Saturday, September 13, 2014
Bike Seats - Official site of Arizona State UrologyOfficial site of Arizona State Urology
Bike Seats - Official site of Arizona State UrologyOfficial site of Arizona State Urology
Have you or any of your friends rode these saddles yet?
Have you or any of your friends rode these saddles yet?
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Monday, November 18, 2013
To rely on emotion is part of our Human condition.
The default to emotion is part of the human condition.
To better appreciate the role of emotion and what it allows an audience to do, we need to take a brief detour into evolutionary biology. The human brain can be understood as three separate brains working in tandem (or think of it as a constant juggling act), if not completely integrated with each other.
The primitive brain and the limbic brain collectively make up the limbic system, which governs emotion. Within the limbic system, there is a structure called the amygdala, which leaders need to understand.
When faced with a stimulus, the amygdala turns our emotions on. It does so instantaneously, without our having to think about it. We find ourselves responding to a threat even before we’re consciously aware of it. Think of jumping back when we see a sudden movement in front of us, or being startled by the sound of a loud bang. We also respond instantaneously to positive stimulus without thinking about it. Note: think about how we tend to smile back when someone smiles at us; how we are immediately distracted when something we consider beautiful enters our line of sight.
The amygdala is the key to understanding an audience’s emotional response, and to connecting with an audience. It plays an important role in salience, what grabs and keeps our attention. In other words, attention is an emotion-driven phenomenon. If we want to get and hold an audience’s attention, we need to trigger the amygdala to our advantage. Only when we have an audience’s attention can we then move them to rational argument.
I have become somewhat notorious in the fitness programs I teach at Community Healthples for the way I start each class. I teach 60 min sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and as the 6 a.m. start time approaches, most students are still getting settled, and chatting with each other. At precisely 6 a.m. I change the gently Baroque classical music and play a sudden blast of very loud music. Most of the time it’s the chorus of “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas, but to keep the element of surprise I sometimes vary the selection. After a 10-second burst of very loud music, I have every student’s undivided attention. I then lock in the connection: I smile, welcome them, thank them for investing an hour to improve their personal physical, mental, and spiritual health. Only then do I begin the class. I have hijacked their amygdalas. We need audiences to feel first, and then to think.
Five Strategies for Audience Engagement
When leaders are speaking to audiences that are under stress–even if the audience is merely tired or distracted–the leader can take the amygdala into account in determining how the content is structured and how the audience is engaged. Here are five ways to engage effectively:
- Establish connection before saying anything substantive. And remember that the connection is physical. Techniques to connect include asking for the audience’s attention, if only with a powerful and warm greeting, followed by silence and eye contact. The key is to make sure the audience isn’t doing something else so that they pay attention.
Say the most important thing first once you have their attention. The most important thing should be a powerful framing statement that will control the meaning of all that follows. Remember that frames have to precede facts.
Close with a recapitulation of the powerful framing statement that opened the presentation.
Make it easy to remember. Keep in mind how hard it is for people to listen, hear, and remember. One way is to repeat key points. I often hear from clients, “But I’ve already said this. I don’t need to say it again.” Or, “I don’t want to say it again.” Or, “If I have to say this again, I’ll throw up. I’m tired of repeating myself.” But leaders need to constantly repeat the key themes, within any given presentation, and in general as a matter of organizational strategy. It doesn’t matter if they’re bored with saying it. The audience needs to hear it, again and again. And again. As a general principle, people need to hear things three times if they are to even pay attention to it. And because any given audience member at any time may be distracted or inattentive, he or she is unlikely to hear or attend to everything that is said. So leaders need to repeat key points far more than three times to be sure that everyone has heard it at least three times. One of the burdens of leadership is to have a very high tolerance for repetition.
Follow the rule of threes. Have three main points. But no more than three main points; no more than three topics; no more than three examples per topic. Group thoughts in threes; words in threes; actions in threes. (See how I just used the Rule of Threes in that sentence?) Think of Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address: “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.”
The default to emotion is part of the human condition. The amygdala governs the fight-or-flight impulse, the triggering of powerful emotions, and the release of chemicals that put humans in a heightened state of arousal. Humans are not thinking machines. We’re feeling machines who also think. We feel first, and then we think. As a result, leaders need to meet emotion with emotion before they can move audiences with reason.
To rely on emotion is part of our Human condition.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Personal Mastery
What Is Personal Mastery?
Personal mastery is about continuously approaching life from different perspectives. A personal journey towards continuous self-improvement. Personal mastery is guided with key principles like vision, personal purpose, creative tension, commitment to truth and understanding the subconscious mind.
Personal vision can create a framework of a guiding philosophy on how we can operate and live our life. Our personal vision serves as a guide to keep us on track.
Followers of personal mastery see that there are great opportunities to grow and act on these opportunities.
Personal mastery is about loving yourself and expressing our gifts and talents to their fullest. The key comes from understanding and sharing our genuine personality. To control or overcome some habits, it would be important to identify how and why those habits arise. The more we suppress something, the more we have difficulty in conquering and overcoming it.
Personal mastery comes from self-discipline. It is about taking responsibility for the direction that your life is going to take. Discipline can clarify and deepen our perspective in life. Those who quest for personal mastery develop patience and see life objectively.
Our daily challenge lies in fully understanding our strengths, talents and our purpose in life. This growth enables us to be inspired, energized and happy with our life. The ultimate thing about personal mastery is that we can always know that we are guided and supported by God.
It is also important for a person who is in quest for personal mastery to develop integrity, humility, justice and industry. These are the characteristics on we should conduct ourselves professional, socially and spiritually.
Personal mastery detaches a person from self-interest or selfishness and encourage people towards providing care and service to other people. Also individuals who follow personal mastery see the connections in their surroundings and perceive everything as a whole.
To summarize it, personal mastery guides us to develop being aware with our beliefs, attitudes and behaviour impacts. It also enables us to accept ourselves and be responsible for our own action, attitude, and thought.
Experts would say that personal mastery could be truly gained by living purposefully and by living with integrity. Living purposefully would include showing talents, gifts and strengths to achieve goals and be successful. Live with integrity is by integrating your ideals, standards and behaviour.
Personal Mastery
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Benefit Corporations
This post explores benefit corporations as a tool entrepreneurs can use to make money, foster environmental sustainability, and create societal improvement.
Part I briefly examines who has been advocating for the creation and passage of benefit corporation legislation in the United States. Part II analyzes the statutory requirements to form a benefit corporation. Specifically…
Part II discusses the issues of purpose, accountability, transparency, rights of action, and enforcement of those rights in connection with the creation and operation of a benefit corporation.
Part III highlights the states that have passed benefit corporation statutes and highlights those considering similar legislation.
Part IV examines the pre-existing use of benefit entities, in unincorporated form, through exploration of the benefit certification process. Finall…
Part V offers a future prognosis and debates whether benefit corporations will succeed or fail.
Benefit Corporations
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