How Positive Learning and Community Motivate Change

Appreciating Positive Change, Learning and Community 

Finding meaning in your work, creating your art and gathering knowledge are pursuits that transform personal well-being, businesses, and society a like. The movement forward requires imagining possibilities, perseverance, and hope of a bright future. There is learning, sharing of this knowledge, and mindful awareness of each step on your journey to realize your dreams. This requires bringing your strengths to the table; the best version of you and what you provide to your tribe, community, or workplace.

There is a process of motivating change called Appreciative Inquiry(AI). The focus of AI is targeted learning from a positive frame to accelerate the behavior-change process. This process can be applied to individual or group settings.

Principles of Appreciative Inquiry

There is a underlying question as you move through the AI change process. This question is, "How do I get that?"

• Choose the Positive as the Focus of Inquiry
• Inquire into Positive Moments
• Share the Stories
• Create Shared Images of the Future
• Innovate and Improvise to Create that Future

Personal Learning Journey

http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/10/what-do-i-want-to-learn-about-learning/

It was 10 years ago that creating a personal learning environment  became an idea. Around this time I was introduced to expanding my physical therapy practice to include wellness and coaching. The book that set this in motion was written by +Lynn Grodzki, Building Your Ideal Private Practice: A Guide for Therapists and Other Healing Professionals (2000). In this book was content that opened my eyes to delivering information and service to my clients, further defining how I do my work, and continuing to find my niche. 

The Journey always begins with now, an attention to the present moment. Awaking to the positive images, details and richness of what is right before us; mindful and aware.

"Our standards change when we are infected with a new awareness." 

 +Ryan Nicodemus (www.theminimalists.com)

A mindful awareness of the present gives positive movement on the journey. This rewards us with health and well-being, creativity and meaning in our actions.

Mindfulness has continued to be a personal learning influence first inspired by the readings of Jon Kabat-Zinn(Full Catastrophe Living) and Saki Santorelli(Heal Thy Self). These books, initially just foot-noted resources in the Building Your Ideal Private Practice, would not have been discovered without some openness to learning and attention to the small print.

Through my work as a physical therapist, learning resources, and exposure to social influences, I have continued to build on this personal learning environment, and my journey to now.

The Future: Always Forward, Never Straight

It is now thirteen years later. The social media networks and platforms that are available for learning, sharing and networking with others, has expanded my personal learning environment, and the possibilities of what the future may(will) bring. Being exposed to and taking part in the +Google+ movement of content curation, social sharing and communities, learning opportunities and business networking, is a shift in learning and a new way of doing business. I am constantly inspired by the stories of those on their own journey, and the kindling of my own. 

+Robin Good (masternewmedia) is a wealth of knowledge in content curation, as seen by following this link to his scoop.it page.

He makes an excellent scoop of Ben Bett's content on  Framework for Using Content Curation in a Learning Organization.

These insights include:

Inspiration through curating community feedback and insights.

Aggregation of curated resources are better than courses.

Integration, or Personal Knowledge Management(PKM), for curation and critical thought as a core to the teaching and learning processes. 

Application of curation as a personal "learning locker".

See the Personal Knowledge Management White Paper, by +Harold Jarche  at:http://www.jarche.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/PKM-2013.pdf

The PKM framework elaborates on capturing knowledge by using:

Seek > Sense > Share

• Seeking to find things out and keeping up to date.

• Sensing is how we personalize information and use it.

• Sharing includes exchanging and collaborating within our networks and colleagues. 

The social platform of Google Plus, Scoop.it has enabled the sharing of daily learning and thought provoking experiences in communities and the social stream. Finding purpose and making sense of the information is the creative challenge.

Fitness and Nutrition

Because Fitness is not a Coincidence

Fitness & Nutrition Community

+Ryan Hanley
Providing valuable content with his +Content Warfare podcasts. I recommend listening to his podcast with +Dino Dogan on Human Engine Optimization.

+Neila Rey 
Providing valuable content and inspiring infographics with tips on health, fitness and personal challenges.

+Plus Your Life! 
+martin shervington has been a valuable resource for learning all things Google, and his quotations provide a dose of motivation, inspiration and thought.

When we anticipate the future with positivity we become more creative, resilient and resourceful. This is strengthened with a positive vision that is proleptic.

These communities and individuals provide social engagement with positive questions and reflections that can be re-purposed in your business, health or lifestyle pursuits. 

'Words do not create worlds 

unless they are shared with others.'

There is a positive shift in conversations and interactions that allows participants to flourish. The moment that you ask a positive question, share a positive story, or share a positive reflection their is the possibility of change in the world that you live. Positive relations and engagement are vital to the well-being and quality of life.

Circle of Giving: Why Give Away Your Expertise? from +Mark Traphagen 

There is a positive change that when you create or design content and share this knowledge, perpetuating the circle of giving.

In the words of Jim Rohn,

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by Change"

The possibilities and seeds of change are everywhere. Magnificent work that strengthens the resolve to do better business, take better care of your health and nutrition, provide motivation and inspiration are all at your finger tips.

Positive energy and emotions lead to positive actions and outcomes. We can not do this alone. Through these interactions and conversations there are stories and frameworks developed. In the words of Zander and Zander,

"We might as well invent a story or framework of meaning that enhances our quality of life and the life of those around us."

Whether you are listening to the health of your body, business, or life in general, positive change can take place if there is a focus on strengths. Inherent in all of us is the strength that exists in some aspect of our life; a best version of what there is to offer, shared in the form of expertise, action toward a bright future, and well-being, as an individual and as a member in a thriving community. 

I would appreciate any feedback that you may have regarding Appreciative Inquiry, Personal Knowledge Management, Personal Learning Environment, and how you use content to learn, share and expand your pursuits in business, health and wellness.

What do you want to change?

How will you get there?

How to Achieve Success with a Dose of Grit and Willpower

Dose of Grit and Willpower: How to Achieve Success

GRIT: Defined

To achieve success in any endeavor requires skill and knowledge, and a good dose of Grit and Willpower. Success comes to those that are able to endure through hardship and setbacks. 
Great accomplishments are found in athletic, business and personal stories with those individuals having modest levels of natural ability, educational background, IQ, or social standing.

There are many stories of great athletic performance that are told of the guy or gal that was too small, too slow, or did not go through the acceptable route to achieve at a high level. Some of these stories have been made into Hollywood Movies:

Michael Oher, "The Blind Side"

Rudy Ruettiger, "Rudy",

And then there are the teams of notable over achievers like the legendary upset victory of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team.

Overcoming personal obstacles are what makes for success in life, and sometimes these stories become legend. There are those that have succeeded despite physical handicap, like Amy Palmiero-Winters, that ran a marathon in 3 hours and 4 minutes after losing a leg in accident. She was quoted, "nothing good is ever easy and is never done alone".

+Les Dossey  emphasizes that getting Gritty is a "journey not a sprint".

These stories demonstrate that with willpower and grit you can be inspired to overcome adversity despite physical limitations, or lack of natural physical ability. This is held true to pursuing a business opportunity, mastering a new skill, our children's education and health pursuits.

What often gets in our way is ourselves', this constant battle between what we want to do and what we should do. Acting with willpower, or that ability to resist short-term temptations in order to reach long-term visions, or goals. +Kelly McGonigal a leading authority on willpower, and author of Willpower Instinct explains that(see video) controlling willpower is all about understanding the psychology of willpower.

"The biggest enemies of willpower:temptation, self-criticism, and stress. (...) these three skills - self-awareness, self-care, and remembering what matters most -- are the foundation for self-control".  - Kelly McGonigal

You can strengthen your Willpower by these three ways:

• Plan for times when your self-control is depleted. Do not grocery shop when you are hungry, and tired from a long day of work.
• Exercise you willpower muscle. By regularly working on your willpower through mental and emotional challenges you are actually strengthening your self-control for the long-term.
• Drink a glass of Fresh Fruit Juice. Glucose provides a dose of blood sugar that helps with mental function, and willpower.

Achieving success must have a strong dose of willpower, and that ability to look at how your present actions require attention for future, long-term benefit.

What is Grit?

Showing up to do the work, over and over. Spending extra hours scouring through game film and opponent tendencies. Listening to book on tape, or a YouTube video on learning and doing by  +Timothy Kenny , writing between the lines of a book, making note cards and studying them in short chunks of time, all add up to a single-minded focus on a task. This is GRIT. It is a consistency of passion and effort in the face of struggle or obstacles. It is not about how your actions benefit a short-sighted goal, but that which adds to the skill and knowledge for the long-term goal. Effort builds knowledge and skill.

Maria Popova of Brainpickings says it best,

"Character is at least as important as intellect"

as she reviews the work of McArthur Genius Award winner, Angel Duckworth.

Angel Duckworth - "...have the qualities of dogged perseverance and sustained passion toward long term goals. she coined a term for this quality: GRIT. Duckworth believed GRIT could predict success above and beyond traditional metrics of intelligence such as IQ."

Research by Duckworth suggests that Grit is as influential to high achievement as intelligence.

How Much Grit do You Have?

Take the Short GRIT Scale to see how Gritty you are. 

Positive character traits of self-control, willpower and grit can benefit, and add skill and knowledge. The energy put forth to achieving a goal comes in the form of extra effort, or spending time on a task, and having passion toward what you are striving for.

Elements to successfully build achievement:

• Speed of thought about a task. This is in terms of knowledge and skill a person has about a task.
• Executing deliberate planning, creativity and reflection are slow processes that improve the outcome.
• The ability to accumulate information in a specific unit of time, that becomes knowledge, on a given task. 
• The more time on a task, or effort, will benefit the knowledge and skill needed to achieve a goal.

Personal achievement in your life endeavors is an element of well-being, and one that will allow you to flourish in your personal, business and health pursuits. Building willpower to resist the short-term temptations that obstruct what we desire, and perseverance and determination is the "true grit" influencing your ultimate achievement and success in life.

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References:

• How I found My Grit(and now pass it on to others) by Renee Jain http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/renee-jain/2012110824569

•  How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough