Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #43

-by Jaime Willis


I read a post the other day in which the writer sets a word or phrase intention for the entire year. Not as specific as resolutions or goals, but just a state of being that they want to engender in everything they do that year. Matt's recent New Year's Post follows this thinking with his mantra to "Love More. Fear Less."

I sort of love the idea of this year being the year that I am stronger, braver, kinder, and more unstoppable. 2012 -- the year I will "Be Fierce."

By Kal Barteski

What about you? If you had to pick a word or phrase to embody in 2012, what would it be?

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #42

By Jaime Willis

Happy New Year!

A lot of you are probably spending some time thinking about resolutions for the New Year. I'll be back on Friday to talk to you more about setting intentions for 2012, but I thought I'd give you a few inspirational hints to whet your appetite.

Palliative care nurse reveals the top five regrets from her patients:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I didn't work so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish I had let myself be happier.

There's a lot more insight, so click the link above to read the whole article.

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #41

By Jaime Willis


Leslie, one of my teammates at Camp Mighty did the below visual journal entry of the talk Brian Piotrowicz did at Camp Mighty.  I love this so much, I've got it hanging on my wall at work.

The big takeaway from Brian's talk for me was learning to Set Your Intention.  Every day. For every decision.  When you live your life intentionally, you add focus and direction to all of your actions.  You infuse your daily life with things that you value.  You are happier.  You are more fulfilled.  You are you.

How can you be intentional today?

By Leslie from lightsandletters.com

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #40

By Jaime Willis

It's been over a year since Matt and I first conceived of the idea that became Velocity.  In the past year, we've had a ton of amazing experiences and even more fun.  None of this would be possible without your support and encouragement.  As you celebrate Thanksgiving this week, please accept our gratitude and appreciation that you are all a part of our Velocity family!

HT:http://stephaniereid.typepad.com 

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #39

By Jaime Willis

Last week, I had the awesome privilege of attending Camp Mighty.  While I can't wait to share all of the stories I have from that great experience, I wanted to give you a brief preview of one of the inspirational speakers I saw there.

Kenna, a grammy-nominated musician, born in Ethiopia and raised in Virginia Beach, Va, was inspired to do something BIG for clean water a few years ago.  When Kenna goes big, he goes BIG.  Check out the climb he put together with 42 people, including actress Jessica Biel, to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money & awareness for clean water. (Seriously -- the web page reenacting the climb is AWESOME).

Hear from Kenna why clean water is so important to him.

Hear from Water.org cofounder Matt Damon on the water crisis:

If this story inspired you like it did me, consider liking Water.org and Charity:Water on Facebook, donating money, spreading the word about the world water crisis, or volunteering your time!

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #38

By Jaime Willis

HT: incorrectlogin

I recently realized that my whole life philosophy may be summed up by a cheesy '80's movie.  How amazing a world would we live in if everyone strove to be excellent.  But not excellent just for themselves, excellent to and for everyone else as well.

Can you sum up your life philosophy in a few words?

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #37

By Jaime Willis

This week, I read a brilliant blog post by Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert). It was so good, I was a little miffed I hadn't thought of it first.

He said, "For today only, skip the usual negative comments and leave only optimistic thoughts based on real trends and actual news items. I'll start."

To pick a few examples he mentioned:

"Healthcare: It's better than at any time in human history. Doctors can successfully treat more problems than ever. It's expensive, but arguably there has never been a better value for your dollar."

"Iraq: We're getting out by the end of the year."

"Communication: We're all lucky to be alive in the age of the internet."

----

If you've known me in real life for any appreciable amount of time, you've probably been present to at least one instance where I've gone absolutely and positively ecstatically bananas excited for the time we are living in right now.

"We're living in the FUTURE!" I yell.

"Yes, Jaime, we know. The future," you quickly rejoinder, hoping it doesn't start another ten-minute soliloquy that ventures from the LHC to custom medicine to all things Apple. Sadly for you, it's difficult to get me to be quiet about how exciting the FUTURE of NOW is.

I really love Scott's blog post, because that's really the version of news I want to get every day. Sure, there are problems. Yes, I want to help solve them.

But I know, anecdotally and scientifically, that focusing on the negative doesn't help us.

How cool would that be to have a newspaper that reported every story from the best, most "opportunity-driven" point of view?

If you have a great headline for the Positivity Paper, leave it in the comments.

---

p.s. It's the future. And it's awesome!

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #38

By Jaime Willis

HT: Reddit

A recent Seth Godin post gave the following anecdote:

A friend was waiting to hear about the results of a job interview. He hadn't heard in a while and he asked me, "how long before I should start worrying?"

Of course, the answer is, "You should never start worrying."

Worrying is not a useful output. Worrying doesn't change outcomes. Worrying ruins your day. Worrying distracts you from the work at hand. You may have fooled yourself into thinking that it's useful or unavoidable, but it's not. Now you've got one more thing to worry about. 

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #37

By Jaime Willis


Be a strategic underdog!

In 2002, Steven Bradbury was the Australian Olympian in short track speed skating.  With American Apollo Ohno in the 2002 games, the likelihood of Steven winning a gold medal was slim to none.  In fact, before 2002, there was no southern hemisphere country that had won gold in a Winter Olympic event.

The 1000 meter race was Bradbury's fourth of the day, and he knew he didn't have the raw speed to beat any of the competitors.  So his plan was to hang at the back of the pack and hope that his competition wiped out, as frequently happens on the speed skating track.  With four competitors, only two needed to collide for him to medal.

What happens next is the stuff of legend.  With just 50 meters to go, all FOUR competitors wipe out and Steven skates past them to win gold -- a first for him, his country, and the entire southern hemisphere!

Lots of folks have said Bradbury's victory is a hollow one, but I disagree.  Bradbury knew he wasn't a front runner, but competed strategically.

"I was the oldest bloke in the field and I knew that, skating four races back to back, I wasn't going to have any petrol left in the tank. So there was no point in getting there and mixing it up because I was going to be in last place anyway. So (I figured) I might as well stay out of the way and be in last place and hope that some people get tangled up."

It's ok to be the underdog and there are even advantages to it.  Use those advantages strategically and you may end up with Gold!

Wednesday Weekly Inspiration #36

By Jaime Willis

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #35

By Jaime Willis

HT: retsevi86

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #34

By Jaime Willis

Sometimes, our heroic acts look just like normal life.  The video below is of a volunteer firefighter who didn't quite get the heroic moment he was looking for.

Courtesy of ted.com

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #33

By Jaime Willis

Today's inspiration is a funny one and a nerdy one, but inspiring nonetheless.

HT: redditor ss300oogle

Have a great Wednesday y'all!

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #32

By Jaime Willis

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #31

-By Jaime Willis

I urge you to please notice when you are happy and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.' -Kurt Vonnegut

Image by Balen55

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #30

-By Jaime Willis

I really love this idea from Improv Everywhere -- they set up a lectern in various public places of New York City, labeled it "Say Something Nice"  and videotaped the results.   Watch the video yourself:

Can you pay this forward today?  Say or do something unexpectedly nice to another person you meet!

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #29

-By Jaime Willis

This is an artist's imagining of Van Gogh's inspiration for Starry Night.  Click here to embiggen it.  I've stared at this for minutes and just love it.  I hope it inspires you to think BIG and think BOLDLY about your own life.

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #28

-By Jaime Willis

-From r/GetMotivated

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #27

-by Jaime Willis

As you may know, Matt and I committed to running a triathlon several months ago. Last week, two of the folks we were supposed to be running with dropped out. I have not been as diligent in my training as I could be, and Matt and I were discussing whether or not I should go to Luray this weekend or just wait and train better for the next one.

Even if I "fail" (which to me means I cannot finish the race -- either because I get swept off the course for time, am injured, or my bike breaks), I want to be able to say that I tried. And if I don't "fail," that will be one more chink in my armor of "look what happens when you don't stand in your own way."

This photo below is pretty appropriate, so I thought I'd share it for my Wednesday Inspiration.

I'm taking a chance on this triathlon this weekend. I'll report back, good or bad, next week. Wish me luck.

Weekly Wednesday Inspiration #25

-by Jaime Willis

I love this flow chart! Try it out the next time you are feeling stressed.