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 >>

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 >>

“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 >>

I’m thinking about beauty in design today, and how underrated yet essential it is. Something beautiful invites you in, welcomes you and uplifts you. Something ugly tells you to stay the hell away. Today I remembered that while searching for a place to learn aikido. A childhood dream Since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to learn martial arts. I love Yimou Zhang’s films (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Jackie… Read the rest of this article >>

We’ve done two groups of StrengthsFinder sessions and I thought I’d share the results since I’ve just finished the second and am on a real high from the energy, enthusiasm and connectedness that came from the discussion. An all-women StrengthsFinder session This second group was women-only, and after the results from this evening, I’m definitely keen to develop more sessions…. Read the rest of this article >>

If you know what you’re naturally good at, and do that every day, you are 300% more likely to be successful in your work and have a better quality of life. That’s according to research conducted by Gallup of over 10 million people over the past 30 years. Out of these findings, they’ve developed StrengthsFinder, an online survey to assess your top 5 “strengths” out of 34 different possibilities. What we’re… Read the rest of this article >>