May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Category: Bits and pieces (Page 10 of 28)
Ancora imparo, I’m still learning, which is attributed to Michelangelo is valid for me. Here are some Michelangelo quotes.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor’s hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.
It is necessary to keep one’s compass in one’s eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.
If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
I went to YouTube in search for Blues In The Night, a song suggested by a friend of mine.
Blues In The Night from a woman’s point of view: Katie Melua (live AVO Session), there’s a harmonica which I love. I also found Anne Shelton and Ella Fitzgerald (with a sax player).
Blues In The Night from a man’s point of view: Frank Sinatra.
I also found an intrumental version, Blues in the Night, on Tenor Sax.
Katie Melua – Blues In The Night (live AVO Session)
I am coach and mentor. Like most small companies, I’m self-employed, one issue is to make potential clients find me. Another issue is how to stand out in the crowd. There are lots of coaches and mentors, how can I be different and make a difference?
I have two questions that I work with:
• What can I do differently?
• What can I do that my competitors don’t?
I don’t think there’s a final answer to any of those. It’s about Kaizen, gradual improvement, and keeping an eye on what my competitors do.
Eagle or Duck?
Yesterday I came across Be an Eagle, not a Duck, a great story posted by Keith Stoeckeler that’s on a related topic. The story is about Wally the Cab Driver and how he changed his business. As Keith said: “Small changes can make a large impact.” Wally got his inspiration from a quote by Wayne Dyer:
Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.
Wally the Cab Driver made a choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. He put in a few changes at a time, gradually improving his business.
I intend to soar with the eagles. What about you?
Mission statement
Wally the cab driver in the Eagle or Duck story above had this Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.
That mission statement is short and to the point, easy to understand and also fairly easy to measure. It reminds me of this quote:
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupe
Twitter connects
@Amy Stark recommended that I should take a look at Convince & Convert. I liked it, subscribed and decided to follow @Jay Baer. Then Jay tweeted about @Keith Stoeckeler and the story above.
I have posted that Worrying gets you nowhere. That reminds me of the song Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy.
Video
There’s a video below the lyrics.
Lyrics
SPOKEN:
I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire.
I’ll never forget the look on my father’s face as he gathered me up
in his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement.
I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames.
And when it was all over I said to myself, “Is that all there is to a fire”SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there isSPOKEN:
And when I was 12 years old, my father took me to a circus, the greatest show on earth.
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears.
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads.
And so I sat there watching the marvelous spectacle.
I had the feeling that something was missing.
I don’t know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself, “is that all there is to a circus?SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there isSPOKEN:
Then I fell in love, head over heels in love, with the most wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river or just sit for hours gazing into each other’s eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day he went away and I thought I’d die, but I didn’t,
and when I didn’t I said to myself, “is that all there is to love?”SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancingSPOKEN:
I know what you must be saying to yourselves,
if that’s the way she feels about it why doesn’t she just end it all?
Oh, no, not me. I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment,
for I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you,
when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my lst breath, I’ll be saying to myselfSUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there isWritten by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Video
Watch below or on YouTube Peggy Lee — Is That All There Is? 1969
Today I got my new iPhone 3Gs. I wanted a smart phone and a surftool, in the shop they said iPhone is the best and now I have one. I don’t like the way Apple runs its products as a closed territory but we’ll see how that works out.
The iPhone came in the smallest box I’ve yet seen for a mobile phone. No wonder, there’s no real documentation included, just a small folder. The charger is small and well designed, very nice.
The included documentation is a joke, the information at the Apple website is good but I want more and I have bought The iPhone Book.
I will blog more about the iPhone, applications I use and like.
In November 2009 I made a presentation at Øredev. The video of my presentation is now up on the Øredev site: Project success by helping project members realize their full potential. The video is also on Vimeo.
The video is 44 minutes long, first half is my presentation and the second half is Q&A.
Chris Brogan has his 3 Words for 2010, with a second level on some of them. Jonathan Fields lists his 10 driving keywords for 2010 in Oh The Places You Will Go.
I list my three key words in Ready for 2010:
Trust means to trust my inner voice, to build trust and to be trustworthy.
Connect goes outwards (connect to more people in real life and virtually, be visible and valuable) as well as inwards (connect to my inner self).
Grow covers to grow my business and to grow as person. It includes to learn and share. I am a life long learner, sharing knowledge and ideas is fun.
Joanna Young has a different approach and picks A Word to Last the Year. Her single word is rhythm and I really like that choice. Some of what rhythm brings to Joanna’s mind are things I like to do too: Walk, Write, Go outside, Go gently, Go with the flow, Trust in the natural cycle of things, Move between different projects I’m working on.
Juliana Finch at write. play. repeat. posts her choice in If you could choose one word…, it’s nourish. I like that too, nourish goes well with my three words above and with what I want to achieve.
I’ve been thinking about how to deal with my words for 2010, shall I stick with my original three or shall I add rhytm and nourish which gives me a full hand? In the end I decided to go for five, to me they integrate very well with my first three words and help me stay on track.
Adding nourish and rhythm actually helped me decide about leaving Inside the Third Tribe. Staying would have helped me grow my blog faster but I risked loosing my rhythm.
I read Mindfulness makes you more productive over at Brazen Careerist. It’s an interesting post which in turn took me to the blog The Power of Slow. There’s this great quote:
Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.
Eddie Cantor
I like these sentences that I picked from the About-page at The Power of Slow:
Life is in the details. Don’t let it whiz by.
Christine Hohlbaum who runs The Power of Slow is on Twitter as @powerofslow.
Some of my details in life right now: I listen to “The Essential Leonard Cohen” and enjoy some dark chocolate. Life’s good.
I got so interested in learning more that I ordered Christine’s book The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World. Saving time is not possible but we can learn to use it wiser.
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