On Wednesday, the Associated Press carried a story about the new 3-D model of the World Trade Center Memorial, a collaborative effort between Google Earth and the National September 11^th Memorial and Museum.

A few follow-up stories, like this one posted on NPR, provide interesting details about the virtual memorial and its significance. The story raises LOTS of good questions about virtual memorials and virtual tourism, but I’m most fascinated by the stunning work done by the Google Earth team.

Using the Google Earth tool is a reminder of the power of place. This is particularly true of landmarks—the Empire State Building, the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower.  These places invoke a range of imaginative possibilities.

The places where we live, work and play are equally–if not more–important.  They can have a strong pull on our happiness and our productivity.

Since the long weekend is upon us, take some time to honor that idea.  Hang a new picture or take down an old one, plant some flowers, and take the time to visit somewhere meaningful to you—a park, a cemetery, a museum—even if your visit is a virtual one.

There’s always ONE request that your co-workers, employees, boss, or even spouse just never seems to hear.

“When we’re getting ready to travel, please don’t pack my toothbrush until after breakfast.”

“Before we go into a meeting, be sure to send me a copy of the report.”

People seem to listen. But next time around, nothing changes.

The toothbrush is still missing before breakfast, so you’re left to slather a gob of paste onto your index finger.

What can you do to finally be heard?

For starters, stop talking!

Instead, get creative and think of a way to use the old teaching adage, “show, don’t tell.”

Here’s an illustration.

If you told me the ideal gas law (PV=nRT) (which states that a drop in temperature with fixed mass and external pressure will result in a smaller volume, and vice versa), I would say WHAT?

I might never get it.

Even if I cared about this concept–even if it was important to my personal or career success–I wouldn’t get it.

I would walk around forever misunderstanding, misremembering, and generally feeling baffled by the ideal gas law.

Everything would change in an instant, however, if you showed me this video (see below).

I would get it in a split second.

Apply the same thinking in your relationships.

Show, Don’t Tell.

Take it as a fun challenge, though you should probably stop short of using dry ice and balloon animals. Well, maybe.

more about “YouTube - MIT Physics Demo — Balloon…“, posted with vodpod

Some high-profile foodies are raising the profile of the school lunch.

First Jamie Oliver, now Rachel Ray.

A few months ago, famous chef and TV personality, Jamie Oliver started a TV series, “Food Revolution,” with the mission of improving food in our nation’s schools.  Earlier this week, Food Network talk-show host, Rachel Ray joined New York’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, on Capitol Hill to lobby for a more school lunch money.

What’s At Stake?

These inquiries into school lunches raise some good questions what’s in our own lunchboxes.

Nutrition and quality of life are inextricably connected, and thinking through those connections is something I challenge all of my clients to do.  Your happiness, career performance, and energy level are dependent on a constellation of issues.  Food –and your relationship to it–is one of those.

Unfortunately, food is a delicate topic.  It stirs up emotions, or at the very least, some bizarre cultural memories.

Cabbage diets, talk show hosts touting the next miracle pill, full-service gyms promising to make you a better, happier person.

The good news is that getting real about nutrition isn’t about guilt or beauty or thinness or measuring up to a destructive ideal.

It is much simpler than that. And much more important.

Eating well is like taking good medicine. Good foods in the right proportions will keep you energized and focused.

I often challenge people to implement some basic strategies:

Don’t skip meals just because you “don’t have time to eat.” Your work and energy level will suffer, ultimately costing you a LOT more time than a quick lunch.

Trust your body. Eat when you’re hungry. Eat what you enjoy. Eat what gives you energy.

“Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” This basic way of thinking about food comes from Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food.

Watch this video lecture to see Pollan talk about the way nutrition is much simpler than most people would let on.

more about “YouTube - Authors@Google: Michael Pollan“, posted with vodpod

We understand and judge each other through powerful non-verbal cues.  Your posture, hand gestures, and facial expressions are instantaneously “read” by friends, co-workers, prospective employers, and romantic partners.

Although rarely acknowledged, the tone of your voice is also one of those important cues.

Even the pizza delivery boy is sizing up the likelihood of getting a good tip from you.

If Your Voice Speaks Volumes, What Is it Saying?

People use their assessment of your voice’s tone, timbre, and volume to answer important questions.

–Are you pushy or pleasant?

–Easy or difficult to work with?

–Powerful or powerless?

“It’s Like They Just Don’t Hear Me”

I’ve heard this frustration expressed more than once over the years.  Sometimes it’s a matter of what you’re saying.  Are you getting to the point?  Are you using an effective communication strategy for the situation?

Other times, it’s a matter of how your message is delivered.

One of the best books on this topics, Change Your Voice, Change Your Life, makes this important point: “The properly produced voice, then, permits individuals to be perceived for their substance–physical, intellectual, and emotional.”

Simple Techniques for Finding Your Natural Voice (from Change Your Voice, Change Your Life)

1.) Umm-hmmm:  As though you were enthusiastically, spontaneously agreeing with someone, say ‘umm-hmmm’ with your lips closed.   Imagine some kind person has asked–unexpectedly–if you want a piece of cake.  Umm-hmmm!  Be sure to use a rising inflection.

2.) If done correctly: You’ll note a light tingly, vibration around your lips and nose.  According to Dr. Morton, “This indicates correct tone focus, with oral-nasal resonance.” Eureka!

If you need to try again: If your pitch is too low, “you will feel too much vibration in the lower throat, and very little if any at all in the mask area.”

Keep trying– umm-hmmm-ing your way into your natural pitch.

3.) Another test: “Standing, place your index finger just under your sternum (where your ribs come together).  Now press gently with a staccato movement and make sound with your lips closed.  The sound you are producing is essentially the one you were born to make–the voice you were born to use.  Now say ‘umm-hmmm’ in that same voice.”

To the Beat of Your Own Drummer

These techniques are a start to finding your natural voice, but they’re certainly not the final word on the subject.

Your voice is like your fingerprint–entirely unique.  To talk with me about ways to find and use your natural voice, comment below or send me an e-mail.

COMING SOON: a Follow-Up Post on Using Your Voice to Convey Power and Purpose

Quotations in this post are drawn from pages 22-27 of Change Your Voice, Change Your Life: A Quick, Simple Plan for Finding and Using Your Natural, Dynamic Voice by Dr. Morton Cooper.

How much exposure on social networking sites is too much?  Protecting your personal information while at the same time carefully crafting your online persona can be a full-time job.

From Private to Public

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced a policy change that allows for the disclosure of Facebook profile information to third parties for the purposes of marketing and marketing research.   Unless you manually opt out, all of your information will be considered “public.”

Online advertisers and privacy groups are going to be squaring off over this issue for a long time.  Bloggers at Inside Facebook  explore the nuances of the issue.  To hear even more, mosey on over to the latest Tech Talk podcast on the NY Times. Regardless of how you feel about the new announcement, it serves as an important reminder to think about how much of yourself you broadcast on the web.

If you think you’re being smart enough, think again.

In the midst of this Facebook brouhaha, Consumer Reports published a report (just yesterday!) showing that 52% of social networking users post risky information.The report offers 7 tips for protecting yourself–including checking on and using important privacy controls and refraining from mentioning when you’ll be away from home.

Protecting your personal information is one thing, and managing your online persona is another.

During the Italian Renaissance, the ideal courtier was to exemplify sprezzatura– rehearsed carelessness, a studied nonchalance.  Any skill that he had must seem effortless rather than practiced.In some ways, managing our online identities requires a similar mastery, a kind of sprezzatura of web conduct.Here are a couple suggestions, particularly for folks whose careers in small or large part require their participation in social networking sites:

– Disclose some things, but not everything.  Don’t completely stop posting about your family, but consider abbreviating your children’s names.  Call a kid S. instead of Sarah, or J. instead of Jane.

– Consider cultivating a double presence.  Create one page for close, personal friends with tightly controlled privacy settings.  Use  a separate page for a larger network of associates, colleagues, and clients.

– Stay positive as much as possible.   If your day sucked or your boss is terrible, find some other outlet for airing your complaints.

Finally, just to make you laugh on a Friday (come on, people!), here is a video showing what would happen if we interacted in real  life like we do on Facebook.

more about “FaceBook In Reality - from www.idiots…“, posted with vodpod