"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."
Satchel Paige
US baseball player (1906 - 1982)
There's sitting, and then there's sitting.
A growing number of elementary school teachers are experimenting with a different seat for their students -- a stability ball.
Yes, those ubiquitous personal fitness devices, found at gyms and work out studios everywhere, and finding their way under the bottoms of energetic grade school students.
By discarding the desk chairs for the big, brightly-colored rubbery spheres, kids are able to work off some of their fidgets while concentrating on their work.
Grand Haven Michigan third grade teacher Tammy Beswick said she can already see the difference in the students in her Griffin Elementary School classroom who are using the balls as chairs.
"They seem to be able to focus better on what we're teaching them," she said. "This is just another alternative to help kids."
The theory is that when your whole body's engaged, your brain is more engaged.
Beswick told the Grand Haven Tribune that the balls are not for everybody, and that students have the option of using the stability balls or regular classroom chairs.
How is your mind/body connection working for you?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
That Inner Voice
Readers of this blog know that if I hear or see a good idea, I will share it. I claim no pride of authorship; good information should be shared no mater what the source.
Today, I have to be honest: I wish I were Melinda Beck.
At least, I wish I had written the excellent article Melinda Beck posted Tuesday on the Health page of the Wall Street Journal website.
Beck's article exposes the Inner Critic -- the little voice that all of us carry inside that offers constant commentary on what we're doing, how well we're doing it and the choices we make.
Quoting Beck: "Psychologists say many of their patients are plagued by a harsh Inner Critic -- including some extremely successful people who think it's the secret to their success."
Many coaches have another name for this Inner Critic. We call it "The Gremlin." It's a great visual -- a little alien voice that whispers "You don't really think you can do that." Or maybe it says, "Don't say anything. You'll only let people know how stupid you are." And this: "You can't think that man is smiling at you, the way you look."
The thing that makes gremlins so powerful is that we create them ourselves. The gremlins have access to the best material to use against their hosts, because they are privy to all our doubts and insecurities. And once they get our attention, the louder and more powerful they become.
The irony is that gremlins can serve a good purpose. We do need to exercise some caution before we take on a new task, a new role or a new relationship. Our inner voice can save use from doing something really stupid or really dangerous. It's there for a reason.
Yet, as Beck points out, the gremlin can get out of control:
Today, I have to be honest: I wish I were Melinda Beck.
At least, I wish I had written the excellent article Melinda Beck posted Tuesday on the Health page of the Wall Street Journal website.
Beck's article exposes the Inner Critic -- the little voice that all of us carry inside that offers constant commentary on what we're doing, how well we're doing it and the choices we make.
Quoting Beck: "Psychologists say many of their patients are plagued by a harsh Inner Critic -- including some extremely successful people who think it's the secret to their success."
Many coaches have another name for this Inner Critic. We call it "The Gremlin." It's a great visual -- a little alien voice that whispers "You don't really think you can do that." Or maybe it says, "Don't say anything. You'll only let people know how stupid you are." And this: "You can't think that man is smiling at you, the way you look."
The thing that makes gremlins so powerful is that we create them ourselves. The gremlins have access to the best material to use against their hosts, because they are privy to all our doubts and insecurities. And once they get our attention, the louder and more powerful they become.
The irony is that gremlins can serve a good purpose. We do need to exercise some caution before we take on a new task, a new role or a new relationship. Our inner voice can save use from doing something really stupid or really dangerous. It's there for a reason.
Yet, as Beck points out, the gremlin can get out of control:
"An Inner Critic can indeed roust you out of bed in the morning, get you on the treadmill (literally and figuratively) and spur you to finish that book or symphony or invention. The desire to achieve can get hijacked by harsh judgment and unrelenting fear."
Beck goes on to quote Daniel F. Seidman, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "There's a healthy version and an unhealthy version," Seidman says. "...[P]eople may achieve a lot, but they are totally miserable about it."
It's not an either/or situation. The inner voice can be a good thing. We can choose to listen to the gremlin. Or not.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Talk To Me
I've been saving a link to a Washington Post article published last month that analyzed social networking and other communications choices against dating profiles.
Reporter Monica Hesse writes: "Today, you can be a phone person, an e-mail person, a text person, a Skype person, a Facebook wall person, a Twitter person, an instant-messaging person, or you can just stare creepily into your webcam like that manga girl on YouTube."
I saved this article because it illustrates, beyond the dance of dating, how individual the art of communication can be. Quoting Hesse again:
"Each form of communication has its own followers and rules, which means dating today is a law of inverse proportions: As ways to communicate increase, the chances you will date someone who speaks your technological language decrease."
In the month since this article ran, the buzz on Twitter has blown up almost beyond recognition. Some are arguing that the flood of media attention may have caused Twitter to "jump the shark."
(For the unaware: "jump the shark" refers to a "Happy Days" episode where the uber-cool Fonzi character literally jumped over a shark in water skis while still dressed in his iconic leather jacket. Too much to be believed, and the popular television series began its final decline.)
Today I saw another sign that might indicate super-saturation of the Twitter phenomenon. The blog Politico.com reports that the revered Associated Press Style Book, used by editors and writers everywhere for reference, added Twitter to its listings.
Twitter officially has become legit.
A few hours later, another blog reported a different sign that the Twitter phenomenon could be in transition.
As I have written before, I've had a tough time getting comfortable with Twitter. And at the same time, I recognize that Twitter has been a liberating communications tool for millions of users in cyberspace. To quote Hesse again:
"We all want partners who understand us. We want people who appreciate not only what we say but how we say it. Facebook and MySpace, after all, would seem interchangeable only to people who had never used either one."
MySpace was up; now it's down. Facebook is hot, but maybe too hot among baby boomer for millennials to stay connected. Twitter is the Next Big Thing, or not.
Communications change, whether electronically or face to face. We're all required to be open to what is the best mode of communication for the people we want to connect with, and then meet them at that space if we really want to stay in touch. Whether it's hot or not.
Reporter Monica Hesse writes: "Today, you can be a phone person, an e-mail person, a text person, a Skype person, a Facebook wall person, a Twitter person, an instant-messaging person, or you can just stare creepily into your webcam like that manga girl on YouTube."
I saved this article because it illustrates, beyond the dance of dating, how individual the art of communication can be. Quoting Hesse again:
"Each form of communication has its own followers and rules, which means dating today is a law of inverse proportions: As ways to communicate increase, the chances you will date someone who speaks your technological language decrease."
In the month since this article ran, the buzz on Twitter has blown up almost beyond recognition. Some are arguing that the flood of media attention may have caused Twitter to "jump the shark."
(For the unaware: "jump the shark" refers to a "Happy Days" episode where the uber-cool Fonzi character literally jumped over a shark in water skis while still dressed in his iconic leather jacket. Too much to be believed, and the popular television series began its final decline.)
Today I saw another sign that might indicate super-saturation of the Twitter phenomenon. The blog Politico.com reports that the revered Associated Press Style Book, used by editors and writers everywhere for reference, added Twitter to its listings.
Twitter officially has become legit.
A few hours later, another blog reported a different sign that the Twitter phenomenon could be in transition.
As I have written before, I've had a tough time getting comfortable with Twitter. And at the same time, I recognize that Twitter has been a liberating communications tool for millions of users in cyberspace. To quote Hesse again:
"We all want partners who understand us. We want people who appreciate not only what we say but how we say it. Facebook and MySpace, after all, would seem interchangeable only to people who had never used either one."
MySpace was up; now it's down. Facebook is hot, but maybe too hot among baby boomer for millennials to stay connected. Twitter is the Next Big Thing, or not.
Communications change, whether electronically or face to face. We're all required to be open to what is the best mode of communication for the people we want to connect with, and then meet them at that space if we really want to stay in touch. Whether it's hot or not.
You Make Me Sick
A common feature in many offices is an unspoken culture of "illness stoicism" -- you know, the unsaid assumption that unless you have a fever north of 104 degrees, you WILL be at your desk.
It's a requirement for executives, managers and rank-and-file employees. It shows your commitment and loyalty. And especially in these times of recession and layoff -- who wants to take the risk of missing even a day at work?
Plus, your workmates need you, don't they? (Too scary to think about the possibility that they don't).
Except it's always been a pretty stupid approach, especially for business leaders who need their organizations to operate at optimum efficiency. And now there is new research to make that point.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm found that employees who often go to work feeling sick -- termed "sickness presenteeism" -- have higher rates of future work absences due to illness.
The study is published in the June issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but you can look at a wire service summary here.
The Reuters article doesn't even address the obvious risks of spreading infection throughout the workplace, thanks to "sickness presenteeism."
I'll add this: on a day when the World Health Organization elevates so-called Swine Flu (H1N1 influenza) to pandemic status, we all need to rethink the wisdom of "sickness presenteeism.
It's a requirement for executives, managers and rank-and-file employees. It shows your commitment and loyalty. And especially in these times of recession and layoff -- who wants to take the risk of missing even a day at work?
Plus, your workmates need you, don't they? (Too scary to think about the possibility that they don't).
Except it's always been a pretty stupid approach, especially for business leaders who need their organizations to operate at optimum efficiency. And now there is new research to make that point.
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm found that employees who often go to work feeling sick -- termed "sickness presenteeism" -- have higher rates of future work absences due to illness.
The study is published in the June issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but you can look at a wire service summary here.
The Reuters article doesn't even address the obvious risks of spreading infection throughout the workplace, thanks to "sickness presenteeism."
I'll add this: on a day when the World Health Organization elevates so-called Swine Flu (H1N1 influenza) to pandemic status, we all need to rethink the wisdom of "sickness presenteeism.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
"Play the Game You Know"
I am not a big sports fan, but I have enough sports fans in my life so that I can fake a certain amount of knowledge when major sporting events come up. And I can match a respectable amount of sports "smack" for my beloved Cleveland professional sports teams.
(And no, we cannot talk about the NBA. Not now. There's a large reserve of resilience that's required to be a Cleveland sports fans, but I can't talk about it now).
Anyway. Although I can negotiate my way around sports talk, I usually grow weary pretty quickly of all the sports metaphors that people regularly apply to conversations about politics, corporate competition and other parts of life. So please appreciate what Peter Bregman had to go through to reach me with his article for the Harvard Business website. Basically, Bregman says that if you're not making progress, maybe you need to change the rules of the game:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/06/play-the-game-you-know-you-can.html
(And no, we cannot talk about the NBA. Not now. There's a large reserve of resilience that's required to be a Cleveland sports fans, but I can't talk about it now).
Anyway. Although I can negotiate my way around sports talk, I usually grow weary pretty quickly of all the sports metaphors that people regularly apply to conversations about politics, corporate competition and other parts of life. So please appreciate what Peter Bregman had to go through to reach me with his article for the Harvard Business website. Basically, Bregman says that if you're not making progress, maybe you need to change the rules of the game:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/06/play-the-game-you-know-you-can.html
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Embrace the Rain
This is one of my favorite commercials right now. Not that I am endorsing Sprint or Nextel or any other wireless company. My favorite moment comes about seven seconds in -- you might call it Words To Live By:
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