Passionate Theme of the Day: Celebrate Genius

“The kind of intelligence a genius has is a different sort of intelligence. The thinking of a genius does not proceed logically. It leaps with great ellipses. It pulls knowledge from God knows where.”~ Dorothy Thompson

“Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” ~ William James

OMG! BIG crush this week. On TED. Some of you already know of the TEDtalks, and for that I am truly envious! I have seen mention of TED around the blogosphere, but didn’t pay too close attention. Then I was looking for Seth Godin video’s for a presentation I was putting together for my advertising class. 

Which lead me to investigate the Ted Talks a bit more thoroughly for examples of presentations for my Public Speaking class. (The ones that come with the book are done by…get this – ACTORS! WTF?). So for about the past week, I have been enamored with all things TED.

Here are recaps of a few of my favs so far:
Evelyn Glennie: How to listen to music with your whole body:
If you’re a music lover, watch this presentation. This woman is beautiful. Not only does she discuss how to listen to music with our whole body, but she uses listening to music as a means of listening in ALL of life.

Trusting our intuition. Listening with our hands, our feet, our legs, or hearts, and our souls. Really open up and listen. She also does an amazing job translating that perception IS reality, and depending on where you are sitting in a room, your perception of a piece of music might be very different from another person’s. Just like 5 different people can see a bank robbery and say the robber looked different. Take 20 minutes and listen to this…you’ll be glad you did!

Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better:
Tony shares what he normally shares in a four day intensive in 20 minutes. That’s a whole lotta Tony talk in not a lotta time. My favorite parts are his “needs” matrix and his story about being in Hawaii at a workshop during 9-11 and how the participants dealt with it. Touching stuff.

Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights:
What’s to say about Seth? He’s a GOD. We all know this. Watch and learn.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
This presentation is really interesting, considering I’m a university instructor and Ken talks about how universities are essentially the downfall of creativity. That being said, I loved this presentation. His sense of humor is charming and his use of stories keeps his presentation flowing. Check it out.

What really turns me on about Ted is that it makes me feel connected to genius. Watching these presentations awakens my inner creative muse. My brainy, nerdy, techie, artistic, cultural creative, and business sides come to life and cheer, “Bring on the bells and whistles. Bring on the brainy stuff. Feed me some cultural-global-green food.”

These presentations feed my soul. It’s like drinking a glass of good pinot noir, noshing on some soft-crusty French bread, schmeared with creamy cheese, while sitting on the side of a hill overlooking a winery and chatting with a really hot, brainy, philosophical, guitar playing, website building, organically minded guy. How’s that for Friday fun? Mmmm, check please!

Dig into your own inner TED this weekend and spread the genius love.

“We are the leaves of one branch, the drops of one sea, the flowers of one garden.” ~Jean Baptiste Henry Lacordaire

Peace and all things smartie pants,
Kam