I was very moved by this beautiful video, and the many affiliated videos, for One Billion Rising.
These folks have captured the essence of positive change as I think of it. They are focusing on the beauty, vitality and preciousness of women to inspire all of us to help bring full rights and protection to all women. And they do it through invigorating music, dance, and testimonials.
Even the videos that show heart-rending examples of abuse end with inspiring power and beauty!
Plus, as a male, I feel completely inspired to be part of this movement. This topic is close to my heart anyway, but the way it is approached is completely positive for all except those actively abusing others. Even some of them can hopefully be inspired to change their ways by the beauty and power of billions of people rising as one around the world.
Some of the other OBR videos that really captured my heart.
I love helping people transform their lives. I love it so much, I often do it for free. I am on the board of directors of Vital Cycles, and do a lot of volunteering with trauma survivors.
The purpose of Vital Cycles is to empower those who seek joy in living while healing the impacts of emotional trauma.
I was just interviewed on a blogradio program talking at length about trauma, how Vital Cycles helps and other resources for those that deal with emotional trauma.
If you’re interested in hearing the recording click here.
Who knew that Going Positive could have so many great results. Here is a wonderful speaker talking about great research showing so many advantages to smiling often!
This is my favorite thing to teach. Being able to positively influence oneself is a critical skill for anyone increasing success, happiness, and even health.
There will be more videos teaching how to apply these concepts and tools in your life.
Stay tuned!
(note: Safari seems to have trouble playing this video. Please use a different web browser.)
Shawn Achor is a dynamic speaker and writer on this topic.
His take, through the Harvard Business Review on positive intelligence is a fantastic example of putting the science of happiness ahead of outdated conventional wisdom.
Even though he is a “competitor” of sorts I can only speak highly of everything I’ve seen him put out there.
Rock on, Shawn! You are a major player in what I call the Positive Change Revolution!
Charlie has clearly articulated a powerful approach to creating a career you can love. It’s an approach that we have used successfully as well.
Our Story:
In mid-2009, when work slowed down dramatically, I did the same thing. We had all this free time on our hand so we decided to go out and do what we loved for free until people could pay us. We realized that the best thing for creating paying work, is when people have experienced good work of ours.
The ways that have worked for us:
We identified our “ideal client” and our “ideal gig”.
We began to speak about these favorite topics to groups of people that contained our ideal clients (CEO’s, human resource professionals, and other leaders).
Even more radically, we became very flexible with our price structures if an ideal client fit the following criteria:
Their mission is one we are passionate about
We like them as people and working with them was enjoyable
We have the time to do it
The easiest thing is to do whatever it takes to make our consulting programs work for the client. That often means going way above and beyond what we’d expected to see happen. Adding value in many unexpected ways as we go along. The wonderful thing is that this is a far more delightful way to work as well. Plus, the testimonials clients did for us went from very good to outstanding.
We produce free videos for our ideal clients. I’m a bit of a video production geek anyway, so it was an easy next step. We started asking if we can video-record portions of our programs. We created videos they could use to communicate changes to their far-flung employees and other stakeholders.
We even create videos and lead events far after we are officially done with a gig.
The benefits
No surprise, their gratitude helps us network and build a reputation much faster.
We’re doing more and more of the work we love to do.
We’re partnering more and more with clients we like and respect and who like and respect us.
I’ve always enjoyed my career, but now I love it more than ever.
We keep honing our skills at what we most want to master.
We feel engaged and alive, even when the money isn’t so strong. It keeps morale up.
My challenge for you
What can you do to create even more passion in your career?
Michael and will be leading workshops on how to have a ‘best company to work at’ in the morning with the Breakfast with the Best and in the afternoon at the Culture Con.
Steps to a Culture of Passion
At Breakfast With The Best we’ll be hearing from the 10 best companies to work for in NH. Plus the gathering of 300-400 will be sharing their top practices as well! Come for great ideas and fun connections.