The Reluctant Muse

Reflections, inspiration & information collected on my internet wanderings.

[cmrn]

If you think something is simple, you’re not asking the right questions.

@tamsienwest, The Reluctant Muse (via cmrn)

My one, and probably only, moment of quotable glory. Captured forever.

[tamsienwest]

The way we change the world is a million individual acts of kindness

Mary Pipher

[explore-blog]

Alan Watts on money vs. wealth – magnificent read

[megabusiness]

[tamsienwest]

Timeless advice to remember in all facets of life.

[tamsienwest]

Startup Weekend Women Melbourne

A gorgeous video summary, including some great footage of my amazing team: sharing picnics, validating ideas, talking to the public, pitching, laughing & generally having the time of our lives.

[tamsienwest]

Set your ideas free - A reflection on Startup Weekend Women

Do not covet your ideas- Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.

It's been a while since I posted, but this little passage above about giving away ideas really inspired me to reflect on my recent experiences. I attended Start-up Weekend Melbourne Women, and as part of that pitched an idea that I had been toying with in my head for a month or two. Based on that pitch, much to my surprise, I ended up leading a team to develop the idea over the weekend. While we didn't win, it was an amazing experience, most of all because of the number of people who came up to me and said 'I had been thinking of something just like that'. Not only is that incredibly validating, it reminded me how important it is to share and not hoard ideas. Ideas set free grow and change into more than they can ever be just living inside one person. I built some wonderful connections and friendships over the course of that weekend, in a way I would not have been able to without sharing my idea (and my secret passion).

So what idea are you going to set free?

[tamsienwest]

It's time to redefine 'the good life': Adrianna Huffington reflects.

The way we've defined success is no longer sustainable for human beings or for societies. To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric, a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving.

[tamsienwest]

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm" - Aldous Huxley

Enjoying another great blog post from Gretchen Rubin, about the importance of enthusiasm. It can be a really scary thing to put yourself out there and be enthusiastic about things, when so many people hide by criticizing anything new or different. There is something so inspiring, joyful and child-like in the innocence of someone who is enthusiastic about things.

Enthusiasm is a terrific quality. The more I think about happiness, the more I value enthusiasm. It can seem cooler and smarter to be ironic, detached, or critical, and it’s certainly much easier and safer to adopt that sort of stance. But enthusiasm is more fun. Enthusiasm is generous, positive, energetic, and social. It’s outward-turning and engaged. It’s unselfconscious, warm-hearted, and kind of goofy. 

[tamsienwest]

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. ~Helen Keller

[explore-blog]

The “10,000-hour rule” — that this level of practice holds the secret to great success in any field — has become sacrosanct gospel, echoed on websites and recited as litany in high-performance workshops. The problem: it’s only half true. If you are a duffer at golf, say, and make the same mistakes every time you try a certain swing or putt, 10,000 hours of practicing that error will not improve your game. You’ll still be a duffer, albeit an older one.

Debunking the Myth of the 10,000-Hours Rule – the real science of what it actually takes to achieve genius-level excellence in any field (via explore-blog)

[tamsienwest]

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. –Dorothy Parker

[tamsienwest]

The Humility of the Artist - Seth Godin

One of my favourite posts from Seth Godin lately. He reflects that artists can say 'That's ok, it's not for you' when someone does not like or understand their work, and that is not arrogance, it is humility. It is knowing that you are not trying to please everyone, but having confidence that what you have created IS for someone.

Finding the humility to happily walk away from those that don't get it unlocks our ability to do great work.

[tamsienwest]

Minka: The story of a Japanese Farmhouse

A Japanese student and an American journalist rescue an ancient farmhouse, changing their lives forever.

This is a really beautiful, touching story. It may not be about marketing, or anything else I usually write about, but it made me both happy and sad, and that's how I know it's a story worth sharing.

[tamsienwest]

The agonising feeling of conflict between two options is not necessarily a bad thing: it is the brain’s way of slowing things down to allow a good decision to be made

Indecision is sometimes the best way to decide - Insight into the process of making decisions and how indecision might actually be a process of information collection designed to prevent us from making the wrong decisions, not just a process which hinders us from making ANY decision.

[tamsienwest]

"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good" - John Steinbeck

I keep coming back to this quote, and when I read this post by Seth Godin "No one reads comic because it's well drawn" in my mind the idea that nothing needs to be perfect, just good enough, blends with the power of telling a compelling story. The message is more important than how perfectly you deliver it, and you shouldn't let searching for the perfect story, the perfect picture, the perfect performance, the perfect anything, hold you back from sharing what you believe is important.

[tamsienwest]

Interesting article about the psychology of colour in marketing & branding

Of note is the argument that colour associations are highly contextual (ie. yellow doesn't always mean 'happy' or green 'calm'), what is most important when thinking about your branding is the 'personality' of the brand you are trying to communicate. Then when it comes to design elements being aware of the heirarchy of colours and making sure 'actions' are in contrasting colours to draw attention. 

[explore-blog]

A recent study in Psychological Science takes a global look at the quest for meaning, analyzing data from the Gallup World Poll to determine where people feel meaning, and how they found it. The survey data comes from 132 countries in 2007—the researchers specifically looked at self-reported meaning in life, religiosity, fertility rates, GDP, and suicide rates (from the World Health Organization). Previous research has shown that wealthy countries typically rank higher on life satisfaction, which is not the same as meaning. Satisfaction has to do with “objective living conditions,” the researchers say, which is why wealthy countries with relatively stable economies and political conditions rank higher. But meaning is more subjective. The Gallup data showed that countries with lower GDPs ranked higher for meaning. Toward the top were Sierra Leone, Togo, Laos, and Senegal, all of which were in the bottom 50 countries in the world for gross domestic product per capita in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. Poorer countries also had lower suicide rates.

Surprising new research on where life has meaning – surprising, of course, only to the extent that we assume money can buy happiness and meaning, which we now know it cannot, and even science agrees. 

Pair with cultural icons on the meaning of life.

(via explore-blog)