Back in the 50’s, when my parents were entering the workforce, choices were different. Many people dropped out of high school in Grade 10 or 11 and got a JOB. JOBs were things like working in a factory or working for your Dad in his hardware store. Or selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. If you didn’t want to do any of those things, you could join the Army. If you were a woman, you had even fewer choices: you were either a housewife or you went to business school and became a secretary. Getting a JOB in those days offered a few extremely important things. Benefits. A steady paycheque. Bonuses. Security. The makings of a happy life. These days, we teach our young people to stay in school. Go to college. Get a CAREER. I used to have a CAREER. I was a high-tech worker. It had benefits. It had a steady paycheque. It had bonuses. I falsely believed it had security. I gave it up. Now, I believe that what I do for a living is not a JOB or a CAREER. These labels don’t fit anymore. Now, my work is what I DO. It’s how I survive, not just financially, but spiritually, and emotionally too. I knew I didn’t fit in to the corporate world. Oh, sure, I did a good job. I got just as many pats on the back as the next guy. But at the end of the day it meant nothing to me. I was doing it for someone else, and that left me wholly unfulfilled. Perhaps we should be teaching our young people that it’s okay if they don’t want to fit into the mold of a CAREER. But more importantly we should be teaching them HOW to make it on their own if they want to. I certainly didn’t learn anything about owning a business in high school or even college. And that’s not right. I’m not saying that everyone has to be an entrepreneur. Of course there is room for more than just the self employed. Otherwise, nobody would have any employees! But we need to be giving our young people options. We need to make them aware of all of the possibilities. On the flip side, there’s nothing wrong with having a CAREER if that’s what you want. Case in point: A good friend of mine has made a CAREER out of what many would consider a regular JOB. He started many years ago working at a convenience store. In fact, that’s how we met. I lived in the neighbourhood and was a regular customer. I loved watching my friend work, he was so happy in it. He loved helping customers, would strike up conversations with anyone. As a result, the store he worked at was like the social hub of the neighbourhood. After about 10 years as a convenience store clerk, he moved on to work for a large retail chain – a job that pays more but is still, what some would consider, just a JOB. There isn’t anything else he’d rather be doing than working in retail, serving customers. He will absolutely be doing it until he retires. I bet if you were to ask him, he’d tell you that his work isn’t just a job. It is what he DOES.
Fitness for Tweeters
I’ve signed up for Tommy Vallier’s Twitter Pushups Challenge. It’s based on the Hundred Pushups site, where the goal is to work your way to complete 100 good-form pushups in about 6 weeks. It’s a great challenge, and the program looks achievable. I’m pretty certain I can get there, even though the most pushups I’ve ever been able to do is 30 (at the height of my karate training about 3 years ago, back when I had abs and biceps). Last year I lost a bunch of weight (about 28 pounds and 6 sizes) strictly through diet. I’ve managed to put back on about half of that, and realized recently that if I don’t do something soon I’ll be grown out of all my clothes again and be right back where I started (or worse). This time, I’m not only going to cut the fat and calories, I’m going to get back to being more physically active again. That means daily power walks with the dog, yoga and yes, 100 pushups. Not only will I be thinner, but I’ll be in shape too (there’s a dramatic difference). So why blog about it? Because if I tell everyone I’m doing this, I’ll be less inclined to make up excuses why I can’t. It’s like the world is watching this time. Well at least my 5 or 6 readers are. 🙂 And this time, I’m not going to weigh myself. Weighing oneself is not effective if one is also doing strength training like pushups and yoga – because you are building muscle too, and muscle weighs more than fat. The scale is not an accurate representation of your real fat/muscle ratio. It’s not about what the scale says. I am 5 foot 8. I am not a small person (for a female). I will never be 120 pounds. I will never be a size 2. (Nor do I aspire to be either of those things). The secret to a successful exercise and healthy eating regimen is not what the scale says. It’s about how you feel physically and mentally. It’s about bringing your body, mind and spirit into balance. Anyone want to join me? I’d love to hear your thoughts. And sign up for the Twitter Pushups challenge today!
Real World Skills for the College Student
I’m very excited about a new opportunity I’ll be embarking on this Fall. I am going back to teaching part time at our local community college. I taught web design at the same college about 9 years ago, for the Continuing Education and Corporate Training programs, so some of this will be very familiar to me. The major difference this time is I’m teaching for a diploma program. In fact, it’s the latest evolution of the same diploma program I graduated from in 1998 – Interactive Multimedia Developer. It was a 7 month program when I took it, now it’s 2 years. The fact that it’s a full time diploma program means that my audience is going to be fresh-out-of-highschool NetGenners. This is quite a dramatic change from the semi-computer literate adults I’m used to teaching. The young people that are going to be in my classes have been using computers since they were old enough to talk. It’s been embedded in their culture for their entire lives. This has me thinking about how the Net Generation is going to fare once they are out in the real world. After all, college is not just about learning some new skills, it’s about figuring out how to apply those skills in a way that will enable your success once you are out in the workforce. I’m teaching Video and Audio production (as it relates to New Media). I’m going to teach them how to operate a camera, set up 3-point lighting, do a paper edit, edit their stuff in Premiere, and export to various media. Given that most of the students will have plenty of computer and technology experience, I don’t forsee the vast majority of them having too much trouble catching on. But in order for them to be truly successful, there’s got to be more than just “push this button to make this happen”. The real world is not just about knowing what buttons to push. The real world is hard. College is supposed to prepare you, as much as possible, for the real world. So, in addition to the button pushing, I think these are some things that should also be taught in college: Communication I’m not talking about IM, Facebook or SMS texting. I’m talking about how to write a business email or a resume that gets noticed. How to pitch someone on an idea. How to cold call. How to conduct yourself on the telephone. In the real world, these kinds of communications are a daily occurrence. You’ve got to get it right from the outset, because as the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Networking Whether you’re a CEO or an entry-level cubicle dweller, being comfortable with networking is a critical real-world skill. Whether you’re the new junior in the company or just want to meet and socialize with like-minded people, knowing how to introduce yourself, strike up conversations and even interact through social networks will have a tremendous positive impact on your personal growth and ability to learn. It will also open up a whole lot more opportunities. Continuous Learning Hands up. How many of you graduated from university or college and thought “Now I know everything! Are you ready for me, world?” How shocking it was to realize that after all that hard work and money spent, you really didn’t know much at all. The real learning begins the moment you walk out of the school corridors and into the working world. And it never stops. Students need to learn how to LEARN. After being spoon-fed knowledge throughout their high school careers, college needs to teach them how to think for themselves – to discover, explore and be curious all the time. They need to know that graduation is the START of learning, not the end. Be Passionate I’ve talked about passion before. It is perhaps the most important thing that we need to be teaching our young people. I’m crazy passionate about video. I’m crazy passionate about the Internet and new media. I’m extremely enthusiastic when I talk about both. And I want my students to share my enthusiasm and passion. If they go through this course with me and don’t feel as strongly passionate about these things as I do by the end of the semester, then they will need to seriously consider if this is the right path for them. They need to be excited and amazed every day by this stuff. Developing that passion will be a cornerstone to their future success. Now it’s your turn. Do you think students are getting enough of this kind of preparation in college? Do you think it’s necessary? Or not? I would love to hear what you think.
The Reason I Heart the Internet
I apologize if I’ve been quiet the past few days. I guess I haven’t really mastered the art of blogging and Twittering consistently while on the road. I know, I probably don’t have to apologize, but I’m Canadian, and that’s what we do. For those of you who haven’t been following my Twitter posts, my husband and I made a little road trip to Cincinnati this past weekend. Okay, there is nothing LITTLE about a 12 hour drive each way. But we did it, and we sure are glad we did. The purpose of our little jaunt was to meet up with the group of podcasters who produce “Night of the Living Podcast“. If you are at all in to horror movies you have probably heard of them. If you haven’t, you should definitely subscribe. A few months ago, my hubby, who has been a fan of the show since the beginning, sent off an email to one of the hosts because he wanted to produce a documentary about them. He wasn’t really sure what to expect. I mean, imagine some stranger claiming to be a “fan” contacts you, and wants to drive all the way from Canada to film a documentary about you? What would you do? Well, thankfully, the Night of the Living Podcast crew is just nuts enough to say yes to this sort of request. So off we went. I heart the Internet. Sure, the technology that allows us to blog, podcast, buy cool stuff, learn anything about anything, conduct business and be more productive is truly amazing. But what is most amazing, what I really love, is the people. We headed to Cincinnati, unsure of really what to expect when we got there. We knew the “crew” had agreed to be interviewed on camera. We knew they were willing to have us film the recording of one of their shows. We hoped they were willing to contribute to a little extra piece of the film, but weren’t sure. I mean, these people have jobs, lives, and we didn’t want to command too much of their time. When we arrived, we received the warmest of welcomes. We discovered that all five of them had cleared their entire weekend for us – not just for the filming but because they wanted to show us their city. They took us to eat fabulous food at some of their favourite places. We went to see the X-Files movie with them (of which you will hear their review on this week’s episode of the show) . They welcomed us into their homes. They toured us all over downtown. They affectionately referred to us as “The Canadians” and were really curious about where we were from. Not only did we get a ton of great footage, we had an absolute blast. Social media is a common thread that runs with anyone who is involved with it. It brings people together and bonds them almost instantly. We know the power of this medium to communicate, and we know the benefits it brings in terms of connecting with people you may otherwise never meet. This was one of the most fun vacations we’ve ever been on, and it’s due in large part to the warm welcome we received, not only by the NOTLP crew, but by all the terrific and friendly people we met in Cincinnati. Freddy, Amy, Erica, Chisek and Andy – thank you for being such amazing hosts to us this weekend, for being so warm and kind, and for making our faces hurt from laughing so hard. You guys made our trip – and the doc, too. We look forward to seeing you again in Indy!
Overwhelmed?
I woke up this morning with an anxious knot in the pit of my stomach. My thought pattern went much like this: I’m traveling to Cincinnati at the end of the week, so my mind is racing with everything that needs to happen before we leave Thursday night. There is a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the trip. (passports, health insurance info, video equipment, laptop, clean socks, toothbrush etc. etc. etc). Drop the dog off at the kennel. Drop the other pets off at their Grandparents’ house. Get pet food. Get fish feeder block. Pack. Figure out how to fit all our crap in the Jeep. And that’s just the trip preparation. Then there’s work! I have to write a proposal, co-write at least one episode of our show, finish some web content, follow up on umpteen proposals and advertising contracts, develop navigation for a new web site, and make sure our design team has enough to keep them busy while we’re away. All of this occured to me within about 30 seconds of waking up this morning. No wonder I am anxious. I sat at the computer, heart palpitating at the thought all I had to do, and what email demands were awaiting to distract me from those tasks. My eyes hit Chris Brogan’s post about Drowning almost immediately. Sometimes hearing about someone else who is feeling similarly can allow a different perspective to flood in. It worked, snapping me out of my ego-minded selfish way of thinking. “Hey, I’m not the only person in the world with a long to do list,” I thought to myself. “How am I going to handle it?” I sat back, took a deep breath, and reminded myself of how I deal with extreme busy-ness. I’m really in to top ten lists lately, so here’s my top ten list of things anyone can do to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Make a list on paper. Prioritize the list, and schedule when you will accomplish certain tasks. Once you’ve scheduled a task, don’t think about it again until it’s time to do it. Re-write the list when necessary. Check things off and don’t worry about them once they are done. Don’t be afraid to do like Chris did, and ask not to be disturbed. 99% of people will respect that. If they don’t, ignore them. Turn off the distractions. No email, no CrackBerry, no phone calls until you’ve accomplished a certain task. Minimize distractions, but don’t wait till 5pm to check your day’s worth of email. That will only overwhelm you more. Make time right after lunch to spend 1/2 an hour dealing with email. File anything you can’t address within 1 or 2 minutes and deal with it when the rush is over. If you have to, send a quick reply telling the person when you will be able to get back to them. Take a break. The world will wait while you spend 45 minutes to take a walk, do some yoga or have lunch with your spouse. Don’t think about your lists while you are on your break. Sleep. Nobody is asking you to stay up all night. If you need to rest, even for a couple of hours, do it. You will be much more productive if you aren’t exhausted. Eat. If you don’t eat, your brain won’t work. Your blood sugar will crash leaving you emotional and frustrated. Make sure you get protein and veggies. And a Big Mac doesn’t count as protein and veggies. This too shall pass. You WILL get through your list. The crazy busy time will end. You WILL get to take a break. And you’re not alone. We all feel overwhelmed sometimes. Anything you’d add to the list? How do you avoid getting overwhelmed? I’m off to get cracking on my list now. Happy Monday! Photo credit: bourgeoisbee on Flickr.
What They Don't Teach You In School
I came across this statistic in a post by Steve Olson and it outright shocked me: 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school. (original source Jerrold Jenkins www.bookpublishing.com). 58% NEVER read another book??? I can’t even imagine going a DAY without reading. If you look around our house, our bookcases, end tables, bedside tables are overflowing with books. Who are these people that NEVER read another book after high school? And why aren’t they reading? Reading is an essential skill for understanding the world around us. I can’t comprehend what someone’s view of the world would be if they never read a book. It seems to me that if the school system was doing its job, nearly everyone would be passionate about reading. What are we teaching our kids, if not to love learning? And what better way to learn than to read? Yet over half of the population couldn’t be bothered to pick up a book. Is it possible that our school systems are not doing their job? I want to share with you my experience with public education in the hopes of shedding some light. My Dad was in the Canadian Armed Forces and we moved around a lot when I was a kid. Over 13 years, I went to 3 different elementary schools and 2 high schools, in 2 provinces and 1 territory. In Canada, education is governed provincially/territorially, so every time I switched to a different school in a different province, I was forced to fit in to the curriculum and level of a new school system very quickly. It was detrimental to my ability to keep up. In six months, I went from being an “A” student in British Columbia to being a “C-” student in Ontario. The reason I wasn’t able to learn French in school was because 10th grade French in B.C. is equal to 3rd grade French in Ontario. When I asked if I could take French, the school administrators simply told me I was out of luck. In the end, I was able to work really hard and overcome. I graduated high school with a B+/A- average, and to be honest the benefits of the life I had growing up, being able to live in so many different places and meet so many people, far outweighed the struggles I had with my education. My point is, that the education system is not set up to be conducive to learning. As counter-intuitive as that may sound, it’s absolutely the truth as I see it. Here is a list of 10 things that I was never taught in school that I think should be on any curriculum. If you were taught any of these things at your school – that’s great! I’d love to hear about schools that are doing it right. Here’s the list: How to start and run a successful business. How to cope with disappointment. How to love books and reading. How to think for oneself and draw one’s own conclusions about things. How to communicate with a spouse/partner. How to manage finances and invest wisely. How to speak in public. How to write a business proposal. How to apply for a mortgage. How make wise choices when buying a car or house. These are things that I only learned after I graduated from high school (and college). Why did I have to figure all this stuff out once I was out on my own? Doesn’t it make sense that arming our young people with this kind of information from the jump would help them to make better decisions in the long run? What do you think – are our school systems doing their job?
Why I Don't Watch TV Anymore
I have a confession to make. I, Suze, don’t watch TV anymore. In fact, I’m pretty much turned off of just about every show out there. It’s an interesting irony, really. After all, I produce TV. Right now I co-produce a series that airs on our local cable station. We have a bunch of other shows in various stages of development and pre-production. I contribute directly to the industry, but I don’t really participate as a viewer. Here I am, on a Friday night, flipping endlessly through the hundreds of channels that I have available to me on my digital box. And aside from one or two interesting documentaries, a few movies, the odd cooking and home reno show and, well, our show, of course 🙂 …I can’t get over how little actual, good content there is on mainstream television anymore. Now, before I continue, I must admit that I have never been a dramatic series watcher. Aside from the occasional episode of Law and Order or CSI, I really have never been able to commit to watching a series week after week. I do appreciate that there are some good series out there – Lost, Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy to name a few – but if you look at the current lineups of the major networks, even those types of shows are becoming the minority. It seems to me that the major networks and U.S. specialty networks are obsessed with drama. And I don’t mean “E.R” kind of drama. I mean the staged, exaggerated, over-the-top “reality-based” Drama Queen type of drama that makes up a good majority of mainstream television these days. I love video. I always have. It has the power to impress, to entertain, to really move people to change for the better. But these “reality” shows are an insult to the medium and frankly, an insult to my intelligence. These programs seek only to bring out the worst qualities in people – they are stories about greed, revenge, deception and negativity. Why anybody finds this sort of show entertaining is really beyond me. The more time goes on, it seems, the more shows like this are becoming the mainstream. Obviously, somebody is watching them. Why they are so popular puzzles me greatly. As much as I love the medium of television, I’m losing faith in it, fast. More often than not these days, I am turning off the TV and turning on my laptop. The Internet is so ripe with awesome content, it makes me want to burst. I can watch shows about any topic imaginable, produced by people who have skill and talent and heart and passion. I can do it on my own schedule, from my bed, my livingroom, my coffee shop or my backyard. Through the Web, I have regained the capacity to be impressed, entertained and moved by video. And that’s where I start to see hope for the future. What do you think? Where does TV sit in your life these days?
Life Development Through Intelligent Reaction
I came across this great talk by Adam Bosworth, VP of Engineering at Google about Intelligent Reaction. In it, Bosworth explains the evolution of software development from the “Ivory Tower” mentality of software developers being the resident experts on what customers needed to today’s model of Intelligent Reaction – listening and learning from customers in real time what their needs are and then developing to those needs. Here are some of the basics of Intelligent Reaction, according to Bosworth: Learn from your users in real time. Don’t be obsessed with the grand plan, because grand plans can’t survive reality. Start with creating the basic application, then evolve it based on user reaction. Listening to others will make the end product better. Customize the experience (tabs, UI, widgets, events). This means lots of releases, lots of chances to get closer to getting it right. That got me thinking…could intelligent reaction be useful to more than just software development? What if people started to live their lives this way? Here are my thoughts on Life Development Through Intelligent Reaction. Don’t Be Obsessed with the Grand Plan Too often, we are so worried about getting to the result we desire, that we forget that the process is just as important. Why? Because each little step along the way is our chance to learn from others. Intelligent Reaction means taking a real-time approach to achieving your goals. Each day, as you strive to reach your goal, pay the most attention to the little steps you take on that path. This helps to ensure you don’t miss anything. Watch for those little signs, those circumstances that can become opportunities. And most importantly, learn from what those around you are teaching. Those people are there for a reason. Don’t step on their heads on the way to your goal. Bosworth is right. Grand plans can’t survive reality. Only by taking each step as it comes can you properly adjust along your path. Listening to Others Will Make the End Product Better Want to achieve something? Take a step. Afraid it’s not the right one? Take it anyway. Then listen. You’ll know pretty quickly based on the reactions of people around you whether you’ve taken the right step. If you have, then great. Keep going. If not, then listen some more. This is what Intelligent Reaction is all about. Listen. Do. Listen. Repeat. Unfortuately, many of us get so swept up in our own fears, trapped inside our own egos, that we can’t just stop and listen and learn. Who do you listen to? Seek out people whose opinion you value. LISTEN to what they have to say, whether it’s advice, words of encouragement or connections. But don’t just listen. Turn those words and gestures into action. If you don’t know, ask. If you still don’t know, ask again. Then guide your actions based on what you hear. Your end result will always be the best result possible. Create Lots of Releases In software development there are no perfect releases. With every new version, bugs are fixed, features are added, usability is increased (hopefully). But it’s never going to be perfect. There will always be new bugs. There will always be new features to add or improve upon. There will always be better ways to make it usable. With every release, there’s improvement, but it’s never complete. Each day when you get up in the morning, you have an opportunity to build your own new release. You can make adjustments based on the previous day’s bug reports, add a few new cool features, and open yourself to more feedback. Once a software bug is fixed, the users quickly forget about it. It’s the same in life. Did you seriously mess up yesterday? Well, do what you can to fix it, then forget about it. Today’s the only day you’ve got. Focus on improving today’s release, not on dwelling on the imperfections of yesterday’s. —— Intelligent Reaction is about more than just making something greater and bigger. It’s about making yourself open to feedback and being willing to make adjustments based on that feedback. It’s not about taking over the world with the latest greatest thing. It’s about taking small steps and adjusting as necessary in pursuit of that goal. In the end, not only do you stand to achieve more, but you will have truly made the journey worthwhile. What do you think?
Canada Day on Twitter
My idea is a simple one. Any Canadians who use Twitter should change their avatar picture to something that represents this great country of ours, in honour of Canada Day tomorrow. So get in there, Twitterers and get your maple leaf on! Happy Canada Day!
Celebrate Canada on Twitter
My idea is a simple one. Any Canadians who use Twitter should change their avatar picture to something that represents this great country of ours, in honour of Canada Day tomorrow. So get in there, Twitterers and get your maple leaf on! Happy Canada Day!