If you are going to be in Bristol this summer, there will be some wonderful sights.
Two of the regular favourites will be the Harbour Festival and the Balloon Fiesta in July and August.
However, following on from the Gorillas, we have new visitors in the city this year. Click on the image below to find out more. Then book your tickets to Bristol…
There is a brilliant book called The Chimp Paradox, written by Dr Steve Peters. I strongly recommend you buy it and read it.
He helps many people, including members of Team GB, to fulfill their potential.
This won’t be my last post based around his mind management system as I think it deserves more, but I will start here…
Imagine you are 100 years old, on your deathbed and you have one minute to live. Your great-great-grandchild asks you the following question -
‘What should I do with my life?’
Don’t take too long (you only have one minute left) and give your honest, first answer.
Now click on the image to watch a short trailer video for the book.
As you may well have guessed, the advice you gave your great-great-grandchild is really advice for yourself. This is what you believe is important. so are you taking steps to achieve it?
As regular readers will know I am a big fan of Sir Ken Robinson and his views on education. I share his opinion that much of what happens harks back the Victorian era, the need to produce a large-scale workforce with skills specific to those times and in keeping with the resources available in that period of history.
When I found out he had spoken again recently at TED, I was keen to hear what he had to say. I was not disappointed…
Please click on the image below to listen to his presentation. There are no comprehension questions – just listen and think about what he has to say.
Following on from the musical theme of yesterday’s post, we have the Eurovision song contest tomorrow. This will be broadcast live from Malmo and in many ways is no longer a song contest (Ding-a-dong won in 1975), but more a chance for subtle and not so subtle political statements to be made.
Do you watch this competition? Will Cyprus and Greece give each other the maximum 12 points? Does it matter?
Does singing your song in English improve the chances of winning as a larger audience will understand the words, or is it better to use your own language to gain the votes?
Click on the image below to read about and listen to songs from the Eurovision for endangered languages and perhaps hear a song in Breton or even Sami.
I often see lists with titles like ’50 places to visit before you die’ and ’20 pasta dishes to try before you’re 50′.
Then I saw ’1000 songs everyone must hear’ in the Guardian and I was surprised by some of the choices.
I asked some of the people I work with for their Top 10 lists for songs they think everyone should hear at least once in their lives. It might be because it has personal significance, it might have been groundbreaking or it might simply have been a great piece of music.
There is no right or wrong, these are personal opinions, but it creates some interesting lists and some fantastic listening as well.
Click on the picture below to see this list and copy and paste the links to listen to the songs. Do any of the choices surprise you? Now we have shared with you, what about your favourites – can you create a top 10 as well?
You can also click here to download our list - Top 10 songs
Have you tried Lucidchart?
There are freemium and paid for options available and it offers online sharing and collaboration creating organisational charts, mind maps, flow charts and a number of other useful applications.
Why not take a look at a flowchart of the Beatles song ‘Hey Jude‘ by clicking on the image below? Do you ever work online on documents with other colleagues?
© Ryan Pike | Dreamstime Stock Photos
Actually some of my favourite things are apps and ipads, not doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles. The sheer scale of the opportunities astounds me and every week I discover a new app that either offers something of interest, fun or value and many times all three.
To ignore the potential of using technology (and I don’t mean all day, every day) would be nothing short of irresponsible when we consider how we deal with education these days.
Click on the image below to see a very clever graphic that provides details of some of the more popular apps on the market today. How many of them have you used?
Are there any you would particularly recommend?
My iPhone apps as of February 2010 (Photo credit: dougbelshaw)
I saw an interesting visual the other day about the different personality types for people using social media. For those of us that do indulge in these practices we probably have a mixture of them. I think I know which one(s) I am, but what about you?
Click on the image below to see the options and be honest with yourself.
Of course if you don’t use social media, you can skip this and listen to a song instead…
How do you deal with mundane tasks? Do you avoid them or do you just get on and complete them? Or, like many people, do you put them off until the last-minute?
What about if the task became part of a game? A game that you enjoyed playing so that the task disappeared and was completed by playing the game. A game with rules, but one where you make choices and you are in control.
Does that sound good?
More and more businesses are looking to engage with people using these techniques. This is not to manipulate or force people to do things they don’t want to do, but instead it is to engage people and make life more fun.
You can see a brilliant example by clicking here for SuperBetter and if you join, tell me and I will connect with you as an ally (you will see what I mean).
Also, by clicking on the picture below you can listen to a TED Talk by the founder of SuperBetter, Jane McGonigal. What do you think about making tasks more fun – is it important or should we just accept that some things aren’t enjoyable in themselves or require self-discipline?
What are the benefits of making tasks more engaging for students or employees?
© Jon Helgason | Dreamstime Stock Photos
