It certainly is. And if you agree, this will make you smile.

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From Gus - The Possibility Hunter

Empty your mind. Be formless. Shapeless. Like water. You put water in a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes… the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash.

No, those words aren’t Confucius’ words, they were the words of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee: Kung Fu master, movie star, one of only seven men in history who looks good in a jump suit.
So, what is not cool about Bruce Lee? Who wouldn’t want to be a little bit like Bruce Lee?

But don’t fall into the old trap of donning a yellow jump suit and a picking a fight with Kareem Abdul Jabbar. What you want is a little of ‘the essence of Bruce’. The Positivity Blog brings you Bruce Lee’s Top 7 Fundamentals for Getting Your Life in Shape, to help us all get a little Bruceness.

While you’re at The Positivity Blog you should check out some of the other excellent posts. My personal (recent) favourites include “5 Kick-Ass Reasons to Give a Genuine Compliment, and How to Do It” (Why don’t you try it out on the next page you love when stumbling around around the ‘net) or “Picasso’s Top 7 Tips for Creating an Exciting Life” (why don’t you try it out while you’re alive).

Anyway, back to Bruce for the final word: Be water, my friends.

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From Gus - The Possibility Hunter

I always seem to get books or find blogs entitled: “[stuff to see/do/eat] Before You Die”.

I get it: I’m mortal. And now I have 80,000 things to do before I die. Come on! I’ll have to live to be 200.
Here is my response: A list of websites to check out before the end of the month (and this deadline is flexible):

1. Eight Success Lessons We Can Learn from Barack Obama. I know this sounds political, but if you’re not a fan, just substitute ‘Yoda’ for ‘Obama’ in the appropriate places and enjoy the good advice. I especially like #8: Find a higher purpose for what you do. (or as Yoda would say: “for what you do, a higher purpose you must find.”) This courtesy of 360 Degrees Success and is written by David Richeson.

2. Fifty Nerdy things to do before you die I know I just said I didn’t like lists of things to do before I died but real nerds cryogenically freeze their heads, so it’s not really death is it? Anyway, this one is for the ladies, from the team at The Park Bench: A Gathering Place for Nerdy Women.

3. The Seven Best Cars To Die In Once you’ve finished the other lists… you only need to complete one off this list. No, not really. These are nice cars, though, except the Volvo.

4. The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun and The 5.75 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding Yes, we all know these, but why not revisit something you love?

5. 101 Things in 1001 days This is cool. Not only do you get to populate your own list (I don’t want to die in a Volvo after all), you get a non-lethal date to complete it. And you get to be part of a community.

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Last month I asked readers of Outside the Lines to support the Hippos, an initiative supported by Project H Design to deliver 75 water rollers (the Hippos in question) to Kgautswane a community in South Africa.

Today I heard from Emily, Project H Design’s founder, who sent a report on its success.

Here’s some of what she said - and some great photos.

On Wednesday afternoon, we handed over the rollers to households selected by Clara Masinga, Kgautswane’s community leader- an amazing woman who really has been a voice and an inspiration to the whole community.

I spent the following 2 days with Grant [the inventor of the Hippo] and Clara, interviewing community members about the Hippo Roller (thousands of which are currently in use throughout Kgautswane), particularly regarding the way it enables families and quite simply, makes life easier. As we drove down the dusty roads around dusk, children rolled their Hippo Rollers home, and waved and smiled every time we passed

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I’ve just been made a member of the ‘oldest social club in North America’ - The Order of Good Cheer. This comes courtesy of the government of Nova Scotia who ask that I “have a good time, remember us fondly, speak of us kindly, and come back again.”

My wife was surprised to see this (she’s a Bluenoser) as she remember studying the original Order of Good Cheer in history class as a child. Begun in 1606 to help his men face the harshness of another winter in colonial Acadia - Samuel de Champlain contrived to keep them fit by giving every man the title of Grand Master - in charge of providing each night’s feast and festivities.

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In honour of my Canadian citizenship, our webmaster extraordinaire, Kathryn of Zoonini directed me to Adanac (spelled backwards is…) a great font featuring all things Canadians celebrate and love. Check out the upper, lower case and numbers! And you can download the font set for free, courtesy of the folks at 10four Design.com

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My friend Bob Presner of Beyond the Box was kind enough to put this together, a memento of my Canadian-ization on Monday 18th February, 2008.

Yes, I *am* Canadian.

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Thanks to Molly Gordon who sent me this video link, which is a smart work of genius…

Maybe this should be part of The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun - asking the question, what makes you laugh?

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In the coaching and change work I do - supporting folk as they strive for Great Work - I’m increasingly conscious of the power of a single small “intervention” that can make a significant difference. This is connected to systems thinking and chaordic thinking too - and those subjects come with some heavy-weight books to read, such as Hock Dee’s Birth of the Chaordic Age or Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.

But I thought these pictures - about the impact of wearing glasses - made the point in a graceful and fun way

(You can see others here)

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From Gus - The Possibility Hunter

“Everyone Loves A Quitter”

“Quitting to Meet Sexier People”

“Buddha’s Enlightened Path of Quitment”

These are all titles you may not have heard of before. Someone should write them. Sadly anyone who would take on such a project is unlikely to be the one to finish it.

Let’s face it, quitting gets a bad rap. But maybe quitting is not so bad after all.

Check out Steve Pavlina’s excellent article, Quitting to Win . If you find yourself in a job you hate, but are reluctant to leave in case that makes you look like you’re in need of some career Ritalin this is for you!

Not convinced? Let me drop this tasty morsel to give you a taste (and maybe tickle that deep down suspicion you are a genius after all).

“If you can’t seem to hold a job, perhaps you’re cursed with genius. One of the biggest quitters of all was Leonardo da Vinci. I wonder if his parents ever told him to stop flitting about — painting, engineering, sculpture, botany, anatomy, architecture, music, poetry, etc. – and just stick with one thing.”

If only I’d known that when I was a teenager! Meanwhile, stay tuned for the release of my new book “Unfinished Conversations with the World’s Greatest Quitters”.

Wanted: ghost writer to finish self-help masterpiece.

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