FEBRUARY 21ST: ON COMMUNICATION.

“Every act of communication is an act of translation.”

- from “If This Be Treason”, by Gregory Rabassa via TED Talk – Chris Bliss.

FEBRUARY 20TH: THE RISK-TAKERS

I was talking to someone in my working-world recently and they were talking about a “smart” statistics instructor they’d had during their years of education who had declared (I’m assuming based on the math) that starting a new business venture was so risky that they would never do it. This person then stated that they thought people who started businesses were not very smart to take such a huge risk.

I declined to point out the fact that their shoes, clothes and lunch were all created by privately-owned businesses, and that they would be walking through the city naked, shoeless and hungry if it weren’t for some enterprising, risk-taking butcher, baker or clothing-maker from the past. Instead I talked about why I had started my business (being one of these crazy, risk-taking souls myself). And I started to think about all the different kinds of smart.

I declined to point out the fact that their shoes, clothes and lunch were all created by privately-owned businesses, and that they would be walking through the city naked, shoeless and hungry if it weren’t for some enterprising, risk-taking butcher, baker or clothing-maker from the past.

I thought I would mention a few here. But first, let’s talk a bit about risk, shall we?

It’s true that starting a new venture is risky. About 70% of small Canadian businesses survive the first 5 years, but that means that  a sad 30% don’t. And that’s only the first 5 years! Speaking of risky ventures, do you know of an (even riskier) venture that many people embark upon? Marriage. In Canada you’re looking at around a 60% success rate, with a 40% failure rate (currently 4 in 10 first marriages end in divorce).

Does this mean all the smart people of the world are single, unmarried, living in bubble-wrapped rooms and working for the man? I heartily disagree.

I think there are more kinds of “smart” than you can shake your fist at. Math Smart, Academic Smart, Street Smart, Social Smart, the list goes on… frankly, I think our society tends to devalue some while overvaluing others. For example, I personally feel an equal need for people who can solve incredibly complex math problems, and people who know how to make really good lattes. Or who can carry on a pleasant conversation at a party.

Successful risk-taking requires its own unique combination of Smarts. A knack for choosing the right partners and employees. A talent for recognizing when you’re in the right place at the right time. And, most importantly in my eyes, the type of Smart that figures out what gets you up in the morning, and recognizes that the risk of pursuing (passionately) what you’re passionate about is far less risky than NOT doing the aforementioned things.

Risk is situational. Hiding out in the Home Cave is a safe place to be – unless a saber toothed tiger has followed you into the cave. Then the least risky thing for you to do is to fight (or run) for your life.

Thought of the day: If the tiger hasn’t eaten you yet, then you are all counted among the Risk Taking set.

FEBRUARY 1ST: MOMENTUM.

Thought of the day: Even when you’re moving backwards you need to move forward.

This is what my dance instructor was trying to drill into my brain at ballroom practice yesterday. Apparently my butt has a natural proclivity to stick out. I believe the technical term is “downward tipped pelvis”, usually the result of things like tight hip flexor muscles (yup, sounds like designer-at-her-desk-all-day me).

So apparently this is bad. And more importantly for ballroom dancing, noticeable.

I try stepping to the side: “Engage your glutes, pull your pelvis in and up!”

I step to the front: “ENGAGE!! Keep your body in line! And straighten your legs!”

Finally I have a move where I get to step backwards, and I promptly relax my Superwoman-esque flexing on those pelvic and butt muscles. Ahhh.

“Non non non!” (my instructor is Quebecois). “NON, don’t you see? Even when you are moving backwards you must be going forwards.” Silence, interrupted only by the baffled look on my face.

At which point he gracefully and quickly demonstrates the aforementioned fact. He steps backwards with one foot (keeping his glutes firmly engaged and pelvis in line with his body), and his head doesn’t move in space at all. AT ALL. Even more amazing, that backwards step doesn’t send him back: totally contrary to what you might at first think, that backwards step only serves to engage his glutes, causing the necessary physics to actually propel him forwards.

I feel like there’s a life lesson in here. Even when we have to go back to the drawing board (daily) and start things over again (constantly), and deal with setbacks or unexpected problems (which are so common that I don’t know we call them “unexpected” problems) – even through all these things, it’s more than worth remembering that these very “setbacks” are going to be what propels us forwards.

Just give it time, and engage those glutes.

JANUARY 18TH: IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO START WITH A PLAN.

Thought of the day: It’s always good to start with a plan, even if the plan changes later on. After all, getting started (I’ve found) is generally the most important thing. And then there’s finishing, of course, but we’ll leave that thought for another day…

On Friday the 13th of last week 5 lovely ladies left me with some of their New Year’s Resolutions, and they weren’t messing around. In summary, they plan to:

- cook one monastic soup a week (when one cannot be a monk, one can at least eat monk soup, I say),

- have the most exciting year of their life, including 4 months in New York,

- achieve solvency while learning how to decorate beautiful cupcakes (are solvency and cupcakes somehow related in some mysterious way that I don’t know about??),

- move to New York and follow their passion (definite New-York-and-passion theme. What IS it about NYC that makes passionate people flock to its centre?),

- get married.

Wow. Already off to a good start re: creating some interesting goals (especially that cupcake one…). Will eagerly be awaiting my soup and cupcakes, err, update reports.

I hope that writing down your goals on the Toast of Change will help you along your journey in 2012! And if you 5 ladies are reading this, don’t forget to email me your addresses so that the Toast can find you!

JANUARY 17TH: PRIVILEGES.

Thought of the day: When at the dentist, remind yourself continually that you are participating in a Developed Country Privilege.

JANUARY 13TH GIVEAWAY!

Now, I must let you know that Friday the 13th has a special place in my heart. My birthday is actually on the 13th (of April), and as the laws of physics predict, every 7 years or so my birthday falls on Friday the 13th.

I tend to think of the number 13 as a superbly lucky number.

So, a Friday the 13th giveaway! Because 13 is an exhaustive number of envelopes to stamp and mail, and since 1+3=4, I will be giving away 4 Toast of Change desktop companions!

Simply be one of the first three people to comment below OR be the person with the best comment. Your comment must include one goal that you plan on accomplishing in 2012. Easy.

Happy Friday the 13th!

JANUARY 12TH: THE TOAST OF CHANGE!

As is becoming my habit, I am once again sending out New Year’s cards instead of Christmas cards. You thought your holiday-card-days were over, but you might have another little treat coming to you in the mail :)

This year’s card features the Toast of Change. Like last year’s Cheese of Revolution, this desktop companion allows you to write down your goals and keep them within sight throughout the year. The Toast of Change pops up and sits on your desk: pull up the Toast’s tuque to read Toast’s little bio, and then turn it over to write in your “To Do” list for 2012. Slide the insert back into the Toast card. You can either keep your goals hidden under the tuque or you can pull up the tuque to view the ones you’re currently working on. 

Be refreshed by the tingling pine scent of the Toast of Change! Sit him on your desk or by your toaster and let him help you chop the wood and stoke the fire of change. Let’s make 2012 good.

May the Toast of Change be with you!

DECEMBER 24TH: MERRY PROJECTS.

Thought I’d share this small project I completed earlier this week for Industry Mailout, the company that my brother Justin Jackson works for. They sent it out as their Christmas email! A fun little project for the week before Christmas.

DECEMBER 18TH: WHEN ONE IS ILL.

Thought of the (weekend): Being down with a bad cold is apparently the exact impetuous I needed to clean and reorganize my studio apartment.

A few quotes for the rest of you fighting off the Common Cold this season:

“I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.”  ~ Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903

This one is for my brother Justin, who has a Christmas tradition of throwing a Bacon and Beer party: 

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”  ~ Doug Larson

“As a people, we have become obsessed with Health. There is something fundamentally, radically unhealthy about all this. We do not seem to be seeking more exuberance in living as much as staving off failure, putting off dying. We have lost all confidence in the human body.”  ~ Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979

“People who are always taking care of their health are like misers who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy.”  ~ Laurence Sterne

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”  ~ Irish Proverb

“Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady.”  ~ François Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Have you ever noticed that people who love good food tend to have an enjoyment for so many of the other pleasures of life too? Fitness and runway models must be the most boring of party attendees. These words come appropriately from the mouth of a chef : 

“If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer.”  ~ Clement Freud, The Observer, 27 December 1964

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”  ~ Mark Twain

PREVENTION: for the future – apparently all of us cold-ridden folk need to simply drink more red wine (see BBC article HERE).

Quotes discovered on quotegarden.com and The Hedonism Handbook.

Vector Christmas card illustrations that I completed a few weeks ago for the little card packs that I was selling at the Christmas Royal Bison Craft + Art Fair this year! The illustrations are based on the cute little characters from my A Jam Story books.

Love how grumpy butter is. Always.