Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.

This quote was sent to me by a friend (thanks, John!) and I loved it so much, I want to share it with all of you.

What are you discussing?

TED Talk Tuesday: Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work

I don't know about you, but I've had a long-standing struggle with work-life balance since my very first job.  I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person, and this generally leads to me either working like a crazy person at the expense of my health, my sleep, my relationships and my mental well-being; or completely burning out and completely mentally disengaging with work and frantically trying to catch up with all the things I've neglected.

Which is why I was so drawn to this TED Talk.

Nigel Marsh, the author of Fat, Forty, and Fired and Overworked and Underlaid, was the epitome of the corporate warrior.  He worked too much, ate like crap, drank too much, and didn't spend nearly as much time as he should with his family (sound at all familiar?).  He had a life-changing moment that prompted him to take a year off of work.  During this year and after he returned to the workforce, he studied the paradox of work-life balance.

In his funny TED Talk, he offers realistic suggestions on how to try to genuinely achieve work-life balance.

Some awesome quotes from his talk:

“There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”

“All the discussions about flexi-time or dress-down Fridays or paternity leave only serve to mask the core issue, which is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family.”

Motivation Monday: Be Great, Be Powerful Beyond Measure

I absolutely love today's Motivation Monday video.  It's four minutes packed with some of my absolute favorite motivational clips and quotes.  It includes video from Rocky, Snatch and Coach Carter.  If you are in need of a boost today, I double-dog dare you to watch the short video.  I guarantee you will be motivated!

Photo Friday: Cotton Candy Tree

Photograph courtesy Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development, featured in National Geographic

In 2010, heavy monsoon rains dumped almost ten years worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week.  It is estimated that one-fifth of Pakistan was under water, 20 million people were affected and the total damages cost around $43 billion.

An intriguing effect of the floods was that the spiders and other insects crawled into the trees to escape the rising water.  Because the waters took so long to recede, many of the trees became cocooned in cotton candy shrouds of spiderwebs.  

The Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life

Holy Holiness!  The Dalai Lama is coming to Hawaii in April and I was lucky enough to score tickets!  For those of you also in Hawaii, here is the link to where you can get tickets.

In honor of His Holiness, here are the Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   • Respect for self
   • Respect for others and
   • Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Make it Happen or Make an Excuse

So the question is, what is really important to you?

TED Talk Tuesday: The Happy Secret to Better Work

Today's TED Talk was recommended to me by not one, but two people (thanks Steph and Dr. Phil!).  Shawn Achor studies and teaches Positive Psychology, and is the CEO of Good Think, Inc.  In his funny and fast-paced talk, he argues that being positive can make us more productive.

Some pearls from his talk:

• "If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average."
• Only 10% of our long-term happiness is predicted by our external world.
• 90% of our long-term happiness is how our brain processes the world.
• If we change the formula for happiness and success, we can change the way we affect reality.
• 25% of job successes are determined by IQ.
• 75% of job successes are determined by optimism levels, social support and the ability to see stress as a challenge instead of a threat.
• Your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does in negative, neutral or stressed.
• Every business outcome improves when your brain is in positive.

Here's his talk.  Enjoy!