A man hired a carpenter to help him restore an old farmhouse.

The carpenter had a rough first day on the job.

First – a flat tire made him lose an hour of work. Then his electric saw quit. And at the end of the day – his pickup truck refused to start.

While the man who hired him drove him home – the carpenter sat in stony silence. On arriving home – the carpenter invited the man to come in and meet his family.

As they walked toward the front door – the carpenter paused briefly at a small tree – touching the tips of the branches with both hands.

Upon opening the door – he underwent an amazing transformation.

His tanned face was wreathed in smiles as he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

After introducing the man to his family – the carpenter walked the man to the car.

They passed the tree and the man’s curiosity got the better of him. He asked the carpenter about what he had seen him do earlier.

“Oh, that’s my ‘Trouble Tree’,” the carpenter replied. “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job – but one thing’s for sure – my troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.”

Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

It’s up to every one of us to decide what is truly important to us and to eliminate all of the negative self-doubts that we may have for whatever reason.  Self-doubts are a dangerous and infectious and lead to a downward spiral that will feed off of itself to negatively affect your health and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are always going to be worries and they have a habit of eating away at us, though it’s amazing that when you look at the things that have been worrying you in hindsight, they only seem like minor nuances and you wonder why you thought they were so major at the time.

You’re never going to be able to eliminate these worries, though we can control how we react to these worries and that is what is most important.

If you choose to learn from your worries instead of feed into them, you will be able to accomplish anything you dream…

Get out there and start living….

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Google is always looking for ways to ensure you can find what you’re looking for in the least amount of time when you “Google” a question and today they’re announcing a huge leap forward to help us find exactly what we want to find with less clicks!

Google is changing what’s under the hood of their search engine and moving from an information engine to a knowledge engine, which is now going to incorporate a new tool called the “Knowledge Graph”.

With the introduction of the Knowledge Graph, Google will be able “to think more like a human does” by analyzing the search query beyond just a random string of characters and instead make connections between the words and phrases to lead you to what you’re looking for.

On top of this, Google will summarize relevant content and key facts around the topic you’re searching for to predict what your next question would have been and leads you in the right direction before you even know it.  Google continues to utilize all of the data they gain from the billions of previous searches and they call the Knowledge Graph a huge collection of the people, places and things in the world that also includes how they’re connected to one another.

The new search capabilities will be rolling out immediately for selected users in the States, followed by a full scale adoption over desktop, tablets and mobile in the coming months.

Click here to watch a video from Google highlighting the Knowledge Graph.

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Through a foundation that provides no strings attached $1000 grants to projects and their creators to forward the interest of awesomeness in the universe!!  A foundation that takes advantage of Guerrilla Funding to help support multiple mini projects for good!

Well, here is the answer — The Awesome Foundation which consists of a handful of loosely connected groups in the US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Switzerland and a few other countries that have formed various chapters that are made up of 10 volunteers who each offer $100 a month towards the grants, aka “Awesome Fellowship”.  The awards are offered monthly and applicants can apply by filling out a quick application that only asks three questions.

“It really started as joke,” says Tim Hwang, who created the concept in Boston in 2009 not long after graduating from Harvard University. “I wondered what would happen if there was a group with the mandate to fund projects that ‘forwarded the interest of awesomeness in the universe’ and people could just pitch ideas.”

So far projects have ranged from the serious like solving human needs problems to “Poo Power” and  “Come out and Play”.

“The Awesome Foundation’s approach makes it easy and fun for people to contribute to their communities by bringing together a smart, networked group of people and giving away money,” says John Bracken.

Here is yet another example of a simple idea that can help jump start the next “Awesome” thing!!

Here’s a short TED Talk that explains it in a bit more detail…

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The joys of facebook – It allows us to share photos, keep up with our friends, play games, enjoy the latest viral videos, and save lives.  What, save lives?

You got it, Facebook has introduced a new status update that allows you to share for the world to see that you’re an organ donor.  The best part about this is that it makes it extremely easy to sign up to be an organ donor in your state if you’re not already one with a few simple clicks.  And for those of you that already are, now you can proudly share it, which will hopefully encourage a few others to do the same and on and on it goes….

This is a simple idea that can help the over 100,000 people here in the US that are waiting for a donated organ.  This move by facebook harnesses the power of its platform and social media to educate and spread the word that each one of us has the chance to be a true hero and save someone else’s life!! I’ve always been proud when someone has looked at my drivers license and noticed I’m an organ donor – Now I have the chance to let all of my friends know and I’m hopeful it will convince a few more to step up to the plate and do the same….

You can start the process by clicking here and here’s an interview that explains it a bit more

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How do you normally tell a story?  Maybe you start off by providing the listener with some background, and then work your way into the plot and of course, there’s the overall theme, which is why we’re telling a story to begin with.  All of these elements get tied together in a nice little package and then we move on to the next.

Everyday we not only tell stories, we live them.  And the interesting thing about this is that they don’t have to follow the same pattern – we can shake it up a bit and enjoy what the kaleidoscope surprises us with!  Sarah Kay gave an exceptional TED talk discussing how she helps children believe in their abilities and face their challenges through opening their minds and helping them find what they are passionate about.

She reminds us that life is like writing a story and we can face it through 3 steps:

Step 1 – I can do this

Step 2 – I will continue

Step 3 – The importance of infusing the work you’re doing with the specific things that make you, you.

It’s the realization of the potential we all have, it’s not just about what you know, it’s about using these tools to dive in headfirst and learn even more!! “Grow, Explore, Take Risks, and Challenge Yourself!”

And enough of me talking, here’s the TED video for you to enjoy….

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Some may say that Frans Hofmeester had a bit too much time on his hand when he diligently videoed snippets of his daughter growing up every week for the past 12 years, though his creation is brilliant.

He put together these short clips (around 600) to show how his daughter Lotte has changed over the years in a video that is a little under 3 minutes long.  It’s one thing to get the idea, though it’s another to actually follow through with the creation and it’s amazing how such a simple idea can make such a profound statement.

What ideas have you been working on?  What have you started, though haven’t had the motivation to complete? As the old saying goes – “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”  Break up your goals into bite size little pieces and enjoy them along the way.  Before you know it you’ll be ordering your second elephant, heck, even Frans saw though potential and started filming snippets of his son Vince since the day he was born and he’s now 9 years old!

Here’s the video – Enjoy…

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PS – I can just imagine the field day he’s going to have with all of this video when his kids bring their first date over!!

I want to thank my friend Mike Lally for highlighting this great video of a father driving his kids to school.  And now you’re asking yourself, why do I care??

Because they have one of the coolest routines ever – they all sing Bohemian Rhapsody on their way to school!!!  The best part is that even the little brother who’s strapped into his children’s seat is jamming away!!

Their smiles, enthusiasm and passion is contagious and we can all learn something from this.  Can you imagine starting your day in this make shift cover band??  You would be ready to take on any challenge, overcome any obstacle and laugh at your TPS reports!!! And I can imagine their going to dominate their schools talent show….

Bring on the day and enjoy everything that it has to offer….

And now to their performance…

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We’re all busy with our day to day routines making sure we get all of our tasks completed.  Though this past Friday, for a brief moment, some of us were luckily enough to see the space shuttle Enterprise welcomed to it’s new home in New York on the Intrepid and reminded of the power of our dreams and what we can accomplish.

President Kennedy stoked the coals of our innovation and imaginations when he reminded us that we undertake these challenges willingly not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because by overcoming these challenges we become better than we initially are.

Now compare this to your own dreams – What are they?  How are you going to accomplish them?  What is preventing you from achieving your greatness?

“I’m Alive
Got one shot and I’m taking it to you
I’m Alive
I’ve come to realize not a moment too soon
This is my one small step
This is my Walk on the Moon”

Great Big Sea “Walk on the Moon”

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Yesterday we chatted about the potential of Ted Ed and we touched on the idea of “Flip this lesson” which is a feature in Ted Ed.  The idea is based on “Flip Teaching” and is going to allow us to create, build and utilize any video to use as a learning tool. How incredible is this!!

Ted Ed has already created heaps of Ted Ed videos, which already have various “Flip Teaching” tools incorporated into them.  They include quizzes, comments, and further detail about the subject, which we can use now as a supplement to classroom learning. You can also track your own progress or the progress of the individuals that you assign the lessons to through various tools that have been incorporated.
Though, Ted Ed also is giving us the ability to create our own “Flip Teaching” with any video on YouTube using a simple to use template that incorporates all of the things I mentioned above…. This is amazing!!

Last night after I blogged about Ted Ed my mind starting thinking of the possibilities.  As a fireman, I’m always interested in different instructional videos that other departments have posted online and we’ve utilized a few of these in our in-house training, though now we’re going to have the tools to “Flip” these videos and use these as supplemental learning tools to further our hands on training.

We can utilize these videos (or ones that we create) and build learning lessons around them using Ted Ed and then allow our members to view these on their own time.  We can then monitor their progress and questions, which will help lead us to where we need to concentrate more on.

This is just one simple instance where we can utilize the Ted Ed “Flip this lesson” and the possibilities are endless!!

Let’s get out and learn…..

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Students have been learning the same way for centuries and here is another new tool that is being used to help reinvent the philosophy of learning and better utilize technology to encourage innovation, creativity and a true thirst for knowledge.

I’ve been a huge fan of TED talks for a while now and for those of you that have never experienced the power and inspiration of a TED talk, you need to check them out.  In short, TED (Technology Entertainment Design) are “riveting talks by remarkable people” from all around the world and all types of backgrounds.  They are short (10min – 20 min) talks about Ideas that can change the world.

TED has now introduced TED ed which is a series of short animated videos (less then 10 min) that have been submitted by teachers from around the world.  The goal is to amplify the world’s best teachers and allow them to enrich the lives of so many more then ever possible.  These videos can then be able to be incorporated into lesson plans or compliment coursework and encourage students to “Stay Curious” and become life long learners.

Another key is a “Flipping Feature” which allows teachers to turn a video into a customized lesson that can be assigned to students or shared more widely. You can add context, questions, and follow-up suggestions to any video on TED-Ed or YouTube.  There are even customizable quizzes where you can track your students’ progress and participation.

The flipping concept originated from the teaching method that encourages classroom time as learning and interaction, while outside of the class students read, watch videos and can take assessment tests.

Now let’s get started by watching the below Ted Ed video….

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