Various Thoughts

The Heart In Your Story

May 31, 2017 by marilyn shannon Leave a Comment

What is the connection between the office water cooler, a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, and the kitchen table? I’ll tell you! Stories! We open up, share our day, what we learned, how we feel, and our humanity comes together when we are heartfelt and transparent with who we are to our core.

Here is an opportunity to share a piece of you:

As Iyanla Vanzant says,

“When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.”

In the comment area in this blog please tell us something about you. Why you do the work you do, what is the back story? What or who has impacted your life? Why have you written that book or created that piece of art or music?

I am thanking you for all those that will appreciate you for sharing, cause they will.

As the author of “In Just One Afternoon – Listening Into The Hearts Of Men” I know the that stories show us we are not alone. Stories give us hope and inspiration.

Please share yours – remember it does not have to be paragraphs – just your heartfelt thoughts!

The Job Market – Human and Robots – Who Takes What?

April 26, 2017 by marilyn shannon Leave a Comment

I would like to introduce you all to my friend Bruce Oberhardt. Bruce is a brilliant and creative scientist. Please check out his bio below. It is fascinating to me what he does and how he speaks, teaches and explains his ideas. He brought the following article to my attention and I thought it was intriguing so here goes, time for sharing with all of you. You will see some of Bruce’s comments. What do you think? What are the special human ingredients that a machine can’t take away or can they? What about if we focus on those ingredients like love, creativity, and compassion?

Job Replacement by Robots

By Bruce Oberhardt

An interesting article about Artificial Intelligence (AI) titled: “The Five Jobs Robots Will Take First” appeared on February 26^th 2017 on Linkedin.

See: http://bit.ly/2pgMOLm

1 – Middle Management

2 –Commodity salespeople (Ad Sales, Supplies, etc.)

3 – Report Writers, Journalists, Authors & Announcers

4 – Accountants & Bookkeepers

5 – Doctors

I agree with Numbers 2 and 4, but I believe it will be a long time before “multifaceted” middle managers (No. 1) can be replaced. This is because these managers are inspiring, motivating, empathetic, and often good problem solvers. Combining these capabilities is a long way down the road for AI. Creative writing in No.3 will not be within AI capability for a long time, either, and when it is, I am not sure that AI literary creativity and stage presence, e.g. on TV, will be as appealing to humans as would other humans. Regarding replacement of Doctors (No. 5) it appears to me that AI will soon aid physicians, so they will not have to enter info on tablets when they talk to patients. The AI will do all of this, so the physicians can look the patients in the eye and focus on what appears to be wrong and consult with AI later by speaking with the AI system, which will have immediate access to massive world-wide data bases relating to similar medical problems, treatments, and outcomes.

In addition, and unrelated to the article, in my book: “DRAGONFLY THINKING, Problem Solving for a Successful Future” [See: http://bruceoberhardt.com/ ] complex problem solving is mentioned in Chapter 24 as one of the very last jobs or capabilities to be replaced by AI.

Another occupation that will take a long time to replace by AI is that of hair stylists. A hair stylist is artistic, has fine motor skills, and is part therapist. This combination would be very difficult for AI in the foreseeable future. There are also other creative and intuitive skills that people have and that we do not understand very well, certainly not well enough to program into a computer or rather to create a computer that could enable such capabilities. It should also be mentioned that human thought, unlike computer thought, is graded. That is, some thoughts have higher significance or emotional content than others, such as those that enable one to wake up from a dream with a wonderful idea.

Dr. Bruce Oberhardt, a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur, is known for promoting creative thinking and has been involved in recent years in consulting and biomedical technology incubation. He has led and/or participated in a number of first-of-a-kind technological developments including the extremely successful “CoaguChek^R” product sold worldwide by Roche, and recently through Amazon. He has developed technologies to help in diabetes, blood diseases, cardiovascular disease, and cancer – products based on these technologies are currently saving patients’ lives daily.

He has won numerous awards, such as the North Carolina Governor’s Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurial Contribution and the North Carolina Biomedical Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Dr. Oberhardt is the author of a book published in 2013, titled: “Dragonfly Thinking, Problem Solving for a Successful Future”. Both printed and eBook versions are available on Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com, and the eBook version is also available as an Apple product. Dr. Oberhardt recently conducted an Apprenticeship Program in Problem Solving as a volunteer for Citizen Schools, a multi-state nonprofit organization focused on helping students in public middle schools in low income communities discover and achieve their dreams. He is also helping companies and associations, large and small, by conducting workshops and training sessions on how to solve big, important problems – in other words – Dragonfly Thinking! See: www.dragonflythinking.com.

Three Key Steps For Productive Communication

March 9, 2017 by marilyn shannon Leave a Comment

Simple yet brilliant, we sometimes overlook the most valuable basic steps to being our most savvy and productive selves when it comes to our communication strategies. As busy professionals, when juggling all sorts of balls, things do go awry. The fallout can be far greater and the loss more expensive than the actual time required to perfect our communications!

I know that you work really hard and sometimes one more thing tips the scale and it becomes a burden. I am here to say that it is exactly those things that lead to more success and less work in the end. Also keep in mind that sometimes we are going to be called upon to take care of our business communications in a way that seems to take care of the other guy more, and in the long run, we are really really really taking care of ourselves.

I am going to share what I know to be three of the most important strategies that go a long way in helping us be be productive, successful and accomplished. They are oh-so-simple and obvious:

1. When you are answering an email, it is OK to answer the questions in the body of the original email. For instance, go line by line making sure you have addressed someone’s concerns, ideas etc. Highlight your answers so the person you are communicating with knows that you take their message seriously. This helps you both keep up with the info going back and forth, from email to email and helps you keep track of what is actually being asked. It also prevents the necessity of writing an additional email because you forgot something. This really saves endless time and frustrations. When you look back over the email as the conversation sometimes continues, you will quickly be reminded of the correspondence.

2. Do your best to only keep one set list of your notes or to do’s. It is so much easier to cross them off one list and to know where the item is and which list. If you keep it straight, you won’t have things fall through the cracks.

3. When you are out and about networking and find yourself in an event with lots of people, when working the room a great piece of advice is to work what you can handle. Don’t try to connect with everyone. Make a great connection or two or even three. How many people can you really follow up with after the event, really? Make each connection worthwhile and make it matter. Gobbling up as many business cards as you can hold won’t do you any good. People won’t know you. I have found that when I keep this philosophy in mind and follow up with a few people, even if there is no response back, the opportunity to reconnect at another event is far greater because we did connect the first time. They will know and remember me whenever we meet again and if they don’t I can remind them in a nice way. It is so worth it. Not everyone is great at responding and following back up. You be at your best and you will stand out as a serious business person. You will be remembered and your time will be well spent. It is the quality not the quantity.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WRITERS NEED TO KNOW – ANY WRITER

February 5, 2017 by marilyn shannon Leave a Comment

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Daisy Hernandez, author of her acclaimed memoir, A Cup Of Water Under My Bed, on The Breaking Free Show. (You can find the entire show at the bottom of this blog.) Out of curiosity, I googled the definition for the word “daisy.” I came across the following words which so aptly describe Daisy Hernandez, a creative expresser of the human condition:

Daisy: a small grassland plant that has flowers with a yellow disk and white rays. It has given rise to many ornamental garden varieties.

The definition was better than I thought.

As an author and creative being, Daisy fits the definition. Daisy is spunky, and as her name depicts, a ray of light. For me, Daisy gave rise to many thoughts and ideas as I was reading her words. As a new author myself, I want to reference a line from her book that I found interesting. I know many of you reading this are authors, bloggers and social media posters as well, so this is very important to reflect upon for anyone putting information out there.

Here is a tidbit in Daisy’s own words:

“Journalism: A fancy word to say that I spent days with my hands in other people’s stories asking and telling because nothing happens in isolation, especially when it has to do with language. Nothing is more vulnerable than the words in our mouths, because nothing has more power.”

The seriousness and power it takes to capture a life or emotion and to tell the story can only occur when we listen and connect the magic of curiosity, emotion, integrity with words. Stories come alive when we love them into life. Daisy’s book is only about 170 pages, incredible for as much information as she shared and for the brevity. Her story is wonderful as is her gift of writing. We are holding many lives through our hands.

Remember: Length is not a sign of skill. Remembering the power of words and how we use them is.

To “meet” Daisy, I warmly invite you to watch her on the following Breaking Free Show episode, which aired live on December 12, 2016.

In Just One Afternoon

January 7, 2017 by marilyn shannon Leave a Comment

In his song, Imagine, John Lennon says, “And the world will be as one.” The point made is that when we understand each other and put our differences aside, rid ourselves of judgment and greed, we will live as one. What are the chances of that you may ask! Here’s a perfect step!

Let’s start with the steps we can take in just one afternoon! What difference can you make in just one afternoon? Just think about it for a moment. The possibilities are staggering and endless. Here is how powerful one afternoon is: a baby is born, a friend extends their hand, peace is made, an invention rocks the world and in just one afternoon life changes forever. It ONLY takes a small part of our lives to listen deeply to understand how someone feels, a moment in time to appreciate, to forgive someone, to smile or hug and to get to know someone intimately. In just one afternoon, we can stand up for ourselves, sharing who we are while at the same time making a difference in someone else’s life because we payed attention to them.

Through listening, I got/heard the idea to write a series of books that, to tell you the truth, I saw as brilliant. I am not taking credit for the brilliance or the idea. This series is called In Just One Afternoon. The magnificence of this idea blew me away. A series of books that would shine a spotlight on real and authentic life stories that would make a difference not only for the person sharing but also for those who read the words. As Marianne Williamson says, “As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” That would be the experience offered by these books. Many of these stories took extreme courage to share but the contributors knew that it was cathartic for them and would make a difference for the reader. Many of these stories are being shared for the first time.

in-just-one-afternoon-listening-into-the-hearts-of-men-by-marilyn-shannon So here is where it gets really interesting. Again through listening, I also received/heard/listened for the subheading which will distinguish the different subject matters that each book will focus on and the particular group of people we get the privilege to get to know. The first book, now available on amazon – In Just One Afternoon, Listening Into The Hearts Of Men – is a compilation of intimate stories shared by men about their emotional and creative life journeys.

These are beautiful, real, raw, and heart-throbbing stories. In these interviews, the men really open up and share special parts of their lives. Go to Amazon to get your copy now. (E-book or paperback book is available)

On tap to come out in the spring is In Just One Afternoon, Listening Into The Hearts Of Twins. How much do you know of the depth of these relationships and the uncanny events that make twins unique? How can we use their relationships as models for our own lives? When you read the stories that I have heard, you too will get chills and sometimes even a chuckle.

The third book in the series (and there is no stopping this idea) is In Just One Afternoon Listening Into The Hearts Of Millennials. Again this book will share with you who millennials are really down to their core, their fears, their struggles, and their goals. The list of book subjects goes on and on from there.

Through a lens into these stories, we will see a beautiful picture inside the feelings, lifestyle, and essence of humanity.

The future book cover for the next book about twins!

in-just-one-afternoon-listening-into-the-hearts-of-twins-by-marilyn-shannon