Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

(Credit: Virginia Keenan, galapagos.org)

Come to the edge.
We might fall.

Come to the edge.
It’s too high!

COME TO THE EDGE!

And they came
And he pushed

And they flew.

Christopher Logue’s poem “Come to the Edge” from New Numbers (London: Cape, 1969) pp. 65-66. Written for a poster advertising an Apollinaire exhibition at the ICA in 1961 or 1962, and was titled “Apollinaire Said”; so often misattributed to Apollinaire himself.

If over 3000 people have read one or more of these blog posts, even if only 10% of visitors get some help from it; then I have helped some 300 people. And that is why I do it.

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

This sounds as if it could be an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) expression but it’s a quote from Abraham Lincoln.

I guess much is not new, it’s just repackaged!
Still a great quote.

The idea of Shakespeare using social media does appeal:  ”Hamlet To be or not to be? #suicide” or King Harry issuing a call to arms in blog post. The list is endless.

But Godin makes his point well. Change is here, and probably inevitable. And it has often been for the better.

http://www.thedominoproject.com/2011/02/would-shakespeare-tweet.html

I am just back from a near-perfect conference.

I go to conferences because I am attracted by the sound of the headline speakers. There is the potential for interesting conversations, and hopefully there is a nice venue. And so often I have come back the speakers were OK – they had obviously done their thing too many times, and had lost interest. The conversations were inhibited by the venue, which had the atmosphere of a warehouse.

TEDx Granta – the TED event in Cambridge was different. The speakers were dynamic and thought-provoking. I was inspired by an ocean-rower. Moved by a story of street-kids playing world cup football. And utterly amazed by a recycled house. There were many more, some streamed on video from the recent TED event, and many live. A few initial technical issues were soon fixed and the mix worked really well.

TED is a not-for-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It holds an annual event in California. TEDx are the independently organised local events based on the original TED. This event was brilliantly organised. The venue chosen was fantastic. The Møller Centre, in Churchill College Cambridge  has a splendid purpose built auditorium, no warehouse acoustics here. There was a wide range of fascinating people there, and plenty of time and crucially space to meet and eat and talk. For me the speakers and the networking are equally important and I felt that  both were given equal attention by the organisers. We had a dedicated and rather attractive area to withdraw to during the ample breaks.

My sincere hope is that the team will be repeating this and similar events in Cambridge. Watch out for them TED has ideas worth spreading and TEDx Granta has just held a conference worth attending.

Over a billion (thousand million for us UK English pedants) greetings cards are sent out over Xmas. And so for the second year  I have sent most of my Xmas cards electronically. I have used the British Library’s e-card service this year.

I know there are some who use e-cards as an easy way to essentially spam their friends and contacts. This seems perverse to me. It robs the cards of all their value, there is neither effort nor meaning to them. And why send a pretty card wishing someone a nice holiday and yet do it in such a way as to hack them off!

So all my cards were individually addressed, the picture selected from those I liked and with an individual message included. I like the environmentally friendliness. I just couldn’t resist the eXmas card pun either.

Do let me know what you think of e-cards, I am curious to know.

Meanwhile have a Merry Xmas and a great New Year.

The hypothesis is that, as pain stops you doing damaging physical things, so low mood stops you doing damaging mental ones—in particular, pursuing unreachable goals.

Still unproven and yet I found it strangely compelling.

Read more here.

(The photo is of course the famous Migrant Mother and Children? by Dorthea Lange. Whilst it was taken during the economic Great –  - Depression of the 30′s, nevertheless for me it encapsulates the sense of individual depression.)

And yet, their path to world domination has been littered with failures. This graphic include the famous ones like Wave, and many others. Innovative ideas that have failed for whatever reason. Nevertheless, they relentlessly innovate.

As a consequence we have a  great search engine and first class (G)mail.

Thanks to http://claresiobhanpr.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/innovate- or-perish-a-lesson-learnt-by-ask-com/ for the image.

The shock that this has happened, and happened to you, can give way to numbness and then denial. It hasn’t happened really, if I just carry on as before and if pretend it hasn’t happened perhaps it will go away.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross found that there is usually a pattern to how people can feel in these circumstances. Knowing this can give some help in understanding what is happening, as denial gives way to fear, and then anger.

Depression, rightly named, it is the low point on the curve. Usually from here the way is up, understanding what has happened and understanding the feeling involved can begin to make things easier to accept. And acceptance can be the last stage in the process before moving on.