Ted Talks

This blog is off the beaten track (for me).

I have known about TED talks for years and avoided them like the plague as I knew I would get hooked and any productivity would fly out the window.

I was right.

My name is Karen Draper … I have discovered and can finally admit … I am addicted to TED talks.

I watched at least 8 of them last Sunday, a time when I should have been writing my blog. I started taking notes, and really thinking about how each talk impacted me and how they applied (or not) to my life.

Those thoughts, I thought, I would share with you (hopefully without any spoilers).

So where did I start … not at the very beginning, which is usually a very good place to start. I believe Julie Andrews sang fairly much that in the Sound of Music, but I digress.

I started with the Top 20 most popular talks of all time. I just counted, there’s only 3 in that list I haven’t watch as yet, so much for my guestimate of 8. Then moved on to the top talks for 2015 and 2016 to date. All in the (cough, ahem) name of blog research of course.

Not knowing quite what I was in for, I bypassed Mary Roche’s 10 Things you didn’t know about Orgasm and went straight to Susan Cain and The Power of Introverts.

Hmmmm, so what does that say about me?

Once I figure out if I am an introvert with social tendencies or just painfully shy but quite good at faking it, I’ll let you know. In fact, one of my blog posts I’m working on is along the lines of “Social Media and Networking for the Socially Inept”, i.e. me!

Anyhoo, back to Susan Cain. What an amazing speaker and whilst she says “there is zero correlation between the best speaker and the best ideas”, she there and then debunked that one! I immediately identified with her stories and observations on “introverts”, how society values extroverts, “action over contemplation” and her “year of speaking dangerously”.

And I was hooked. So I visited her website, subscribed to her newsletter, researched her a bit then moved onto the next talk.

“Lying is a cooperative act,” says professional lie detector Pamela Meyer. “Think about it, a lie has no power whatsoever by its mere utterance. Its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe the lie.”

How to spot a Liar — Pamela Meyer. We all tell little white lies throughout the day. you are lying if you say you don’t! I am not sure if I wanted to know how to spot a liar or learn how to lie convincingly, either way, I am glad I watched Pamela’s talk. I loved her reference to Koko the Gorilla lying and had to look up the full details.

One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening. Franklin P. Jones

How to speak so that people want to listen Julian Treasure. I enjoyed this talk so much I went on to watch his other ones straight away as it struck a chord.

I have been trying very hard recently to listen, to and actually hear what people around me have to say. My husband, children (especially the teenager), family and friends; I want to hear and understand what they are saying to me. We all seem to be in the same boat, talking over each other, contradicting, jumping in with our own “two cents” and the ability to truly listen seems almost to be lost. When people feel like they are truly being heard I am finding that they listen much more consciously in return.

Your body communicates as well as your mouth. Don’t contradict yourself — Allen Rudock

Amy Cuddy — Your body language shapes who you are. Another amusing and great talk. I have been practicing my “power posing” all week (in private) much to my own amusement.

Again I researched (stalked) Amy Cuddy and moved onto the next one.

Tim Urban made me laugh out loud (not easily done) when he put names and faces to my inner procrastinators. Inside the mind of a master procrastinator is brilliant, fast

paced, poignant and oh so true. Considering I organise everyone else’s (business) chaos I should maybe practice what I preach about procrastination. Then again when I see what a fantastic place Tim’s stalling has got him to ….

And then I watched Jill Bolte Taylor My stroke of Insight

“One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness …”

I’m going to pause right here.

Deep breath.

Subconsciously I think I was avoiding this one. I don’t know why. Maybe the thought of it terrified me, even though I could see she was standing there giving the talk about it and therefore must be ok.

I decided to watch it. I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

I wasn’t expecting the feels Jill evoked, the amusement of such a serious topic or the “a-ha” moments when my disbelieving logical reasoning connected with my (over)emotional idealistic reflections creating for me a whole new acceptance and exploration of peoples’ experience and descriptions of their relevant Nirvana.

And I was truly enthralled. How could one video, less than 20 minutes long, for me, debunk my long-held, strongly believed notions?

But that discussion is for another time and place.

So I moved onto Scott Dinsmore How to find work you love.

“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?” Warren Buffet

I have recently changed my career path going from a lifelong employee to a self-employed freelancer and am loving it! So the title of this talk caught my attention. I listened and smiled throughout his talk.

Scott recommends becoming a “self expert”. So I started with the why. I started writing about why and how I am doing what I am doing to try and get to the “what” I am doing (may end up being another blog some day). Easy peasy lemon squeezy I hear you say. Yeah, if you already have that figure out, good on ya! If you haven’t check out this talk and sit down with a pen and paper and figure yours out, then get back to me and tell me how “easy” it is!

I haven’t quite got to the “work you can’t not do”, but I’m getting there!

I absolutely agreed with Scott and wanted to know more and hear more from him after.

You know where this is going, right … I checked him out.

That’s when I realised I had read about Scott Dismore before.

And whether emotionally vulnerable from Jill’s talk or just emotionally engaged with Scott’s I shed a tear or two.

So last Sunday I rode a veritable, fantastically emotional roller coaster of self-evaluation, motivation and education.

I have spoken to several people about the ones that really touched me, and funnily enough, each of those people had also seen / heard them and became more animated and passionate as we discussed them.

I have discovered a new (to me), not-so-secret-secret world which is inhabited by “believer / fans / listeners” just waiting for the uninitiated to achieve their “A-ha / I get it” moment.

I swear I can hear my husband muttering under his breath “told you”. And for the second time ever I will admit (in writing) he is right. Though please don’t tell him, I’ll never hear the end of it.

A penny for your TED recommendations …