since antiquity as the knowledge needed to live a good life.

Good Start

All being pleasant and good.

Spin Culture

There's a growing culture amongst politicians and managers to provide plenty of spin. Using this newly acquired skill they can portray a disaster as a glorious event that smells of roses - it's like having the orchestra playing on the deck of the Titanic. Is this why UK plc and UK public sector encounters so many problems?

We have the opportunity to spin and the opportunity to tell the truth, but which is better?

Relaxed and Focused

There is an E-learning - Skills Matrix that identifies the following 21st century skill: relaxed and focused. Its list includes, amongst others, the following aspects:

1. Allocate time for tasks.
2. Prioritise.
3. Focused work tasks.
4. Reduce information overload issues.
5. Research techniques for relaxation and being focused.
6. Daily log to learn and reflect.

People suffer from stress for various reasons, and the above skill would certainly be welcomed by many. Note that points 1 to 4 are often aspects relevant to work-based stress. Such stress may be induced by: the recipient not having appropriate coping skills; a lack of managerial skills; or both.

An Opportunity to Reflect

Reflection, it is said, is a part of the learning process.

We tend to reflect less on the positive achievements and more on our failures.

It is known that "we learn from our mistakes". In particular, emotional and traumatic mistakes are etched into our neural networks. I guess the argument goes along the lines that evolution gave us this advantage to help us not repeat disastrous mistakes.

From a happy and positive minded perspective: focus on positive achievements too.