The Positive Pathfinder

My friend invited me to a digital marketing conference yesterday (February 25 th ) called Podcamp Toronto. You might be wondering what an HR guy was doing at a marketer’s event. I surprised myself and learned something about presence. One of the workshops I attended was called “We’re Totally (Not) OK” that was hosted by Caleigh Le Grand and Tanya Bevan.   They are professional actors who “explore the intersection between mass media culture and mental health” via their podcasts.  You can listen to their podcasts here .     Ms. Le Grand and Ms. Bevan brought along 7 professional improvisers. The 7 improvisers performed some improv and they were great! By seeing these performances, you realize (a little bit more) what improv is all about.   When you’re in a scene you have to keep in mind the context and really focus on what other people are saying (be present) so that you can say something that will advance the scene. In the Q&A session someone aske

I read a James Altucher post yesterday called “Steven Kotler– How You Can Step Outside Yourself and ‘Do The Impossible. ’” Mr. Altucher’s post is about flow. You may have heard about flow – a state of mind where you become so focused on your task that you lose track of time.  An investment in energy is rewarded with a release in creativity.  Have I experienced flow? Yes, when I write a LinkedIn post. I start off with an idea. The idea to write this post was inspired by reading Mr. Altucher’s post. On occasion I’m not awake when I come up with an idea.  Thoughts percolate in my sleep and when I gain consciousness in the morning an idea presents itself for a post.      Much as I’d like to I can’t seem to force flow. Recently a friend mentioned that to brand yourself you may want to consider sending out posts at a regularly scheduled date and time.  At first glance it sounds like an “impossible” task to turn “on” my creative writing juices at will s

I was a walking zombie when I worked at Combined Insurance. It’s not that I was slacking off and not doing my work. It was quite the opposite. All I did was think about work. I’d stay late every day and take work home with me on the weekends. I fell into a routine.  And (not so) suddenly I lost my job. And in my transition during the last 4 years, I’ve taken on a new attitude. While work is important to me, I am actively pursuing other interests. Just recently I starting taking improv classes, which are finishing up in two weeks time. I’ve signed up to take a Mental Health First Aid Course in April 2017. I keep a to-do list of things that I want to do in the future because they are personally satisfying to me.   I am thinking that if I follow my passions that I might be able to identify a path to follow when I look for my next opportunity. I love getting together with friends. I am interested to hear about their passions and

My 8 week improv class ends on March 5, 2017. I feel wistful about that. Over the 8 weeks, you build up a lot of trust with your classmates. Everyone participates in doing silly things (like having our right index finger “talk” to our left index finger) and when everyone does it, it becomes an accepted and normal part of the environment.  We have a cool instructor who is very enthusiastic. I will remember his coaching tip that we should say the first thing that pops into our head and not think too much. I suppose that by doing this we become more spontaneous.   Is the improv course fun? I think it is. For example, last Sunday, we played a game where we had to become the card that we drew from a deck of cards. If you drew a low card, then you played a person with low status. If you drew a high card, then you played a person with high status. “High” status can mean different things like someone who sprawls him/herself in a seated position and takes up

Last week I attended a meet-up called “Destigmatize” that was organized by my friend, Martin Hauck. The meet-up is about mental health in the workplace. Last week was the first meeting of this meet-up. Lots of stories were shared. My story is that I’ve always been interested in health and mental health. I don’t have personal experience with mental health, but I am empathetic.    Any time there is a story in the Toronto Star about mental health, I’d read about it like this Doctors’ Notes article called “ How ‘Maestros of Mood’ Control the Way You Feel ” (January 30, 2017).   Bell Let’s Talk Day  is an annual initiative that promotes mental health awareness.  It was held this year on January 25, 2017. Howie Mandel encourages everyone to talk about mental health in this Bell Let’s Talk Day video testimonial.    In the meet-up I attended, one of the observations was that people have no problem in talking about a physical ailment (like cancer) yet th

In “ Comfort Zone ”, I talked about signing up for an 8-week improv class with the Bad Dog Theatre Company. This for me was going out of my comfort zone. Today I completed my 5th class. The other day I was telling a friend that I was taking an improv class. She didn’t know what I meant. I asked if she had seen “Whose Line is it Anyway?” with Drew Carey. No, she doesn’t watch much television. I then said it’s a class where actors go to learn how to act. Each week 12 of us meet as a class for two hours. We have an excellent instructor who takes us through a series of games or exercises. Some of the games I find difficult, but I throw caution to the wind and participate with a sense of abandon. Today we stood in a circle for one of our games. Person A starts the game by facing the person next to her (Person B) and says a sentence. Person B says “Yes and…”, faces Person C beside her and says a sentence that builds on the sentence that