Live Each Day Like It’s Your First, Not Your Last

Most of my followers know about my Words of Power. The one I find myself using quite often as my Kennedy’s Disease progresses is, 

“I choose my attitude in every situation.” 

I find that much of my frustrations are the result of me clinging for dear life to my past abilities and capabilities. When I take a step back and change my attitude, it changes my perspective. When that happens, it is amazing how different I feel. I now become a problem solver rather than a problem hater.

I ran across this LifeHacker blog article and thirteen-minute video and need to share it. It is an important message about perspectives. Click on the link below for the full article and video.

LiveEach Day Like It’s Your First

“In a recent TEDx talk., Leanne Delle, a writer and registered nurse, explains the problem with “last day” mentality. While focusing on an expiration date can be motivating for some people, it’s stressful for most of us. It has all the makings of an existential crisis. It makes us feel we’re not doing enough and we’re not sure what we can or should do in that limited amount of time. Instead of living each day like it’s your last, Delle suggests the opposite:

Live each day as though it’s your first. If we live each day full of wonder and appreciation while discovering a genuine sense of joy, I believe that motivation for our truest passion would be more likely to present itself...I would argue that we can deal with day-to-day routine and responsibilities while pursuing our passion. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. …”

Magic … It is time for a little fun

My wife constantly tells me I have too much time on my hands since I retired.  Perhaps she is right. This post has nothing to do with Kennedy's Disease... and yet everything ... to do with 'living with Kennedy's Disease'.

Almost everyone enjoys magic.  I ran across these three videos on TED the other day and thought I would share them with you.  I felt great after watching these talented entertainers. 

Once again it proves that laughter is the best medicine! 

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This was an enjoyable five minute presentation that will get you warmed up for more tricks.

Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies

Using three iPods like magical props, Marco Tempest spins a clever, surprisingly heartfelt meditation on truth and lies, art and emotion.

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This is a fun twenty minute presentation of magic of the mind.  Keith’s second-sight demonstration is amazing.  The ending had me laughing so hard because a member of the audience believes he is smarter than the magician … until the tables are turned.  Enjoy!

Keith Barry does brain magic

First, Keith Barry shows us how our brains can fool our bodies -- in a trick that works via podcast too. Then he involves the audience in some jaw-dropping (and even a bit dangerous) feats of brain magic.

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This is a longer (31 minute) presentation, but Mr. Green is so funny and talented I could not stop watching.

Lennart Green does close-up card magic

Like your uncle at a family party, the rumpled Swedish doctor Lennart Green says, "Pick a card, any card." But what he does with those cards is pure magic -- flabbergasting, lightning-fast, how-does-he-do-it? magic.

Are you smiling? 

Do you feel better?

Just for the fun of it

We all need a laugh occasionally.  This joke hit my chuckle-bone this morning.

An elderly man is stopped by the police around 1:00 a.m. and is asked where he is going at this time of night.
 
The man replies, "I am going to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body."
 
The officer doesn’t believe the man and asks, "Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?"
 
The man replies, "That would be my wife."
 
More Ideas Worth Sharing

Several readers commented how much they enjoyed “TED – Ideas Worth Sharing.”  Since the last article I have watched several more presentations.  Below are some of my recent favorites.  They are more entertaining than educational this time.  Enjoy!

Bring Dinosaurs to Life 


Jack Horner: Building a dinosaur from a chicken is an entertaining yet  informative discussion on how make a chicken into a chickenosaurs.  On the serious side he explains how the embryo of a chicken actually has fingers and a long tail.  Then, through the genetics that takes place within the egg it modifies the original genes into what we know as a chicken.

The War Horse 


And for strictly entertainment watch Handspring Puppet Company: The genius puppetry behind War Horse .  This is so interesting because of the concept behind making puppets so real that you believe they are alive.  Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler bring the emotional complexity of animals to the stage with life-size puppets including the latest triumph, “War Horse”, who trots, prances and gallops.  Also, note the ears and tail, as well as the breathing, because it shows how they gave emotions to the horse’s personality.  This is truly amazing!

And, just for fun 


Gel:  Gotta share! is three minutes of improve fun on how far the social network has come.  It takes a serious subject (people who cannot unplug, unhook, or turn off their electronic devices), in my opinion, and has a little fun with it.  Enjoy!  

We are never too old to learn

This article is not about Kennedy’s Disease, or research, or personal experiences while living with this disease.  Today I am just saying that there is so much going on around us that we need to continually broaden our horizons.

If you have not tried TED – Ideas Worth Spreading, you are missing something.  I love to visit this site once a week and watch the latest presentations that peak my interest.  Some of the presentations are educational, others are entertaining, and some are just ‘WOW’.  Below are just four random examples of things you might expect to see on TED.

A Car for the Blind:

This nine minute presentation was interesting and provided the ‘WOW’ factor.  Dennis Hong: Making a Car for Blind Drivers really goes to the extreme of what modern scientists are capable of doing once they set their mind to something.  Watching the demo of an actual blind person driving the car around a track with obstacles being thrown in front of him is amazing.  No, it is not a robotic self-driving car, but a car that can actually be driven by a blind person.  Speed, route and other normal driving practices can all be controlled by the sightless driver.  Dr. Hong ended the presentation by revealing some of his emails and letters he has received about the vehicle.  One, for example, was so funny.  “Now I understand why there is Braille on a drive-up ATM machine.”  

Dennis Hong doesn’t plan on making these type vehicles available to the blind.  Yet, he emphasized that the spin-off applications that were discovered in building this vehicle could be used to make cars safer and might help make the sightless person live life more fully.

Innovations in Medicine

Daniel Kraft: Medicine’s Future offers a fast paced look of what to expect over the next few years in medicine that are powered by new tools, tests and applications that bring diagnostic information right to the patient’s bedside.

Icebergs

A few minutes ago I watched a five minute video on icebergs.  Camille Seaman: Haunting Photos of Polar Ice is fascinating in a strange way.  Ms. Seaman has given these icebergs a personality and a history with some photographed that are as young as a 1,000 years old and others that are over a hundred thousand years old.  The last scene of an iceberg rolling over in the ocean is astonishing.  Amazing stuff!

Music Anyone?

Cellist Maya Beiser plays for you in Maya Beiser and her Cello.  She is modern and inventive in her works and transforms sound in many ways.  Again, it is not what I was expecting and that is what makes it interesting.

Ted - Ideas Worth Spreading
 
These are just four random examples of dozens of presentations on technology, entertainment, design, business science, global issues and creativity.  The beauty is that TED is free.

I think you get the idea why I am excited about this website.  It keeps me coming back each week to peruse their directory because I want to learn and experience more.  Try it and let me know what you think.