A great video I had to share from the TEDxUSC conference earlier this year on tribe leadership, some useful insights and ways we can all become more inter-connected and interdependant. Joining your tribe to others and other tribes to others you don't know will push things forward. If you enjoy this then check out the Seth Godin video I posted earlier in the year (be warned it a full hour length talk from him) or check out his book tribes. read full post

Last Thursday and Friday (8-9 Oct) I was lucky enough to be part of the very first national New Zealand Iaido Seminar held at the Auckland Kendo Club in of course.... Auckland. It was a 2 day intensive training, grading and a good opportunity to network and meet the others throughout New Zealand swinging a sword in this age old martial art. The plans moving forward are to start building numbers and really promoting Iaido in NZ and I am hoping that I can add my knowledge of social networking and online communities to work towards this. Thursday saw a full day of training and learning some new kata in the Kendo Federation Seitei Iaido which consists of 12 kata (I know up to number 11 at the moment!) It is interesting learning from others as each teacher does seem to put their own knowledge and spin on each kata.  At the end of it all I think gathering as much knowledge as you can from as many teachers as you can and then combining that with what feels natural with your own movement and focus is the way to go. Thursday evening I dug deep despite extreme tiredness and a rather painful toe injury I performed the best I could at the grading and came away with a 2nd Kyu (ni-kyu) grading! A jump of 8 grades as I had been previously ungraded. Friday saw more training and a Shiai (competition) and something even more fun... getting to invent our own kata! The "build your own" kata concoctions were all very interesting with one of our (chch) dojos students ideas using an umbrella as a sword took it top marks. The 2 days were a great challenge that everyone who attended met and got something out of... Before I left for Auckland I flicked to a random page in my copy of Yamamoto Tsunetomo's "Hagakure" (a classic Japanese warrior code text) and thinking back on it now it shared some insight into the days ahead, it read:

The talented rise to the challenge- There is a saying, "As the water rises the boat rises". When a person of talent ... encounters a difficulty, his [or her] heart rises to meet the challenge, and the greater the challenge the more he [or she] is spurred to take it on. - Hagakure, Book 2, Line 42

Rather fitting I think! A big thanks to all those at Auckland Kendo as to all those who attended the Seminar. Look forward to next year! read full post

Having completed the optimism questionnaire as part of the leadership paper my optimism level is apparently "-2" that being leaning slightly into the pesimistic realm (the scale being -9 to 9). I am taking this as a healthy dose of pessimism as I am always one to hope for the best, plan for the worst to a realistic level.  This is very useful in working out risk and planning contingently around projects and goals. However sometime a little pessimism can get you down and it is always good to try and self-improve so my plan next it to work at increasing my levels of learned optimism through positive affirmation techniques, gratitude writing and reading more about positive psychology. I just picked up a copy of Meiron Lees "D-Stress" book from the local university book shop which looks to be an interesting and practical read around improving optimism. read full post

I finished reading Seth's book tribes a few weeks back and really enjoy his work... Check out this great video, I will be posting a few other videos and interesting internet/techy/new thinking bits and pieces over the next couple of weeks as there are no journal questions for the next 2 weeks as we are on a break from university. read full post

I spent a good half an hour or so going through the survey handed out to us by Lane Perry who is looking at leadership and engagement in tertiary students and undertaking his PhD in Higher Education at Canterbury University, New Zealand. Looking back during high school I don't think I really did much in the way of any community type service as part of my schooling.  Whether my high school did not provide the opportunities at the time or perhaps I was busy being a teenager and doing my own thing (Probably a lot of hours on gaming consoles!). I have found now that I have gotten older, getting involved in things and helping or serving others has started to become a bigger part of my life. Up until a few months ago I was in a Board of Trustees position at the White Elephant Trust, an organisation some friends and myself set up about 4 years ago to provide youth focused events and activities (When we said "youth" we meant 15 -25 years). Making the decision to leave my place on the board was pretty hard as we had done a lot of great work and had made great friends not to mention had provided some amazing events and opportunities for youth people in Christchurch. My focus now is on continuing with my study at university and taking some time out to learn more about myself and what I want from life. Fortunately the paper I'm taking is all about that so I think I'm on the right track. If I also think of service in terms of providing help and spending time with other staff at work or friends to help them succeed I feel I have good levels and strengths I think area too.  While not part of my official "job" at RockStar Recipes I like to share what I have learnt from 10 years of technology and web development with anyone interested.  One staff member, Moses, I am helping him learn HTML and web design by providing him with resources/books etc and making an effort to follow up on his learning process every few days to make sure that he is on the right track, he's doing really well.  I also have several friends studying at Polytech that come to me for advice and resources around my area of expertise, again I'm always ready to help and provide resources to help my friends learn. So engagement and service is definatly a plus for me and is very rewarding. read full post