Changing the world ...one thank-you note at a time

This post on lifehack.org pointed me to a great article by Tom Chiarella called "A Little Gratitude... How to change the way the world sees you, one thank-you note at a time". Here is an excerpt...

Being grateful matters. A good thank-you -- a real thank-you -- means something. It is notable, memorable, important. A meaningful thank-you reveals the evolution of a friendship; it declares what we value, making one party certain that the other party notices and cares about the quality of human
transactions in the world around them. But every verbal thank-you, even a sincere one, risks being forgettable. No, there is only one way to really thank someone: You have to write it down. You gotta write a thank-you note.

Tom goes on to explain a experiment where he wrote at least 3 Thank You notes per day for a month ...

I've never been very good at this whole daily-reflection thing, but if I ever gave it a real shot, it was while I was scratching out these notes. Time passed differently. I began to look at the day as a series of opportunities for thankfulness rather than obligations to a calendar. The discipline of the writing gave me a morning ritual beyond a cup of coffee and the blathering of
SportsCenter. I started, for the first time in years, to work on my handwriting. The morning didn't tear by the way it usually does. I found that I could sit there and reconstruct the prior day by thinking of the faces of the people I met, the tenor of the things they did, and the places in which I met them. With
each day, I could remember more about each day that passed.

Kind of makes you wonder who you should send a thank-you note... it doesn't just make them feel good... it helps you as well.

Think about it !

Happy Punctum Day ... Aug.19th !

I learned about Punctum Day via istockphoto.com. Here is their explanation...

We're all quite literally looking at pictures all day long. Of
course, some of us are more involved than others with this world of pictures. ... not every image just goes past us. Sometimes, the picture makes us stop, the photograph arrests us, the drawing makes us forget what we were just doing. We've all had this struck-by-lightning moment with an image.

Roland Barthes calls this arresting potential in imagery the Punctum.

It's the sensation that floods over us, stops us in our tracks and, if only for a second, blots out everything else. We feel something new and indescribable, suddenly alone with the image. Punctum is not the sudden understanding of what the image 'means'. It's our sudden availability, for whatever reason, for the image to create a new meaning in us, just for us. A one-time flash of something we hadn't felt or understood before. For that moment of interaction we are free and flying and somewhere altogether new.

As visual people, we crave this experience. As artists, we long to create it.

And today, we have a worldwide movement for our shared love of that struck-by-lightning moment. Join us in creating and celebrating this worldwide day honoring imagery and visual creativity. ... for creative people everywhere,

Punctum is who we are and what we do.

You don't have a Personality ...

... and neither do I (so don't feel bad).


Huh? Read on.

I read the paragraph below in an article titled "10-simple-ways-to-save-yourself-from-messing-up-your-life" at Lifehack.org ....

Don’t worry about about your personality. You don’t really have one. Personality, like ego, is a concept invented by your mind. It doesn’t exist in the real world. Personality is a word for the general impression that you give through your words and actions. If your personality isn’t likeable today, don’t
worry. You can always change it, so long as you allow yourself to do so. What fixes someone’s personality in one place is a determined effort on their part—usually through continually telling themselves they’re this or that kind of person and acting on what they say. If you don’t like the way you are, make
yourself different. You’re the only person who’s standing in your way.

So, if you don't like the way things are going.... change the way you are acting. Change your "personality".

Learn from people who are getting the results you want and use their techniques. They won't come easily at first... that's why it is called "Learning" and not "Borg Assimilation*"



[* For non-trekkie saavy readers this is a Star Trek reference.]