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Rosa Parks 1913-2005
On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks was sitting with three others at the front of the black section of a bus when a white man boarded. As there were no seats available in the white section, the driver told Parks and the others to move.
Like other blacks who rode the bus, Parks was forced to abide by the law that reserved the first 10 seats for whites and mandated that blacks give up their own seats if necessary to accommodate white passengers. Black riders also had to enter the bus by the back door; on one occasion in 1943, Parks was ejected from the bus for failing to do so.
Initially, no one complied, but the other passengers vacated their seats when the driver persisted. Rosa remained seated even after the driver threatened to call the police to force her to move.
"Go ahead and call them," she told the driver and waited patiently until the police arrived.
They arrested Parks and took her to jail. As Parks explained in her autobiography, she did not intend to change history that December evening. "If I had been paying attention, I wouldn't even have gotten on the bus."
A 13-month bus boycott followed this event which ended with the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court. The court declared that Alabama's state and local laws requiring segregation on buses were illegal.
One "ordinary" woman has changed the face of civil rights in USA
"My mother taught me self-respect," Parks later recalled. "There's no law that says people have to suffer."
"I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness," she said in an interview. "It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet."
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:07 AM
Recently I was asked when would I like to retire - I retorted "would it not be more pertinent to ask when are you finally going to start working!"
Regular visitors will know that I believe that when you are doing what you love with a focus on contribution, you never do a days work!
Furthermore, retirement will never be an issue, as you will continue to do what you love until the exit door opens!
For those who have yet to identify their unique purpose in life, retirement once touted as the light at the end of a tough working career, may be more challenging than expected.
A survey of 464 people aged over 45 during May carried out by TNS for Prudential highlighted the retirement challenge.
Research showed that more than 1.5 million people who are due to retire over the coming 18 months iin the UK admit they feel stressed and depressed about the prospect.
About 40 per cent of people who are planning to retire in 2005 or 2006 said they felt apprehensive about the future, while 36 per cent said they were anxious.
A further 22 per cent said they felt depressed about the prospect of giving up work, and 19 per cent said they were nervous about what the future held.
Far from being a chance to relax after their working life, many pensioners also found that retirement had brought other problems.
About 3 per cent of people said they had experienced relationship problems with their partner once they had given up work, nearly a third said they missed being part of a team, and 17 per cent said they felt lonely.
However, 55 per cent said they did now enjoy a better social life and were able to spend more time with their family.
The key must be to prepare for retirement like you prepared for your working career. Set goals, targets, dreams in all aspects of your life.
Continue to dare to dream and enjoy the process.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:49 AM
Just read an interesting article in Fortune magazine about new golf sensation Michelle Wie.
"To learn to handle the pressures of championship play, Michelle has started seeing psychologist Jim Loehr. When she misses putts, he has instructed her to repeat the mantra to herself: 'I've gotten that out of the way. Now I'm one step closer to being the best putter in the history of golf.'
As a child, we appeared to know intuitively that success was only another failure away.
Integrate this learning and jumpstart your potential.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 12:08 PM
First it was entrepreneur, then alterpreneur, recently passionpreneur now "reallionaire!" What next?
The new term has been coined by Farrah Gray who started a food company while still a teenager, then sold Farr-Out Foods to an Israeli company that was seeking an entry into the U.S. market. The sale made him wealthy, and he recounts his success in his book "Reallionaire," which he says is about how to become rich, "from the inside out."
Farrah grew up in a housing project in Chicago and made a childhood decision that entrepreneurship would be his ticket out of poverty.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:06 AM
Can you afford to take a few minutes to view an inspiring video that will move you with its poetry and overwhelm you with its stunning photography.
Can you afford not to?
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 12:56 PM
Based on years and years pushing entrepreneurs through their doors Professor Ken Morse from the MIT Entrepreneurship Centre shares my 100% conviction that
ENTREPRENEURS ARE MADE, NOT JUST BORN
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 11:17 AM
One of the startling facts about seminar attendees around the world, is that the majority experience high levels of stress, but have no idea how to reduce them.
In most cases, I share my story about the power of focus on your breath or words or nature.
When I experience a lack of fluidity in my writing or clarity in my thought, down to the sea I travel, to observe and or listen to the waves.
Random thoughts invade my mind and are acknowledged. On each occassion, I return to focus on the waves. Over time, I found the distance between the thoughts has increased. After about fifteen minutes, I return to the work place feeling energised with an uncluttered mind.
I am a strong advocate of natures magical ability to heal and do worry about our movement from the outdoor world to the inside. Children's overall development will lose if technology wins in this context.
These thoughts are shared by Louv in a recent publication:
"Regardless of the cause of this difference, be it technology, safety or urban development, the end result is the same: Today's generation of children, by and large, do not experience nature in the same quality and quantity as children have in the past."
Louv has coined the phrase "nature- deficit disorder" to explain this phenomenon.
"Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses," Louv writes.
This decrease in children experiencing the multiple facets of nature ironically coincides with substantive research that supports the notion that personal contact with the natural world is, in fact, a crucial component of mental as well as physical health.
The message is clear - whether you are a manager or employee, a husband or a wife, a writer or a child get back to nature today.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:10 AM
"Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others."
Groucho Marx
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:41 PM
Pure concentration not money is the key to happiness according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the Best seller "The Psychology of Flow" as reported in The Times.
"A random sample of people were asked to keep an electronic pager for a week which was programmed to beep eight times a day at random times. Every time it did so, they wrote down where they were, what they were doing and with whom — and filled out a numerical scale charting how they felt, how much they were concentrating, etc. This system has now been used on more than 10,000 people and the answers are consistent: as with those living creative lives, they were happiest when in a state of concentration,"
says Mihali.
"The way people assess their happiness has very little to do with how much poorer or richer they are. Multi-millionaires report being only infinitesimally happier than their poorer fellows, while people living in poverty are often quite happy. Over the years, I came up with the expression “flow”: a term to describe the common denominator among those people who deemed themselves happy. The most obvious component of happiness, I found out, is intense concentration, which is the main reason that activities such as music, art, literature, sports and other forms of leisure have survived. The essential ingredient for concentration — whether it happens when reading a poem or building a sand castle — is that it involves a challenge that matches one’s ability. The only solution to achieve enduring happiness, therefore, is to keep finding new opportunities to refine one’s skills: do one’s job better or faster, or expand the tasks that comprise it; find a new set of challenges more appropriate to your stage of life," he continues.
"Paradoxically, the feeling of happiness is only realised after the event. To acknowledge it at the time would only serve as distraction — the rock climber would lose his footing, the chess player his game. Out of all the moments pinpointed by people I have interviewed, their best are with hindsight. Just as a smell might evoke a memory, happiness is realised in its aftermath," he concluded.
Are you going with the flow?
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:53 AM
According to the Daily Mail, research has shown that it takes 21 days to create a so- called "pathway in the brain" that will make you happier and a further 63 days to consolidate what has been learned.
More importantly, the biggest step is committing to the process in the first place which creates a magic in itself. Commitment and action is a lethal cocktail.
The more you practice a new habit, the more the old habit similar to a muscle, atrophies and dies.
The compulsion to reuse the old disempowering pattern gets less and less as you choose differently and focus on your new vision.
Take that trip today - whether or not it is in one day, thirty days, three months or year, your new attitude will transform the way you look and live in the world.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 02:41 PM