danielsmith dot info
From time to time, things need a little freshening up. So I decided to take the plunge and explore other design options for this site. I hope you like the new look 
The photo comes thanks to the session that I led at The China NLP Society – thanks guys – and do come along to our session this Saturday if you can make it.
Sometimes you realise that it is the little things that can make a huge difference.
The photo that I uploaded here wasn’t terribly different from any photo that I’ve uploaded previously. Yet this time it has sparked a bunch of comments – whereas my ‘average’ photo on Facebook struggles to even get a caption or tagged correctly. And it wasn’t the first comment that ‘did’ it either, but rather it was the stream of comments that compounded together to create momentum.
Momentum like that is difficult to predict, a combination, I think, of there being so much random variation (aka “chance”) involved and there being so many semi-opaque variables that even if you did know all the things that you would need to know to figure out the answer, it would be too much of a pain for you to figure it out anyway.
It is like a trend – there are just so many things that contribute to a trend’s success that it is immensely difficult to predict. Why did JR Rawlings become a billion-dollar miracle while David Eddings’ or Robert Jordan’s endless volumes of high-quality fantasy remain merely popular?
Rather like intimate relationships at times…
Of course, there are externalities involved at times and conspiracy theorists have been making other books out of this for years (a la The Da Vinci Code), yet the gap between the .00001% that makes a fortune and significantly impacts the lives of millions of people, and being “just another” seems so grotesquely small.
It doesn’t seem to be “skill” (eg Ayn Rand).
It doesn’t seem to be “originality” (eg The Secret).
However, it is a form of genius. Perhaps the most important lesson that I can take from this is to pursue what you personally feel passionate about… firstly because that is what is most likely to yield an outcome that is sufficiently unique and able to adequately connect to the hearts of those that you strive to impact that it gives you a chance of “winning”, but more importantly still, because even if you don’t “win”, you will still be doing what you love.
The past few months have been busier than usual for me. I have been working with CBC, finally receiving my NLP Master Practitioner certificate, developing The China NLP Society and working on China Advanced Toastmasters. And I got to MC the AmCham Independence Day Event which was a blast!
It’s been fun
Oh – and I moved into a great new apartment…
Shanghai is an exciting place to be living right now. While there aren’t quite so many foreigners around as before, there is still a huge vibe in the final weeks before the Olympics begin…
Have you ever been in a fight?
Have you ever been really scared or really angry or really intensely aroused in some way?
Things get messy, don’t they. Our vision narrows and our logic gets lost.
Once your heart rate hits about 175 beats per minute, you can’t think and your body starts shutting down. It’s not your fault: People stop being able to think with our forebrain gets taken over by our midbrain – the part that’s the same as your dog’s (all mammals have that part of our brain).
Under extreme pressure, you might not even be able to dial the emergency services phone number!
You need to rehearse your key skills to the point that you are ‘hard wired’.
I am contemplating returning to teaching martial arts. And, as I looked at my potential group of students on Tuesday night, seeing their struggles and noticing their strengths, I was reminded of the fundamental parallels between martial arts.
We need to be present in whatever we are doing – totally focused on the task at hand – rather than thinking about the past or imagining the future. Planning is necessary and good, though the time to plan and the time to act are distinct; when it is time to plan, plan, and when it is time to execute, execute. Too many great plans fail due to sloppy execution and I have found that something that we can do – now – is to focus on whatever your task happens to be in this moment.
How do you perform under pressure?