Inspiration Sunrise

Inspiration appears elusive.

Thrash and Elliot parse this even further in that inspiration requires evocation, something without intention, transcendence, rising above the mundane, and approach motivation, the desire to actualize this thought. Brain wise, firing neurons attempt to connect to other neurons, exploring adjacent connections. Random firings connect with one another. Hopefully eventually.

Approach motivation requires intrinsic drive. Extrinsic rewards, money, does not have the same effect. More money might attract a larger team of people capable of inspiration, but once you have them, even more money would not cause even greater inspirations occurring. Having a team of inspired people together can cause a cascade of even more inspiration. Negative nellies, can damper the inspirational spirit. 

Inspiration requires privacy, downtime, and abstract thinking. Possessing the ability for abstract thought allows the individual to breakdown a problem or opportunity into its component parts and identify the patterns or themes giving rise to the problem or opportunity.

Inspiration requires mind preparation.

Sundays can do that for you.

#innovation #opportunity #empathy #connect #learning #creativity #mindfulness #inspiration #sundaymotivation

New Delhi

In Langar Hall, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib at Connaught Place in New Delhi, we were able to witness the charitable work that is carried on.

Huge cauldrons are used to provide food for the thousands of people that come through the hall.

No tables or chairs. People sit on the floor. Hundreds more sit outside waiting their turn.

Mushroom Heaven

Managed to see more mushrooms near Lake Winnipeg than I have for a while. Shown above, I came across a nice family of Bolets. Fried up these are great with steaks. Without my in house medical and risk officer nearby, I demurred from eating any this weekend.

 

 

The others I came across appeared rather toxic, although lovely to look at. These fungi of course play an integral role with the ecosystem.

Chasing Inspiration

 

Do you ever wonder where the inspiration for innovation comes from? It can be like chasing a 6 month old puppy in the park. It’s better for them to come to you. I suggest bacon treats in your pocket.

Dogs are great. Our office has a welcome dog policy. We have two golden retrievers, McGuire and Seamus. They constantly remind me how to facilitate inspiration.

Do you ever walk into the kitchen, and forget why you went in there?

McGuire and Seamus experience life like that. Every change is new and exciting all the time. It’s transcendence.

Coping skill, when you enter the kitchen, just keep moving, and you will pass by whatever it was that you were thinking about and the thought process will be rebooted.

 

#life #business #innovation #entrepreneurship #mindfulness #motivation #personaldevelopment #creativity #personalbranding

Monday morning motivation

Sunrise on Lake Winnipeg today. Bald Eagle upper right waiting for breakfast. Early bird gets the fish. The start of a new day holds endless opportunities. But if you want fish, then you have to wait for it.

#business #life #motivation #mindfulness #personaldevelopment #personalbranding #mondaymotivation

Items found in a toxic work culture.

Handy list of items found in a toxic work culture.

The organization ignores the healthy basics. Instead of healthy snacks, the vending machines are filled with sugar, salt, surgery salt, solidified fats and over-the-counter stay-awake medications

The company implies the need to be constantly on line. Perhaps they hand out those little rechargeable battery packs as bonus gifts so your phone can always be fully charged.

The company does not mandate any time off. Employee of the month photos show sallowed faces, and instead of listing how many days without injury, employers list the number of days a staff has gone without a vacation.

The company opposes flexible work arrangements since the attitude appears to that freedom is slavery.

The top management possess the complete works of Franz Kafka, George Orwell and that dystopian one by William Golding.

The company maintains a great benefit plan, but it only covers over the counter products such as Red Bull and Rolaids.

You look up the LOA policy and it only refers to lots of aggression.

If you have one or more of these items in your workplace, then perhaps consider changing the culture or finding a new one.

#business  #life #motivation #personaldevelopment#leadership #personalbranding

Driving innovation

Innovation Process outlines some of the main steps for facilitating innovation. This includes inspiration, creativity, motivation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Easily remembered by the acronym I C ME Innovating!

Inspiration can be the most elusive. Some aspects can be like chasing a puppy in the park. Other parts can be like waiting for the puppy to come to you.

#designthinking #entrepreneurship #leadership #innovation #motivation #creativity #business

Delayed Gratification

Being able to delay gratification apparently provides an indication that those people will do well in life. They are prepared to obtain more education and do more market research before leaping into the fray based on gut instinct.

Well while working at the cottage, I started dinner prep a bit late. I started the stove top and preheated the pan. I already planned to have the ice cream after dinner. Since dinner was another 20 mins, why not have the ice cream first. Life is short right? Right?!

At age 62, I finally succumbed and had my desert first. The benefits of this is that you can always have dessert again. After.

But watch the gut instinct aspect. It is always watching.

 

Before Meat

Ok. I had to look into this further as to why Tim Hortons dropped beyond beef.

I can understand the need to make a Pea Protein Isolate look like beef in order to entice the non-belivers to give it a try. The beet juice extract for that rich blood like color had me sold.

When eating beet salads, just be wary of the next morning constitutional when it might look like you have a bleeding ulcer when you are actually trying to do the right thing.

Their website has a nice breakdown of what they do to make it look like meat. So good on them to entice people over to the kinder side of life.

Water, Pea Protein Isolate*, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Refined Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Natural Flavors, Cocoa Butter, Mung Bean Protein, Methylcellulose, Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Vinegar, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Sunflower Lecithin, Pomegranate Fruit Powder, Beet Juice Extract (for color).

A little laid back research did not tell me why they dropped it. Just didn’t attact a sufficent market perhaps. Perhaps Vegan people don’t like mass produced coffee.

I did have one thought of the product name, Beyond Meat. Usually the peas and other plants go into the animals before they are slaughtered. So a more appropriate name would ‘Before Meats’.

Just a thought.

#life #personalbranding #vegan

Beyond Meat and back again

Tim Hortons debrided Beyond Meat from its menu.

Debridement is the medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue. Removal may be surgical, mechanical, chemical, autolytic, and by maggot therapy. Wikipedia

I am not completely sure why when I saw this headline, the concept of debridement immmediately leapt to mind.

Perhaps its the slightly ironic comparison of debridement, the removal of damaged meat tissue, and the Beyond Meat headline, which is the removal of a damaged non-meat product from the menu.

When I go to Tims, the last thing that comes to mind is a meat product, or a non-meat product.

Apple fritters or death. Actually, a box of apple fritters sort of guarantees the latter, later.

 

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels