The Touchwood Project

This morning I started the day with a mug of lemon-flavoured green tea and a TED.com video about how to be a great leader. The point of this talk is basically that people follow your cause or buy your product because they believe what you believe. Simon Sinek goes through the successful example of the Wright Brothers who, he argues, succeeded because they believed in the power of flight to change the world and… Read the rest of this article >>

Nothing like a bit of inspiration to start the day, so I’m posting a wonderful video talk we were introduced to last night by our two Couchsurfers, Jessica and Julie. It’s a talk given at TED (an inspiring conference featuring big name presenters) from a neuroanatomist who had a stroke and was aware of what was happening to her the entire time. I love how this woman, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, is so clearly being… Read the rest of this article >>

I’m always looking for ways to inspire myself and today I’ve come up with the “goal circle”. A goal circle is about figuring out one big goal you have and then seeing each day the progress you’re making towards achieving it. Some days all I can see is grey, grey, grey — all the things I haven’t done from the dishes and laundry to tax returns and web design work, and I have that moment of thinking I’m not really… Read the rest of this article >>

To the utopians, Trekkies, sci-fi dorks and all those who dream of a dazzling future: this one’s for you. Today I’m talking about the “Futuristic” strength in StrengthsFinder and how Futuristic people are going to help save the world. It’s part of an on-going series of articles on identifying and using your strengths with the help of tools like StrengthsFinder. (I know we still need to post about how the Power… Read the rest of this article >>

Overbearing corporate-ness is a problem with StrengthsFinder, its assumption that you must be manager at a Fortune 500 company if you’re reading it. That assumption turns off a lot of people, but there’s good stuff here if you can get past that. That’s why today I want to have a little creative fun while looking at the 4 categories of strengths in StrengthsFinder and how to use your type of strength to help you… Read the rest of this article >>

“Spinning makes you think of little old ladies.” Malcolm and I are sitting in the conservatory waiting for the sun to dip below the clouds and treat us to a rare sunset over the water. For the past several months, the sun had hidden behind the peaks of our neighbouring island, Hoy, and only for the next few weeks would it set right on the horizon before wending its way north to hide again, this time behind… Read the rest of this article >>

Have you taken Strengthsfinder and had “Ideation” as one of your top 5? Know someone who has? Today I’m writing about something pretty specific: how to develop Ideation as a strength. If you don’t know about Strengthsfinder, it’s a fantastic personal development tool I’ve written about before. Strengthsfinder has fundamentally changed how I live and work, helping me see what’s unique and wonderful about what I… Read the rest of this article >>

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” That’s the phrase circling around my head this morning as I watch another thrilling gust of snow sweep past the kitchen window. I’m thinking about the often delightful responsibility of being a dreamer, a storyteller, and how you tell a story that’s both honest and worth telling. A good story starts with the improbable or downright impossible I think… Read the rest of this article >>

“If I didn’t care what people thought, I’d…” I’d write on the blog about what I’m thinking about with Touchwood and life. I’d share this North Star stuff, the ever-changing plans and dreams, different projects I’m working on. The above sentences are from my notebook as part of an exercise from the book Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the life you were meant to live. There are a series of… Read the rest of this article >>

Lately I’m getting some concerned emails from my family in the US who worry I’m sacrificing myself for the planet, huddling miserably around a single light bulb, icicles forming on my nose. Ha. I assure you, I’m far too lazy to make all these changes for some distant noble cause. Nope, I’m doing it first and foremost because I’m enjoying myself, a point which a little adventure reminded me of recently. I’ll… Read the rest of this article >>