Month: December 2018

Original Thought · Sharing Economy

A Gift for Me

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

Friends,

Bighorn Country is the next Kananaskis in Alberta.  Like K-country, it is a network of protected areas and managed multi-use areas for all Albertans.  It is the missing piece between Banff and Jasper and is home to the headwaters of Edmonton.

The government of Alberta has proposed protection of this area but they need to hear from you!  Please take 5 minutes to fill out the survey below or send a letter to support the creation of Bighorn Country.  This is truly a gift to Alberta and you can be part of it.

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Please share this widely with your networks and ask 3 friends to do the same as part of your giving efforts this season.  This Christmas, give the gift of the Bighorn.

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Thank you and happy holidays,

Bob

Original Thought · Self Improvement · Uncertainty

Social Media

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

I am a consumer and producer of social media. I read, write, shoot, and listen to the positions, opinions, ideas, and meanderings of hundreds of posters on a daily basis. I distribute original content daily and share the content of others many times a day. But, I confess that Not very much sticks. I don’t remember yesterday’s blitz and barely recall what I offered as my contributions to the noise.

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Most days, I don’t hear anything because I hear everything.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. ~ Mark Twain

Most of what occupies me (us I suspect) is noise. If I thought noise canceling headphones really did what they promise, I would invest in some for my ears and my eyes, but they seem just to dampen the din.

Is there a place ‘in the world’ where the filters screen out the clamor and still allow the clever, the charm, the caring, the charismatic, the cute and the curious through? Do I need to get past the fear of missing out (FOMO) and the addiction to notifications and begin censoring others and myself?

As we get closer to tearing the last page from the calendar, I am wondering about what I fear for the new year. Maybe that will be another post before I shut off the noise that I am creating.

If not, Happy 2019 and may your days be filled with curiosity,

B

Self Improvement

Joy

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

Does joy, happiness, pride, anxiety present itself in our lives or are we producing it through our mindset, disposition, and choices? I tend to believe that we are in the midst of circumstances and get to choose how we relate to them. I can be fearful of an adventure to the top of Mount Norquay or excited by the challenge or prideful that we are attempting the climb or many other emotions and feelings or combinations of many of them.

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It doesn’t seem likely or possible that joy is floating around looking for a place to land. I can’t accept that anxiety is in the ether waiting for a turn to crowd into my life.
They all come from within and can be prompted by external situations, but if I run the sum of the circumstances through a reflective sieve, I can choose to be optimistic, pessimistic, realistic, skeptical, or naive. What gets collected after being examined has more to do with the process of rendering that the initial ingredients.
When faced with a choice between positive and negative, what prospers a man to lean into the dark? I am committing to the awareness that I most often do get to make a decision. From that point, I am adamant that I will turn to the hopeful, the outrageous and even the ridiculous instead of spiraling into the pit of despair, distrust, distance. When I can move closer to a friend and her joy or sadness, I will draw near and spill happiness at her feet. If I am faced with a situation or struggle, I am willing to live through it and see how my anxiety and pain can be sapped.
In the end, it seems that I/we get to decide what we are feeling, how we react and what we embrace. The emotions live inside us not in the world so if I desire joy I need to begin being joyful.

B

Original Thought · Self Improvement · Uncertainty

Wisdom

Bob McInnisLeave a comment

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
~ George Bernard Shaw

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Remarkable people use their strengths to strengthen themselves and others. They don’t use power to overpower. They don’t use words to denigrate. They don’t puff themselves up to make others feel small.

Wisdom is dynamic. As knowledge shifts and perspectives change, wisdom adds and synthesizes and then recompiles with all the available data and restates, if necessary. Wisdom isn’t “courage of conviction.” It doesn’t just resort to tradition. It is open to observing the circumstances of the world and saying ” today the wisest thing I can be sure of is that yesterday, I was wrong.” The courage of curiosity can be a path to wisdom if we are willing to do the work to investigate, analyze, and adapt.

*Tongue in cheek comment – I must be very wise because I often realize how wrong I have been.

Make this mid-week moment full of wisdom and then make a wise choice.

B