Sometimes it’s just plain difficult (tho not impossible) to get stuff done (thanks to angry cats)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Conflict resolution, Humor & comedy
Photo Credit: Tomi Tapio via Compfight cc
Even when the path is clear an angry cat can hang you up.
Even when you’ve got it all together sharp claws can tear you apart.
Even when the goal is in sight & within reach it can seem far away.
Even when you’re doing the right thing, frustration & hurdles can prevail.
But.
With a sense of humour, tenacity, patience (& a video camera to film it all) goals can be & are reached.
Think outside the box. Where are your boundaries?
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
This image, from Mike Rilstone’s facebook page, is a great, visual reminder of the unwitting chains that can bind our thinking. Of the assumptions we can unknowingly make. Of perspectives that can blind instead of illuminate.
What assumptions are you making that are muddying the waters, preventing a clearer picture?
What boundaries are binding your thinking?
P.S. if your first reaction to the image was ‘that’s cheating,’ or ‘that’s not following the rules’ you may be a Stop Life Lens™ which means your gifts include the ability to reflect, think about things & ruminate. On a bad day however you may be hard pressed to try something new on the spur of the moment like your Go Life Lens™ cousins … like putting the 0 outside the box.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: assumptions, creativity, perspective
Knowledge ‘vrs’ Experiene (all wrapped up in 1 picture)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Training & development
Juicy goodness here.
Does knowledge lead the way to connecting the dots?
Could you connect the dots without knowledge?
What does experience look like without knowledge?
Tags: experience, knowledge
Rarely are things so clear cut (or funny) as this pie chart
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Humor & comedy
Perspective is an elusive thing. What’s clear to you, may be fuzzy to me. What’s obvious to me may be a huge mud puddle to you.
Rarely are things so clear as this pie chart.
The view from a Mountain Life Lens™ perspective can be vague, cloudy & confusing for a Carrot Life Lens™. And conversely, the view from a Carrot Life Lens™ can be narrow, restricted & head-in-the-sand.
What’s your share of the pie? What’s your perspective?
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: humour, life lenses
Part three: It’s the 5th Annual To Do, To Done, To’odle Compilation
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Photo Credit: visualpanic via Compfight cc
This is the third post in a series. Missed the first two posts? No worries, see the first one here where I summarize the to do’s & to continue doing’s of contributors and the second one here which goes over the to stop doing & not to do’s. This post continues, this time with things to stop doing & not to do’s.
This is the 5th year where I’ve sought contributors from around the world to see what they’re up to with each. For a quick tour of what each of these mean, see below.
- To do * things I want to start doing, being or having
- To continue doing * these work, so I should continue doing these
- To stop doing * I tried these but they aren’t effective, so I shouldn’t do them anymore.
- To not do * I know I want to stay away from these
- To done * that’s not a typo; these are my accomplishments – I am proud of these. This one is left off most lists I know of and yet it’s critical to take time to reflect on what we’ve done not just on what’s left to do
- To feel * (new this year, inspired by Danielle LaPorte) how I want to feel in the upcoming year.
- To-oodle * what I do when I need/want to avoid following my lists and let my mind wander
Take a read & get inspired. Here we go …
To done * that’s not a typo; these are my accomplishments – I am proud of these. This one is left off most lists I know of and yet it’s critical to take time to reflect on what we’ve done not just on what’s left to do.
Sarah Elamin Ng’inja, one of my fabulous safari adventure friends & Donor Relations Specialist, UNICEF Somalia is a survivor. Her to done is that she ‘got through most of 2013 with everything in tact.’
Marie Mainil & team from the Amani Institute, which works at developing next-generation talent to address social challenges is celebrating ’85 students from 24 countries in 4 programs with fantastic feedback from them, yeah!’
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Caleb Gichuhi, who hails from Sisi ni Amani which, among other things, does incredible work using texting to prevent violence is shaking his pompoms from having been ‘involved in promoting and maintaining peace in Hot Spots during the Kenyan 2013 general elections, Ran 3 major community programs in Kenya that will see communities benefit in various ways from their local government, visited Central and North America and got to interact with different individuals.’
Tricia Hollyer, founder of Brave Leaps is celebrating ‘launching Brave Leaps! It’s been such an amazing experience to hear and share people’s stories of courage and resilience, of opening themselves to the life they truly want. I’m so grateful to be able to do this and be a part of an amazing community.’
Joanna Wedge, an international child protection specialist & one of the coolest people I know says ‘I really nailed regular exercise and am so pleased. I landed on my feet after a bad professional experience and learnt a lot from it.’
Niall O’Connor, the WWF Regional Director for Eastern & Southern Africa, super great dad & a very fun guy to go on safaris with ‘slimmed down, got fit, had fun and made love with life.’
To feel * (new this year, inspired by Danielle LaPorte) how I want to feel in the upcoming year.
Jennifer Mutua, Chair , Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK) & Eastern Africa’s Regional Board Representative for AFREA, says ‘I want to have a more-rounded feeling of accomplishment spiritually,socially as well as in my professional development.’
Sarah wants to feel balanced. Marie wants to feel creative & joyful. Caleb wants to feel love, excitement and thrilling happiness. While Tricia says ‘Mmmm, love this question! Spacious, present, joyful, soft, abundant, open, connected, clear, irresistibly vibrant. In meditation I see myself as a beacon of love and light. Yes please!’ ‘Happy for all I have, and keen to push for more, simple and honest joy’ is how Niall puts it.
Creator, author & all round spectacular human, Danielle LaPorte’s ‘core desired feelings’ are ‘in communion, divine feminine, abundance, creation.’ Do yourself a big favour & check out her book on desire at the link above.
To-oodle * what I do when I need/want to avoid following my lists and let my mind wander.
Jennifer to-oodles by ‘just relaxing,and being good to me.’ Sarah’s recipe is ‘watching a whole bunch of television series: Downton, Scandal, you name it because the list goes on and on.’ ‘Listening to music, gazing out into the clouds’ does it for Marie, while Caleb ‘listens to dub-step music, plays the guitar and plays video games.’
Tricia replies with ‘sit in the sun and watch things grow. Sounds weird I know, but watching the plants in my garden sway in the wind, or the trees and water around me when I’m in the forest, gives my mind the peace and my soul the space to blossom.’
And last but certainly not least Joanna says ‘PLEASE LET ME KNOW! Sigh.’
Feel free to add your own ideas & suggestions (for yourself or Joanna) and/or let me know if you want to be included in next year’s compilation.
Tags: danielle laporte, joanna wedge, niall oconnor, Sarah Elamin Ng'inja, to do, tricia hollyer
The biggest threat to your creativity (a la Danielle LaPorte)
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Creativity & innovation
I love this post from my good friend Danielle LaPorte. So much that I’ve reposted it below. It’s a great example of how your perspective can be refreshed, enhanced & rebooted through knowing & telling your own story.
The biggest threat to your creativity…
… is the fear that it’s already been done, said, created.
(So why bother?)
Say it, do it, make it anyway —
but tell YOUR story along the way.
The story of how you came to know what you know.
The story of what you want to know more of.
The story of why you do what you do.
The story of how you came to care.
And that’s how you create what’s never been created before.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: creativity, danielle laporte, innovation
Part two: It’s the 5th Annual To Do, To Done, To’odle Compilation
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
Even this dog knows what he doesn’t want to do. Do you?
This is the second in a series. Missed the first post? No worries, see it here where I summarize the to do’s & to continue doing’s of contributors. This post continues, this time with things to stop doing & not to do’s.
This is the 5th year where I’ve sought contributors from around the world to see what they’re up to with each. For a quick tour of what each of these mean, see below.
- To do * things I want to start doing, being or having
- To continue doing * these work, so I should continue doing these
- To stop doing * I tried these but they aren’t effective, so I shouldn’t do them anymore.
- To not do * I know I want to stay away from these
- To done * that’s not a typo; these are my accomplishments – I am proud of these. This one is left off most lists I know of and yet it’s critical to take time to reflect on what we’ve done not just on what’s left to do
- To feel * (new this year, inspired by Danielle LaPorte) how I want to feel in the upcoming year.
- To-oodle * what I do when I need/want to avoid following my lists and let my mind wander
Take a read & get inspired.
To stop doing * I tried these but they aren’t effective, so I shouldn’t do them anymore.
Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing – Jennifer Mutua, Chair , Evaluation Society of Kenya (ESK) & Eastern Africa’s Regional Board Representative for AFREA, wants to stop ‘going to bed by 8.00 pm……….I end up waking up late in the night.’
Sarah Elamin Ng’inja, one of my fabulous safari adventure friends & Donor Relations Specialist, UNICEF Somalia wants to stop ‘saying yes to/at work and no to/at home as much as I do.’
‘
Caleb Gichuhi, who hails from Sisi ni Amani which, among other things, does incredible work using texting to prevent violence wants to stop ‘eating junk and listening to pessimists.’
Tricia Hollyer, founder of Brave Leaps, wants to stop ‘trying to make everyone happy and taking it personally when they don’t agree or don’t like what I’m offering.’
Joanna Wedge, an international child protection specialist & one of the coolest people I know wants to stop ‘pretending that I work three 8-hour days; I work in bits and pieces all through the week and that allows me to be more spontaneous and flexible.’
Niall O’Connor, the WWF Regional Director for Eastern & Southern Africa, super great dad & a very fun guy to go on safaris with aims to stop ‘pretending I love things I don’t, and stop denying myself some of my hard earned time and resources!’
To not do * I know I want to stay away from these
- Jennifer Mutua & Caleb Gichuhi both want to stay away from procrastinating
- Sarah Elamin Ng’inja wants to not ‘be so darn apologetic when I can’t manage to do something.’
- Tricia Hollyer wants to avoid ‘eating mindlessly. Ignoring my body’s needs in favour of my mind’s desires.’
Stay tuned for the last summary, the to done’s, to feel & to-oodles.
Tags: joanna wedge, niall oconnor, Sarah Elamin Ng'inja, to do, tricia hollyer
X marks the spot, or does it? Turns out Spanish tongues play a role
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Communication, Diversity & culture
If high school algebra sent you into convulsions, hang on, this story has a happy ending. Terry Moore explains why the letter x means the unknown in math equations, in his TED talk (see below for the video).
If you’ve ever wondered why the letter x stands for what we don’t know, he has a surprising answer. Turns out it has to do with Spanish tongues.
The word algebra comes from the Arabic word al-jebra, which translates to “the system for reconciling disparate parts.” When algebra arrived in Spain there was tons of interest, however Spanish tongues, unaccustomed to certain sounds, intervened. (If your English tongue has ever tried saying airport in French, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)
The letter SHeen in Arabic makes the sound ‘sh’ in English. It’s also the first letter of ‘shalan’ which means ‘something.’ If you ad ‘al’ to it (as in al-shalan) you get ‘the unknown thing.’
Now here’s the kicker. Spanish doesn’t have the sound ‘sh’, so when Medieval Spanish scholars were translating ‘shalan’ they borrowed the Greek ‘ck’ sound. Down the road, when translated into the common language at the time (Latin) they replaced the Greek letter (called Kai) with the Latin ‘x.’
And that’s formed the basis for math equations ever since.
So why does x mean unknown in math equations? Because ‘you can’t say “sh” in Spanish.’
It’s a great example of how even how we move our tongues influences our perspective. X marks the spot & the spots the tongue.
~~TGIF- each Friday I rejig & re-post a blog entry from my www.life-lenses.com blog, which is about enhancing our perspective & worldview.~~
Tags: algebra, greek, latin, spanish, TED, terry moore
Welcome New Year! It’s the 5th Annual To Do, To Done, To’odle Compilation
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Change management & wellness
- Photo Credit: Courtney Dirks via Compfight cc
For the past 4 years I’ve asked some darn fine folk from around the world what’s on their to do, to continue doing, to stop doing, to not do, to done, to feel & to to’odle lists. What’s that you say? Here’s what I mean.
- To do * things I want to start doing, being or having
- To continue doing * these work, so I should continue doing these
- To stop doing * I tried these but they aren’t effective, so I shouldn’t do them anymore.
- To not do * I know I want to stay away from these
- To done * that’s not a typo; these are my accomplishments – I am proud of these. This one is left off most lists I know of and yet it’s critical to take time to reflect on what we’ve done not just on what’s left to do
- To feel * (new this year, inspired by Danielle LaPorte) how I want to feel in the upcoming year.
- To-oodle * what I do when I need/want to avoid following my lists and let my mind wander
Here’s the first in a series of posts of the compiled responses from this, the 5th year. Take a read & get inspired.
To do * things I want to start doing, being or having
Sarah Elamin Ng’inja, one of my fabulous safari adventure friends is also Donor Relations Specialist, UNICEF Somalia. On her to do list is ‘not to sound like a cliche but I want to get that work-life balance right, so that I can continue doing what I do at work while being able to spend more, quality time with my family.’
Marie Mainil & team from the Amani Institute, which works at developing next-generation talent to address social challenges wants to ‘scale our program in Social Innovation Management in numbers of people reached, both in Kenya and now also in Brazil.’ (BTW coolest ‘photo’ ever; when I asked Marie to send me a photo this is what I got. She said it’s a symbol that represents her & her team.)
‘
To start exercising (swimming specifically), I just love being in water and also be more adventurous’ is on Caleb Gichuhi’s list. Caleb hails from Sisi ni Amani which, among other things, does incredible work using texting to prevent violence.
Tricia Hollyer, founder of Brave Leaps, wants to ‘be brave enough to out myself fully in a professional context. Instead of offering what I think other people want, offer what I feel in my bones and my heart. Stop using more safe or professional language and just say what I mean – it’s my purpose to bring more love and light into the world, especially in our workplaces, and I’m going to focus on being a driver of this.’
Joanna Wedge wants to ‘think harder before I speak and then say it more ‘loudly’ to help a child – who is not in my family or friendship circle – fulfill his or her potential.’ Joanna is an international child protection specialist & one of the coolest people I know.
To continue doing * these work, so I should continue doing these
- Sarah wants to continue ‘treating every single person as an equal. Not only because they ARE equal, but because it makes for a great team spirit all round and it enhances motivation.’
- Marie wants to continue ‘working with cutting-edge professionals to share their insights, knowledge and wisdom with our students. Continue striving for highest quality in our training.’
- Caleb’s going to continue ‘playing guitar and travelling to different parts of the world, take big risks/challenges.’
- Tricia is keeping up ‘allowing spacious presence in my life, the feeling of abundance and space. I embrace that there’s enough time to do all that I want to do and still nurture myself with rest, play, and restorative practices. The more space I give myself, the more creative and powerful I am.’
- Joanna will continue ‘doing my three time a week ‘huff and puff’. I trusted that my kids ‘could’ and they did to put my ideas out there and see what flies to higher winds.’
Niall O’Connor, the WWF Regional Director for Eastern & Southern Africa, super great dad & a very fun guy to go on safaris with is going to continue to ‘smile, love life and wife, and protect family.’
Stay tuned for future posts with more folks & the rest of the compilations. Until then, enjoy the start of a fresh year & dream big.
Tags: amani institute, caleb gichuhi, joanna wedge, marie mainil, niall oconnor, Sarah Elamin Ng'inja, sisi ni amani, to do, tricia hollyer
Expect the unexpected. African style.
Posted by Lee-Anne Ragan | Filed under Diversity & culture, Humor & comedy
Photo Credit: CarolineG2011 via Compfight cc
Expect the unexpected. African style.
I’m working on an upcoming e-newsletter – about a Canadian (that’d be me) living abroad.
This video captures what it’s like on more adventurous days.