A new talk sketched daily, by fan Stefani Bachetti

Fanfare

TEDSketchNotes.Tumblr.com gives you Cliffs Notes to talks from speakers like Del Harvey, Ken Robinson, Andras Forgacs and Ed Yong, in sketchbook form. The passion project of Chicago-area designer Stefani Bachetti, what sets this Tumblr apart from other sketchnote spins on talks (see them from TEDGlobal 2011, TED2012, TED2013 and TED2014) is that a new image gets posted every weekday, more or less.

“I’ve been doing sketchnotes professionally on the side for a while, and teach the occasional workshop on it,” says Bachetti. “I’m always telling people interested in getting better to go watch a bunch of TED Talks to practice. I figured if I’m always telling people to go do it, maybe I should lead by example.”

Bachetti takes notes as she watches a talk, then spends an additional 10 to 15 minutes filling in color and shading. From there, she posts the image to Tumblr. “I’ve been trying to make sure there’s a blend of ‘classics’ and newer releases,” she says of her talk selections. “I do notice myself gravitating to videos with higher view counts. But certain topics just seem to lend themselves to being visualized.” 

While she’s posted many sketches so far, Bachetti can easily pick her favorite.

“It’s probably Mary Roach’s talk, ‘10 things you didn’t know about orgasm.’ I have read several of her books and think she’s hysterical. The mood of the sketch reflects both the dynamic nature of her talk, as well as my affinity for her in general,” says Bachetti. “I’m really excited by how the series is evolving. I started out being very structured with the layouts, but am starting to experiment more with each sketch. I’m seeing how to more clearly define the flow of each talk without losing playfulness.”

See a few of her sketchnotes below. And check out many more on TEDSketchNotes.Tumblr.com »

Are you a TED fan who remixes talks on paper, in music or on video? Write kate (at) ted (dot) com to have your work featured on the TED Blog. 

View the original article here

Avoid Life Dramas With These Tips

Anytime I see any version of “no drama” on someone’s social media profile, I automatically assume they’re full of drama. You create your own drama in life, so, if you’re sick of life dramas, you’re doing it to yourself. Stop hitting yourself and take 10 steps toward a drama-free life.

I’m sure you know the exact way to fix everyone’s problems. You could single-handedly solve world hunger, bridge the income gap, and enact world peace. The reality is you have no idea what you’re talking about, and even if you do, nobody’s interested unless they’re directly asking you. Keep your advice to yourself, and you’ll avoid a lot of unnecessary drama.

People have a tendency to over-commit themselves. When you have too many commitments, you can’t focus everything you should on all of them. Things fall by the wayside, and you become a flake, no matter how hard you try. If you keep falling short of peoples’ expectations, they’ll all end up “against” you, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by drama.

It’s ok to socialize with people, but keep your nose out of other people’s business. If the treatment of whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning have taught us anything, it’s people get overly dramatic when their secrets are leaked. Avoid the drama by minding your own business.

Lies are annoying – they fill your mind with all this extra gibberish. When you lie to people, you create your own unnecessary drama that could’ve easily been avoided. It’s a conscious choice you’re making to lie, and the lies will unravel sooner or later. Avoid the drama of covering the truth and the drama when it’s revealed you lied by speaking honestly.

If you’re focused on getting ahead in your goals, you won’t even notice the drama. You’ll be so zoned in on your own future all the side-drama just fades into the background. It becomes as important to you as the suffering of all those starving children in Africa and abused pets Sarah McLachlan sings about.

People will ask you a lot of questions. If you’re asked if you know something, deny it. Don’t try to say it in a way they know you know but can’t say so you feel important or special – just deny it. Don’t get involved. It’s that simple. And if someone you don’t want to talk to texts you with drama, don’t respond. They’ll get bored with it sooner or later.

I’m no gossip, but I heard Sandy tell John she overheard Bill and Katie talking about how Frank is. Gossip is a two-way street. It’s all well and good to tell everyone about how someone else gossips, but that makes you a gossip. The listener is a gossip, too. You don’t get to project your downfalls on others to absolve yourself from responsibility.

When you smile, you become the center of the room. You end up in the driver’s seat. If people come to you with drama, you can steer the conversation elsewhere. They’ll follow you because you seem more confident. If they don’t, you can confidently ignore them and walk away. No more drama.

A lot of so-called “drama” in life is really due to the way you’re reacting. People have problems, and sometimes they need to vent. Everyone vents, and you can be compassionate to all of them. It’s possible to listen to peoples’ problems as a courtesy. You don’t have to truly listen if you don’t want to, but at the very least give the impression that you are. It’s a temporary situation, and, if it’s that uncomfortable to you, you can avoid it the next time.

Life will always have drama – it’s unavoidable. Instead of letting it get to you, meditate. You’ll never find that fairy tale “happily ever after” life where everything is easy. The richest and poorest, youngest and oldest, biggest and smallest of us, have problems. The grass on both sides of the fence needs constant watering, weeding and mowing.

Suck it up…

Featured photo credit: clipart via clipartbest.com

Love this article? Share it with your friends on Facebook

Brian Penny is a former business analyst at Countrywide and Bank of America under EVP Steve Ramsthel. In 2011, penny turned whistleblower, troll, Anonymous supporter, consultant, yogi, and freelance writer. He's a frequent contributor to Main Street, Huffington Post, and HardcoreDroid and an affiliate of Manduka and Amazon.

View the original article here

Six Steps To Help You Conquer Stage Fright

Ever feel you’re not ready for the spotlight? Master your fears using these six steps to knock your performance outta the park! Stage fright (also known as performance anxiety) is not so difficult to overcome if you follow a few easy steps. These will work for any type of public speaking, from the board meeting presentation to Broadway. Follow the first three steps to get yourself ready, and the next three for the big night itself.

Do everything you can to prepare for your moment to shine. Memorize, rehearse, practice your presentation in front of your trusted friends: there’ll be less performance anxiety that way. If it’s a singing engagement, try practicing your song at a busy Karaoke bar. You’ll get all the crowd, without all of the pressure.

To overcome your stage fright, be sure to come up with performance goals for yourself. If you know you tend to sing louder at the end of your set, try singing louder at the start. If you want to slow down the pace of your presentation, then use a stopwatch while you practice. Performance goals can give you something to hone in on during rehearsal, and you can focus on your goals in your actual performance.

Have everything together when you practice, all of the materials you might need, notes, microphone, stool, musical instruments, and of course, bottled water. (You’ve got to stay hydrated!) And dress up when you rehearse! Nothing prepares you for the real deal like looking the part.

In order to ease your mind in preparing for public speaking, find effective ways to calm yourself. A lot can be said about taking time to relax. Honestly, even a worst-case-scenario of your performance wouldn’t involve a literal train wreck. Take it easy. Meditate. If you believe in a god, pray to her or him. Or just ask the muses to keep you inspired. Do anything you can to calm yourself down both offstage and just before you go onstage.

I’ve heard it said before if you picture an audience naked it can help you to perform. Now I can see how that might help you feel more confident, but it might also make you uncomfortable or give you the giggles. Here are a number of ways you can perceive the audience that will definitely help you to perform.

This is a biggie. This is probably the number one reason you experience stage fright. If you are afraid of a big audience, there are a number of things you can do. First, try to think of the whole audience as a unit. Or try to pick out a single member of the audience and deliver a good deal of your speech to that person. If there’s only one, it might be easier for you to perform to him or her.

Second, picture the whole audience is made up of only your friends and family. By thinking of people who love you and want the best for you, it will make the whole experience easier to swallow. Also, if you are performing for a low-lit room of people – use the darkness to your advantage! No need for eye contact.

A friend of mine had a very different suggestion: “If you have to perform for a large audience, picture them as a bunch of cattle. At any event, there will be people who don’t even want to be there: some preoccupied with themselves, others on their phones. You don’t have to perform for them. And you can’t please everyone, so don’t worry about stage fright.” By depersonalizing the audience, you can compartmentalize them. If your performance isn’t such an extravaganza, it may be easier for you to overcome your performance anxiety. Remember to do these next few steps as you perform.

Right before the show starts, you may be nervous, but remember you have all the control. You can get ready for it and ultimately, the pacing is up to you. And you can do the entire show just for yourself if you want to. Maybe the audience isn’t even there. (In that case, no need to have stage fright at all.)

You can pray again, or meditate before everything starts. Some actors sit in their trailers and do acting exercises before they begin. All of your preparedness will kick in again here. Be sure to have all of your materials at hand again: your costumes, your instruments, your water. These can be your last minute comforts before you grace the stage with your presence. Remember the scout motto: Be prepared.

Once the show starts, you have to go through with it. This might not sound comforting at first, but it’s as helpful as it is true. You will have less and less stage fright as the show goes on, because you know it’s coming to a close. Therefore, once it’s underway you’ve only got to wait it out. So embrace it — Dive right in!

Also, a mistake is only a bad thing if you make it that way. Many performers practice a technique called “railroading.” When you make a mistake, don’t draw any attention to it. An acting teacher once told me: “The audience is pretty clueless. They’re not going to notice your mistakes unless you make them a big deal. You will notice your mistakes because you have the script memorized and you’ve rehearsed it perfectly a hundred times. But they don’t know your lines. And they won’t see you walked the wrong way, instead of the way you rehearsed it. So, if you make a mistake, just keep on going.”

As the show goes on, keep focused on the performance goals you practiced. And remember to tell the story: if you get caught up in the story, you might forget you were nervous in the first place!

Sure, it’s easier said than done. Why not distract yourself a little in the hours before you go onstage? Or, you can just focus on the work. You only have to perform exactly what you rehearse. You only have to do what you’ve done before. It’s not brain surgery.

Sometimes all you have to do is give it a try to gain confidence. You could try pretending you aren’t really nervous. Sometimes the act of pretending can have a placebo effect on you — and suddenly you’re no longer nervous at all. Maybe you could imagine you are an alien with a secret message for all of humankind. Hey, it worked for Ziggy Stardust…

Even the greatest public speakers still experience stage fright, but they’ve been able to minimize it using techniques just like these. Just remember the more shows you do, the simpler it gets. You will gain confidence as you go, and you will have memories to draw upon, reminding you performance anxiety really is no big deal. Let experience be your performance teacher, and it will get easier and easier.

Featured photo credit: Public_speaking/ProjectManhattan via upload.wikimedia.org

Love this article? Share it with your friends on Facebook

Christopher Schoonover searches for the chocolatey-sublime innards of reality. There, he believes he will find some profound truth that he can share with others in the form of a short story or a poem. In the past, he wrote a free novel called Don't Read. Nowadays, he is working on an LA creative nonfiction piece with his co-writer, Melissa Sweat. After moving out of the big city hustle, he now embraces the peaceful desert life of Joshua Tree, California.

View the original article here

Confidence in Your Business

The urgent desire for a successful business, and the fear of losing business, drives many a good person to do sleazy things.

I’m not talking about casino owners or pimps or politicians or corporations. I’m talking about good small business owners who become marketers.

Let’s say you have a blog, and you write good stuff, and people like it. Now what? How do you build that into a business?

Maybe you see people who’ve made millions online: How did they do it? Internet marketing. They built mailing lists, then manipulated those lists through emotional tactics, social proof, creating false urgency, building funnels, warming up the lists, making the potential customers think they need this or they’ll fail.

You see this success and all of a sudden you want it. You don’t know how to build a business, but this guy did it and he is successful. So you buy his course, and follow his advice.

All of a sudden, your excellent blog is pushing me to join a mailing list to get a free report. There’s a popup trying to get me to enter my email address. If I do, I start to get all kinds of emails I don’t want, trying to push me into a funnel. You post a thousand things to social media trying to get me interested in your sale.

You start to create an image you think I want, so I’ll buy what you’re selling. You’re now a marketer, a manipulator, untrustworthy.

I hit Unsubscribe.

What if, instead, you had confidence in your business? You created something of value and believed it would help people? You made its value and how much it helps people your metrics.

You’d do none of those things. All you’d do is create great things, and people would spread the word for you. You’d opt for simplicity and trustworthiness.

You build confidence by putting everything you have into what you’re building. By listening to people and seeing whether what you’re doing is helping, resonating. Adjusting if needed. Those who don’t come to you … you let go. What you’re building isn’t for everyone.

The fear of losing business will always be there to some extent, but don’t be driven by it.

View the original article here

7 Ways To Sneak In Exercises When You Don’t Really Have Time

We all know exercise is important. It keeps us healthy and in shape. But it’s also a big time commitment to keep up a steady exercise routine. It can also be hard to make yourself work out if you’re really not in the mood. Luckily, there are tons of ways we can stay fit and burn calories without having to schedule a long gym session. At home, at work, watching television, these exercises can be done without taking up a big chunk of our time or our energy. Here are our top seven ways to sneak exercise in to your day:

Stairs are a great calorie-burner, and they also tone your legs and bum. Next time you’re facing the elevator-or-stairs dilemma, take the stairs. Walking up them will do the trick, but try going up at a job to increase your heart rate and burn a few extra calories. Next time you’re faced with an escalator ride, consider walking up instead of standing still on one step.

Picking a parking spot near the back of the lot forces you to get out and walk to your destination. It’s a little change, but over time it can make a big difference. Consider doing this at the supermarket or mall. That way, you’ll have to walk in from farther away, but you’ll also have to walk out with heavy bags. It’s a small step towards sneaking in some exercise.

These large inflatable balls are great alternatives to traditional office chairs. Sitting on an exercise ball all day works your core because you’re constantly trying to balance — but you don’t even notice! The movements are so slight that you’ll feel perfectly secure and comfortable on the exercise ball, but your abdominal muscles will be working to keep you stable. If you’re feeling particularly energetic, this is also a good way to get in some crunches at the office. Lay with the middle of your back on the exercise ball and your feet planted firmly on the ground. Crunch up and lower yourself down slowly and in a controlled motion.

Tapping or moving one of your legs is a good way to burn a few extra calories throughout the day without putting in a lot of effort. Try to switch legs from time to time to give one a rest. You can also cross your legs and jiggle one foot for less movement with the same result. Just make sure you’re not doing it in a meeting to avoid seeming nervous or anxious.

Sitting down all day can get pretty old pretty fast. Stand up occasionally and balance on one leg, and then the other. It’ll get your blood flowing and help you strengthen your core muscles. Try to increase the time you are able to balance on one leg each time you do it.

Many people enjoy hobbies that are active, such as biking, hiking or kayaking. Find an outdoor activity that you enjoy. If you’re really having fun, you won’t even notice that you’re getting in a serious workout in the process. These activities are also great ways to meet new people and make friends. See if there are any groups or clubs in your area that you can join.

If you are standing somewhere for an extended period of time, like when washing the dishes, try slowly raising and lowering yourself on your tiptoes. It works your calves and is easy to do pretty much anywhere.

Featured photo credit: Jaymie Koroluk via flickr.com

Love this article? Share it with your friends on Facebook

Maggie is a journalism student/writer-from-home. She currently writes for Table Matters, Lifehack, and The Triangle. Her interests include reading, decorating cakes, and, depending on her mood, running. Check out her portfolio at maggieheath.com.

View the original article here

Research Digest #3: Getting to grips with implicit bias

My third and final post at the BPS Research Digest is now up: Getting to grips with implicit bias. Here’s the intro:

Implicit attitudes are one of the hottest topics in social psychology. Now a massive new study directly compares methods for changing them. The results are both good and bad for those who believe that some part of prejudice is our automatic, uncontrollable, reactions to different social groups.

All three studies I covered (#1, #2, #3) use large behavioural datasets, something I’m particularly keen on in my own work.

Link:  Getting to grips with implicit bias

View the original article here

How To Live a Life That Is Uniquely Yours

The biggest mistake people make in life is that they pursue dreams and goals without taking the time to discover what they are truly passionate about, and then allowing their dreams to unfold naturally as an expression of their passion and who they really are.

If you are doing something under the impression that you will be happy once you achieve this or that, or that you’ll love your job when you get that promotion, but not right now, then you are mistaken. Your happiness and your wealth (in the truest sense of the term) is determined by how you feel now, not by how you will feel when you achieve your goals.

When you make your happiness reliant on a potential future, all that you are doing is creating barriers in this moment from you being happy, being at peace, and thus being as effective and productive as you can be while working towards your goals.

If you are not in love with what you are doing, how can you reasonably assume that somehow you will fall in love with what you are doing later, much less be fulfilled by it?

The only way to a life of passion, happiness, and purpose that is uniquely your own and expression of who you really are, is to go from the inside out.

1. Follow Your Heart. There are people who say that it is a lie to tell people that they can achieve anything they set their minds on.

I agree.

But what is not a lie is that you can achieve anything that you set your mind and your heart on. When you can wholeheartedly do something, you do it with passion and enthusiasm. Moreover, whatever your heart is guiding you to do is the truth of who you are, and what you need to be doing.

To follow your heart, just start doing what you love to do. It doesn’t matter what it is, the more you try things and search within yourself for what you really love, eventually you will find it. Don’t just start picking new career options because you think that they are what you want, or because they appear to provide the lifestyle you want.

Live the life that you want now by doing more of what you love. Cultivate love by doing the things that you really love to do and you will be following your heart. Eventually that passion that you feel for what you are doing will find a way all by itself to create the life that you wanted to live all along.
If you are thinking about your family and your children and that you must provide for them, remember that they will respect a parent more who is filled with love and enthusiasm because they have the courage to do what they love every day, than a parent who provides all the financial means in the world but who is devoid of that love and passion which makes us human.

It is a preconception that you can’t earn a living doing what you love. And, it’s not true. There is always a way so don’t let your mind defeat you and distract you from following your passion. That doubt is the one thing that is keeping you from experiencing the true abundance, security, and freedom that comes from doing what you really love to do.

“Don’t need tools I’ve got my heart.” – Jack Johnson

2. Follow Your Curiosity. While following your heart gives you direction towards your passion and purpose in life, following your curiosity provides the foundation of knowledge for you to make your dreams reality.

By choosing to follow our heart and our curiosity we are deliberately choosing to leave behind our limiting beliefs and ideas of ourselves, and step into unlimited potential. We are choosing consciously to change our level of awareness by literally choosing a whole new way of being. Our curiosity is a manifestation of a deeper aspect of ourselves that is trying to surface, which includes with it the talents, abilities, potential and passion you never knew you had.

Follow your curiosity fluidly and you will expand your mind and you will grow exactly in the way that you need to be growing, and you will learn all that you need to learn because you will be tapping into a greater, unfathomable aspect of yourself and creation which will guide you perfectly to where you need to go. As Steve Jobs said in his Stanford commencement address:
“Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”

3. Never stop learning. If you followed the first two steps, then not only will you be absolutely fascinated by what you are doing with your life and what you are learning, but you will also love it immensely and be irrationally passionate and enthusiastic about it.

Fascination, curiosity, enthusiasm, passion: these are all essential qualities for success.

If you followed the first two steps then it will be easy to never stop learning because you will be exhilarated by what you are doing! What more could we ask for as human beings than to be filled with curiosity and fascination every day while doing what we love? The more you learn the more you grow, and the more that you learn in alignment with your dreams, the more powerful you become at what you do.

“Power rests on the kind of knowledge that one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our unavoidable encounter with the unknown.” – Don Juan

4. Simplify, simplify, simplify. The less time you spend doing things you don’t want to do, the more time you have to spend doing what you love to do.
Sometimes I think that this is the key to life.

Most people spend their time thinking thoughts that don’t make them happy and which don’t produce uncontrollable feelings of love, or they do things they don’t like to do out of some form of obligation, or work at job they don’t like to make ends meet, and so on.

What we really need is time. There is more than enough time in the day for all our passions and dreams and family time to co-exist perfectly but we waste it doing things we don’t love to do!

If you really want to change your life, take the risk and start cutting out all those things you do that you know don’t make you happy, but which you think you have to be doing. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. And when you stop doing those things, you’re free.

Simplify not only how you think, and what you do, but also simplify your purpose and your dream. The more focused your dream becomes, the more definite it becomes. Instead of reading 3 books at a time on your subject, read one book wholeheartedly. Put some of your other passions aside for a while and focus on the one that fills you with energy and enthusiasm. See if you don’t actually enjoy it a little more when you don’t have to stress about fitting all those other things into your day.

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” – Bruce Lee

5. Be persistent. In many ways life is a lot like meditation. Perhaps that is why meditation is the key to life, and the key to unlocking your potential. In meditation, it doesn’t matter how many times you are distracted by your thoughts and become involved in them, what counts is how many times you bring yourself back to the silence between your thoughts.

If you can persistently bring yourself back when you get distracted, you will make progress until eventually your thoughts only crop up occasionally, or not at all. It is inevitable with practice. Just like the realization of your dreams will be with persistence. It doesn’t matter how many times you appear to fail, or how many times you lose focus. Everyone makes mistakes. It is part of life, and it is part of learning.

If you are doing what you love every day, if you are always learning, and if you are always following your curiosity, then you will always be growing and it will be nearly impossible to feel like you have failed … ever.

Failure can only exist when we have not learned from our mistakes. Yet as soon as you do learn from mistakes, with the gift of hindsight you will discover for yourself that your whole life was somehow orchestrated perfectly to get you to where you are now.

Be persistent in doing what you love and following your dreams and never will you regret a moment of your life, and if you can stick with them when things get difficult, as they always do, or when doubt creeps in, if you can stay steadfast in the course you have set for yourself you will meet with success.

Michael Jordan hit the most game-winning shots for his team in the whole history if the NBA, but what most people don’t know is that he also missed more game-winning shots than anyone else in the history of the NBA. In the words of Josh Waitzkin, “What made him the greatest was not perfection, but a willingness to put himself on the line as a way of life.”

Put yourself on the line, and see for yourself what you can become when you learn to deal with failure, but stay persistent in your commitment to you dreams, and maintain integrity in your expression of who you really are.

7. Meditate. I was going to put the last step as believing in yourself, but I chose not to because when it comes down to it, meditation is more important.

Don’t get me wrong, believing in yourself is absolutely essential. But the best way to believe in yourself is to experience your infinite potential, your power, your creativity, and your life purpose directly. And that is where meditation comes in.

When you learn how to get into the gap between your thoughts, something truly amazing happens. You feel the boundaries of who you thought you were begin to dissolve and fall away, and you experience yourself as something truly pure … and powerful.

Pure energy, consciousness, spirit, love, power, potential, whatever you want to call it, for it makes no difference. The point is that when you start to enter that awareness, that space between your thoughts more frequently, you start to center yourself in a place where nothing can ever go wrong and where you realize that you are perfect and complete in every way.

If you want to experience your true power directly, then meditate. Not only will you experience what you are capable of as you learn to identify with the infinite potential of the space between your thoughts instead of your thoughts themselves, but you will also discover who you are and thus become more attuned to what you love doing, what you’re curious about, and so on.

Then not only will you know that you are magnificent, but you will be able to experience that magnificence any time you want to, and channel it into all that you do.

Conclusion
Follow these steps, embody them, become them, and happiness will be your way, and you will be able to achieve anything and get exactly what you want in life, because you will become exactly what you always wanted to be.

.

Brandon West is the creator of Project Global Awakening. A website dedicated to the research of a variety of scientific and spiritual disciplines, and applying that knowledge to help you live an inspi

View the original article here