Humor

5 Amazing Ted Talks That You Absolutely Can’t Miss

You can always find interesting, funny and amazing talks at Ted.com. What follows is a list of my all-time favorites. They span a wide range of disciplines and ideas but you’re sure to benefit from them. If you have time to spare, watch and read on.

The Happy Secret to Better Work

This talk re-frames our perspective on how to achieve happiness. We’re raised to believe that the harder we work, the more successful we get, the happier we become. But Shawn Achor would like to reverse that formula. He says that being happy starts with training the brain to become more positive.

According to his study, “… our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, we’ve found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You’re 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed.”

How then can we achieve this happiness advantage? He gives us the following recommendations:

List three new things you’re grateful for 21 days in a row. This way the brain would learn to scan the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.
Journal about your positive experiences so that the brain re-lives the way it feels.
Meditation and exercise.
Random acts of kindness.

Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe

“When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally combine our talents and our strengths and work tirelessly to face the dangers outside and seize the opportunities.” – Simon Sinek

To make your people feel safe and taken care of are signs of good leadership. I couldn’t agree more when he said that when leaders decide to put people first, when they show willingness to sacrifice comforts and tangible results so that people remain and feel safe and feel that they belong, remarkable things happen.

He’s cited two companies who’re so good at this principle and they’re thriving businesses right now. Just imagine working for that particular company that’s willing to keep you for a lifetime.

Also he’s given a damn good definition of leadership. Leadership is never about the rank. Like him, I’ve encountered so many people who occupy higher rungs in a company. They’re people of authority for sure, but definitely not leaders. Leadership is a choice – to go first, to make sacrifices so your people may gain and succeed. And what do leaders gain from all this? It’s the absolute willingness of their people to do the same for them.

Your Elusive Creative Genius

From the author of Eat, Pray, Love, this talk tackles the daunting issue that every artist face after creating their best, most acclaimed work by far: Will they ever surpass their most recent achievement?

This thought is certainly scary and puts a lot of pressure on the artist while getting the “next big work” out there.

According to her, life need not to be full of anguish if you never happen to believe that the most extraordinary aspect of your being comes from you. In some ancient cultures, they have the idea of a disembodied creative creature called genius. While in some places, artists can have that single, transcendent moment when they seem to become a vessel so spectators can have a glimpse of God. And so in recognizing this distance between the artist and the work, artists may be able to retain that sanity, that courage to get on with the work and just stubbornly show up until it is done.

Beautiful Minds Are Free From Fear

Sometimes, fear can be so strong and paralyzing. When it hits, Robert Grant gives the following recommendations on how to overcome fear:

Practice gratitude. It’s impossible to be fearful and grateful at the same time.
Intentional Decision. Anything that can happen to you in your life can either the best or the worst thing. You decide which is which. Every day you wake up, you get to decide whether it’s going to be a good day or a bad day. It’s all up to you.

How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over

Whenever you feel stuck or dissatisfied with your life, Mel Robbins says that you gotta force yourself out of the following:

Out of your head. Most especially when you’re just wallowing on your negative thoughts.
Past your feelings. Because you’re never gonna feel like getting what you want when you’re so focused on your emotions.
Out of your comfort zone. Because that’s where everything starts to happen.

And she says it’s very important to act on our impulse. Because if we don’t marry the impulse with a physical action, we’re going to trigger our emergency break and we’ll never get to do what we want to do in the first place.

You may have your own set of Ted Talks favorites. Put them on the comment section or send them my way so I can add them here.

As always, thanks for dropping by!

Featured Photo by Avi Richards

What Really Goes on Behind The Most Powerful Marketing Campaigns

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that latest campaign you’ve seen of us was done just so you’d react exactly the way you do right now.

Yes, we keep track of you and we do our best to know you. There are times when we don’t get it, but whenever we do, it goes down so good, you’ll never knew what hit you. And we’d always, always leave you wanting more of it. In fact, it may stay on your system for days, years or your lifetime.

It’s not magic, nor rocket science. It’s Marketing.

Marketing Campaign — When we put something up, we make sure that it’s something you’d at least notice.

Campaigns aim to affect your perception. It conditions your mind to think in a certain way, to manifest behaviors that would best serve the brand’s purpose. The goal is to get you to the place where we want you. All these without being so obvious.

How do we do that? Take note of how we communicate. We anchor our messages to your beliefs, we made them stand on your values, we rest them in your hopes. We’d make you feel like you’re standing in front of the Mirror of Erised, you’ll see everything that you ever want.

Because at the most basic level of consumption is the idea of needs and wants. You may need food, but you wouldn’t just have any food. There would always be something that you’d want more than anything else. And when you back this up with money, then a purchase transaction happens. That’s our moment of truth. It’s the ultimate test of how well we facilitated your journey. We finally got you where we want you. And sometimes, we also influence the time when you’d want more of what we offer. Or the how’d you want the offer to be.

Product Choices — Campaigns let you on the choices that you have.

Don’t misconstrue Marketing. We’re not here to deceive you. To think of consumers as pushovers or fools belittles our industry. We hold you in high esteem. We want to believe that a brand stands out because the best people support it, because it makes so much sense to have it in your life.

Also, we’re bound by law to tell you the truth. We just talk in way that you’d find it hard not to listen, we present in a way that you can’t help but be engaged, we act in a way that you’d find it hard not to talk about it with others. And we change because that’s just how you are.

And because, well, we Marketers are all brilliant like that!

On the Glory of Alcohol and Epic Hangover

You gotta give it to alcohol. It’s one of world’s most glorious temptations. It levels up everything – joy, excitement, sorrow, pain. Even beer tastes sweet when you’re drinking with the right kind of people. I personally put this on the list of why I believe and worship God! But alcohol almost always comes with the most earnest of its friends – hangover. No matter whether you’re drinking with family, friends or workmates, this miserable friend never fails to make you regret the booze that you had that time. I’d like to think that every bad case of hangover makes it to the list of I-swear-never-to-do-again-but-did!

Indeed, waking up and going to work with the feeling that your head may split open every few steps is just freaking hell! I learned how to do walling along corridors because of hangover; have experienced faux case of bulimia because of hangover; and almost lost faith in myself one time when I woke up asking these remorseful questions, “What am I thinking? Or was I even thinking last night?” Oh the misery!

You may think that feeling miserable is getting quite a good deal out of your drinking bargain, but think again. Hangover may just be a short-term side effect, unlike developing liver disease, but it poses great hazard as well. It may actually cause your death.

Whoah, that almost had you thinking twice about drinking, right? You already miss seeing those golden sparkles inside that beer mug or feeling that warm sensation going down your throat.

So, on this joyous season I’d like to share this info-graphic that discusses the biology of hangovers, its prevention and usual remedies. It’s more like a reminder-to-self kind of thing every time you decide to get drunk. And as always kids, drink moderately!

This info-graphic tells us the causes, prevention and remedies of hangover.

So… what’re you having?

I love beer. I love it so much I really think BEER is always the right answer. No matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, it’s ice-cold beer you should be having!