Changing you - for the better

Visit my Pivotal Personal Management pages for tips, ideas, articles and courses.

Subjects available are:Motivation

Health and wellbeing

Workplace success

Leadership

Your business success

Email management

Take control of your Paper

Marketing

Meetings

Creativity and Innovation

Being organised

Goal setting

See you there!

What's the hurry?

Are well-meaning parents over-scheduling their children's activities with the possible effect of robbing young people of the joys of childhood?Education consultant and early childhood expert, Ms Kathy Walker, author of the new book, What's The Hurry? argues that parents who enrol their children in up to three, four or more extra curricula activities a week are contributing to the US-dubbed phenomena, the over-scheduled child - a trend that is rapidly growing in Australia. Read the whole article

Mind mapping your speaking presentation

You have a speaking presentation to make. You have been given a topic or have chosen one and there are a multitude of ideas buzzing around in your head. Or maybe there is a frightening LACK of ideas! Or maybe you can think of no way to organise those thoughts into something memorable. A mind map will help you.

Beaking out of the system - how to drop out

It is about reducing your submission and dependence: getting free, being yourself, slipping out of a wrestling hold so you can throw an elbow at the Beast.

Read how

Twitch speed - reaching younger workers who think differently

By Marc Prensky

“Every parent, educator, and manager knows that "Nintendo children"--those born after 1970 and raised on video and computer games, Walkmans, the Internet, etc.--are different. Unfortunately, the Gen-X discussion has focused mainly on the youths' supposedly short attention spans and attention-deficit disorders, ignoring or underemphasizing what is perhaps the most crucial factor--that this under-30 generation thinks, and sees the world, in ways entirely different from their parents.

…Speedwise, we effectively give them depressants. And then we wonder why they're bored.…

technology has emphasized and reinforced certain cognitive aspects and de-emphasized others. Most of these changes in cognitive style are positive. But however one feels, it's important that managers (as well as educators and parents) recognize that these changes exist so that we can deal with the younger generation effectively.Below are 10 of the main cognitive style changes, which raise a number of important and difficult challenges. We have already begun to see the development of new business structures, ideas, and products that take into account under-30 employees' cognitive changes and preferences. It is likely that the full impact of these changes will not be felt until the younger generation fully comes to power, just as the movies were impacted by the coming-of-age of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. That time is not far off…. “

Read the whole article

Yoga everywhere

Stuck in your chair?
Keyboard Yoga

The visual impact of packaging

The visual impact of packaging is vitally important. And so is humour!! Visit the wonderful satire of the Microsoft redesigns ipod packaging video.

Who said New Zealanders weren't cool?

Have you seen those wonderful inflatable ball/tube things that you can roll down a mountain in? What a ride! But the beautiful pictures on the Maisson Bisson blog are something else!!

It's not all in the name

I was reading an article from Jennifer Louden recently, where she commented on the names for … God, the divine being, Gaia….. and remarked that when she met this being she would first ask what happened to all the odd socks and then ask for the correct name. I suspect the answer would suggest that, we know this being, its existence and its reality. Why bother about a name so much? We humans need to have a name for things, and, I have been thinking, a lot of it is due to the need to communicate. Each language and each culture has a different name for horse, snow, beans – and so for the being. Fascinating stuff , language – and communication.

Fear of public speaking

Is public speaking your number one fear?

It is for a lot of people.

I suffer from nerves, but have learnt to use them to create passion and to keep my mind focused.

But in writing an article recently on the causes of fear of public speaking, I had to include the fact that the fear, or at least aversion, runs in families.

This was something I had pointed out to me many years ago. It made me think about my situation and brought back memories. My grandfather and aunt taught “elocution” many years ago, and I heard stories about my grandfather reciting poetry at concerts and special events, so the concept of standing in front of an audience wasn’t alien to me – hence the lack of fear.

And I assume that the opposite occurs. If children see their parents avoiding public speaking, and expressing fear and lack of confidence, then they will take on the same behaviour.

Over the years of practice and research, I have learned there are strategies that overcome the fear and the nerves and I practice the ones that work for my situation, and train in the ones that apply to each individual case. So it was fun to put them all together in the article. You can read it online.

Marketing

We went to the movies last night (have you seen Walk the Line? – I got bored in places and yet the lasting impressions today are powerful) and during the trailers we saw the ad for a car company using the theme “OK-breaking the mould". We love ads that challenge the brain a bit. Normally my comment is “Yes but will you remember what the product was?” and usually we don’t. But this time, I haven’t forgotten the flash of Honda. Was it because my son muttered, “Who would have thought – Honda?” Who knows, but long shall they reign these ads with a little bit of brain power involved.

More on Marketing …

Education news

Seaweek 2006 - 5-10 March 2006

http://www.mesa.edu.au/seaweek2006/sponsors/decs.asp


education.au limited http://www.educationau.edu.au, in partnership with the Marine Education Society of Australasia (MESA) and the South Australian Department Of Education & Children's Services (DECS) will utilise the services of DECS Centra virtual classroom technology to educate schoolchildren across Australia about the themes in Seaweek 2006 by delivering 'live' innovative and experience-based learning events.

Teachers can register online now for the opportunity for their students to interact in a live online environment using the latest long distance education technology.

You can find more educational news items posted in Ed Lib News, an ezine for teachers and teacher-librarians.

Also included are updates to these pages.
Internet Research
Human Rights writing
Disabilities - Teaching
Australian places
Maths
Genre Writing
Behaviour Management
Water
Thinking skills
Learning Centres
Art