Booking In

Time to get some bliblio-goodness and stuff it in my brain.

Buying books online is like an all you can eat dessert buffet. I walk up and down several times perusing what is on offer, making mental notes of what seems better quality and more exotic, all the while knowing that I will also return and take a portion of my very favourite comfort food as well (apple crumble yummmm!).

So this is what I just ordered from our good friends at Amazon to beat the Christmas shipping rush.

The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite

If there is a more exciting way of doing things I will, even if it means doing exactly the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey

Ever since I first watched Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk I have been meaning to get her book. Her passion about her subject and expressing what she experienced really got under my skin. Hope the book is as good as the movie!

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

I really must change the Brain Rules link over there —> I have read at least half a dozen books since then. I am getting this one because of a poke in the conscience I got from professional a week or so back. Brain Rules touches on the core subject of this book, humans are meant to move and learn, not sit an learn … that gives me an idea.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Old Seth doesn’t do it for me like he used to, but leadership is one of my passions and he does say things that gets my head into higher gear.

Flip Video Camcorder: 60-Minutes (White)

I have a little video camera….somewhere. It disappeared into the ether the other week. Great excuse to buy a little Flip because I “need” one and the price on this one is too hard to pass up.

Allison Reynolds Makes The Grade

Allison Reynolds the Movie? You might have noticed the video I have just posted ( Allison Reynolds the Movie ) and wondered “what on earth is she doing?!?!?!”.

To recap, I have been working to ensure that my blog ranks #1 for the Google search term Allison Reynolds.

For many of you out there that might not be an issue as you have unusual names, or there is not that much in the way of competition, or you have some awesome backlinking going on. But woe is me, my name happens to coincide with that of a character from an 80’s cult movie and that means I have some pretty stiff competition from fan sites and entertainment trivia type sites.

It is pretty important to your internet image to be able to be instantly found by a search for your name. Sure it may seem like a huge vanity trip to be fighting for that #1 position, yet when you think about how hard names are protected in business you should realise that your name is a huge part of your “brand”.

Exhibit A

After 6 months the blog has worked its way up from position 7-9 to position 1 & 2 according to SEO type measurement (yay!!!!) . For the average punter looking for my name there are those two pesky YouTube videos at the top.  Hmm, how does one get around those two. Well first is to have some competition against them, which means….videos.

If you search YouTube for Allison Reynolds this is what you will see

Now I Have a video up there from a year ago for my fund-raising activities and I am going to leave that doing what it does. What I need now is something that can be linked to the blog and possibly get a leg up from the blog’s authority.  You will note that to get to top position in YouTube I need to get 17k+ views and 5 stars. Well when people catch on that there is one frame in my video of me totally naked I am sure I will grab a few more views (that is totally a joke …. maybe).

Until then it will be same old, same old. Building more authority, and I am an expert in me

Get Real!

I have this weird brain thing going on at the moment after this open letter . See I KNOW that the IM gurus are big users of NLP, and they understand that if you put two things side by side, we humans will make a connection between them.

So why put put a major name in IM against the term “male chauvinist” and have the female “staff” from an organisation back up that anchoring.

Hmmm.

So let’s add “car crash gawking” , name dropping and controversy and you have either me thinking too much (probably the case) versus an abortion of an attempt at damage control.

Get real guys, we don’t need every response manufactured to death. We are big kids and we know how this goes down, it might work for the real non-IM people out there, but for anyone in the biz, we are frowning and tch tching.

Getting To Know You

Currently I am struggling with staying focused on my day job. I have created the finish line (Dec 1 2010) and as each day brings me closer to that date, I feel less and less inclined to put in 100%.  So to make sure I am squeezing every last drop of enthusiasm and excitement I can from my current role I have gone back to what my core strengths are and am applying them every day to the tasks at hand.

Do you know what your core strengths are?

A great place to get a generic cultural core strength evaluation (VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire) is at this University of Pennsylvania site.  After completion make sure you are looking at your top 5 and nothing else. Remember your strengths are what is going to push you through a task, not your weaknesses.

Curious about what core strengths are?

Here are mine…..

Your Top Strength

Love of learning

You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.
Your Second Strength

Creativity, ingenuity, and originality
Thinking of new ways to do things is a crucial part of who you are. You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible.

Your Third Strength

Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

Your Fourth Strength

Humor and playfulness
You like to laugh and tease. Bringing smiles to other people is important to you. You try to see the light side of all situations.

Your Fifth Strength

Zest, enthusiasm, and energy
Regardless of what you do, you approach it with excitement and energy. You never do anything halfway or halfheartedly. For you, life is an adventure.

Can you see the enormous value of this information? (can you also see by telling you this you now know how to engage me to do whatever you want with promises of the above *wink*. Wouldn’t that be handy information to know about anyone you interact with!)

For me the goal every day when I wake up is to now

1) look for what I can learn new from my work

2) look at how I can reorganise processes around the place to work in a better way

3) poke my nose into a new area and check out what is happening there

4) keep having fun with everyone

5) remember that my current job is part of my life’s adventure, and that my enthusiasm is infectious

Funnily enough, all of these things are what attracted me to my job in the first place. I have the opportunity to run wild and do these things, be paid to do them, and I learn a hell of a lot more than I ever would just as a technical specialist.

I may not love my job as much as I used to any more, but I am not going to let that continue to affect my productivity or my attitude in the office.

B.A.D Poverty

Blog Action Day 2008. The day when bloggers around the world write about a pressing issue. This year is poverty.

Have you seen poverty? Up close?

My travels in Vietnam and India took me to places that were bereft of any forms of modern comfort. A roof made from garbage, over a dirt floor and an open fire for cooking; was all that designated one family from another.

This kind of poverty cannot be escaped. No miracles will pluck the deserving from the muck. Money rarely trickles down this far, and the pennies that do are used for the absolute essentials. It is a life that we can only imagine and even then I doubt if we could really understand.

I have my own (probably horribly naive) thoughts about poverty. How some economies depend on it. How those economies require the equivalent of human dung beetles who turn garbage/effluent into usable items for existance. Still we as humans can do better (yet I don’t think our western type lifestyles are the “better”).

So I support the notion of micro-lending and have put money into Kiva. Where the local (women mostly) entrepreneurs build businesses that will help their local area (and remember these businesses are still streets above those in extreme poverty) because the more “real” money that starts circulating at that level the more there will be to trickle down even further.

Just a thought….