The worst of 2011?

Following on from yesterday's list of my most popular posts it seems only fair to list those posts that weren't quite so stellar. None of these posts gathered more than 10 pageviews (my last 10 posts averaged 60 pageviews). Part of the reason for the low pageviews for these post was that they were written in the early days of my blog.

So in no particular order:

Be Holy, Be British (a meditation on God's call to us to be holy)
Book Review: Team of Rivals (my review of this fabulous book about one of the great leaders - Abraham Lincoln)
Dexter (a liitle bit about my favourite TV programme)
New Music (my comments on 'new' CDs I found in my local charity shop)
What motivates us (I thought this was a great post with an inspirational video)

Have you any comments or thoughts on posts that you think were not great? I really would love to get any comments and constructive criticism if you have any. If you think that any of the posts from the above list don't deserve to be in this list let me know.

I can do that

How often do you generate a list of good ideas and then don't do any of them or at least you don't do them very well?

At a recent conference I heard Rick Warren make a great suggestion. He was saying that at most conferences he likes to have a sheet of paper where he writes down ideas under the heading "I could do that", then when he gets back to his base he looks at the list of ideas and picks ONE and does that one and won't look to do any of the others until that one is done.

If you think about church, training, work, TV, personal reading and study each week you probably receive loads of suggestions and ideas to improve your life. Can you really expect to implement even one of these ideas on a weekly basis? It's just too much to do, never mind doing it well!

I often think if there was just one or two things each year we could really change or improve then we would see significant growth in our lives.

So if you could change, improve, learn one thing this year what would it be - what's the one thing that you can do?

What motivates us?

Below is an excellent video based on a lecture given by Dan Pink to the Royal Society of Arts in London.  It is wonderfully animated and it adds real depth to his words.

Watching it makes you think "What motivates us/you?" Is it just money, or is it autonomy, mastery & purpose as Dan Pink suggests? Most of the world is driven by the belief of a simplistic motivation drive of more money = better performance in work, in sports and even in schools (better qualifications = better job = more money!).

But how many people give their own time freely to contribute to things they enjoy and bless others? These are the things that we really enjoy and would (and are) doing for free, at our own cost.

If businesses, schools, churches, unions and governments can grasp these principles outlined by Pink then how much better and happier we would all be - that would be a big society where people are looking for greater (bigger) good!

The best trolley in the world - probably!

On a recent trip to IKEA I noticed their latest design innovation. It's not a new piece of furniture, a fancy chair or a clock. Actually it isn't something you can buy. It's a trolley!

To be more exact it is a trolley that you use to carry your food, up to three trays worth, and your shopping bag in the restaurant (see the picture).

The funny thing is, they make furniture so why bother spend so much money on enhancing and improving the experience of carrying your food from the counter to your table?

I think the reason they have done this is they realise everything they do counts. It's all part of the message, the brand that is IKEA.  I love the fact that they seem to try to improve everything about their organisation.

It's a real challenge and provocation, both personally and corporately. Life is so busy with just doing the stuff in front of us - there is always more to do. We can easily forget to step back and ask have I / we actually progressed in the last year?

So have I improved? What can I improve this year? [I have my thoughts and ideas and I think there is plenty of room for improvement!] Comments and suggestions are always very welcome!