Bestselling authors, corporate trainers and internationally acclaimed advocates for social change, the Kindness Crew is sparking a global revolution in kindness. From audiences at Fortune 500 Companies to entire metropolitan centers, the Crew has inspired and mobilized millions to commit acts of community service.
Extreme Kindness is a phrase we use to express doing what you love and making a difference at the same time. I was privileged to listen to Rob Dyke share his epic story of adventure last night in my hometown of Powell River. He is an individual who epitomizes the spirit of Extreme Kindness.
I first learned of Rob at university when I read about his adventures in a health and human potential course. Rob has a very invigorating perspective on life one grounded belief our ability to,
“Just say Yes!”
Rob’s life pursuits have included swimming through the graveyard of the Pacific – a treacherous stretch of coastline which has claimed many ships and climbing to the North Col on Mount Everest.
What has separated Rob from so many adventurers is his commitment to helping others through his epic exploits. On Everest, he supported two separate teams, cooking for them, and worked supported both the Red Cross and Vancouver Children’s Hospital by swimming the 56 km from Vancouver to Victoria and later swimming 1400 km around Vancouver Island.
Rob’s message is one of commitment to something big in your own life, and doing the lonely work – taking the simple daily steps needs to complete a larger journey. For myself and many others,
“Rob is the big engine that could – he is an ordinary man that consistently does extraordinary things.”
Rob’s ultra-marathon swim took him over three months to complete. On his trip he was joined by dolphins, porpoises, sea lions and cruise ships.
Rob introduces a way of approaching problems and situations with a positive perspective. Rob explores how each seeming failure can be turned into a success by keeping a ‘yes’ outlook.
Rob is now a partner in a successful speakers bureau and wellness company, Speakwell, and he continues to share his optimistic message of personal commitment and potential.
While I was born in Calgary Alberta, Canada, my first memories are of the Isle of Skye in Scotland. For most of my youth and adult life, it has been a consistent dream to return there and discover what I can of the place where the sea and sky meet. Last week I finally stood in the highlands of Skye once more, remembering the small town of Sconcer where I lived and also of getting lost, much to my mothers despair, in the Cullin Hills (think of a smaller but no less formidable set of North America’s Rocky Mtns).
On the third day of our stay, my girlfriend and I discovered a wonderful bakery, proclaimed to be the oldest on the island. The couple who owned the bakery kept us entertained with stories and Scottish pies, while a neighborhood cat share a table with us. Upon leaving, two free brownies were placed into our hands with cheerful farewells. More then the beautiful landscape and the amazing stone castles, this act of kindness made me feel as if I had truly come home. 30 minutes later, however, we discovered that I had left my passport and wallet at the bakery by mistake. I immediately turned the car around and drove quickly North back to the end of the island. When I entered the bakery for the 2nd time I was greeted with happy cries and hugs. They had phoned the police they were so worried that I might not return for my passport. Their genuine caring and friendly hearts were the best part of our Scottish trip.
So the next time you meet a traveler from a distant land, make sure to greet him or her with a smile and if possible a small act of kindness. You might just be bringing them home.
A culture of kindness keeps employees coming back…
Can your company catch a boomerang? If it can, it will open itself to an incredible source of skilled and trustworthy employees. Boomerang employees – a phrase coined by workplace experts after the Australian, Aboriginal hunting tool – are returning top performers and high achievers who left the workplace to advance careers, increase wages or pursue independent work.
The challenge in today’s shifting marketplace is retaining talent. However, there is an increasing stream of employees who are coming back to the workplace because of the benefits of working for their former employer. If the fit is right for the employee to return, there are substantial reciprocal benefits.
Workplace researchers have found that returning employees bring new skills, insights and perspectives developed during the in-between period. This includes having an intimate knowledge of the culture, market vertical and business operations. The increased value may also be found in the employees’ enhanced problem solving and creative abilities. There is also a direct financial benefit to hiring boomerang employees: the cost of hiring, recruiting and training new employees, is substantial. Hiring a Boomerang employee eliminates the majority of this cost.
How can a company ensure they attract boomerang employees? Organizations can build an unforgettable culture emphasizing positive relationships, balance, leadership and kindness. Corporate social responsibility and internal culture are increasingly values that attract and retain employees. When these values are extended to co-workers, customers, and the community, employees develop a deep connection and bond with the organization.
The Kindness Crew specializes in building healthy, connected and productive workplaces that are certain to attract boomerang employees and other top performers. Their presentation, the Kindness Injection delivers the four basic steps to building a culture of kindness. The Kindness Crew has worked with a range of organizations, including Investors Group, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, SAS, Columbia Sportswear, University of British Columbia and Tourism BC. If you are interested in having the Kindness Crew speak at your next workshop or keynote please contact the National Speakers Bureau.
In this fantastic sequel to the international bestseller The Greatness Guide, Robin Sharma shares insights and tools on leadership and personal success. The reader will receive uncommon advice including Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Ask to Get, Fail Faster, Be a Cool Brand and Live an Intense Life.
101 simple yet powerful lessons that will help you work effectively and live with passion.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is found on page 119,
“Find ways to connect. With the people you work with. With the loved ones you live with. And with the strangers with whom you share this journey called life.”
I strongly recommend this book and reading a page a day. Focus on incorporating one Greatness Guide step into your day. IT WORKS! Thats my B-rad Activity for this week, HAVE FUN!
Yes! According to Harvard educator, Tal Ben-Shahar. Dr. Shahar has done something I thought to be impossible and many academics probably thought absurd to teach a course on happiness! The course has become the most popular class at the ivy-league school, highlighting an overwhelming need to teach people how to live well.
Dr. Shahar is part of an ever-growing body of researchers, scientists and professionals, who are moving away from asking the question of what makes us sick and replacing this with what make a person happy? The movement is grounded in the new research of positive psychology which is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
One of the more remarkable books I devoured in the past year was his book Happier.
In this easy to read to guide of the new science of positive psychology, he explores the research illuminating how a person can increase their happiness. One topic addressed is how cultivating feelings of being kind can help a person feel better.
Tal walks the reader through an exercise called, Meditating on Benevolence. Without even needing to go out and connect with someone, you can reflect on a time when you acted with kindness towards another. He asks you to remember how you felt appreciated for this kind act. Next, you visualize what the person’s response was. Also, you can focus on your own feelings during this exchange and allow them to fill you. As you bring into your awareness both your own positive feelings and the person served you can dissolve the division between helper and the person being helped. By doing this you begin to realize in every exchange of love both people are able to experience more positive feelings. Finally, you can imagine future acts of generosity in the future and feel the benefits spilling over to everyone.
This simple exercise can help you to experience a greater sense of calm, connection and happiness. In practicing this meditation, I am reminded again, Happiness comes from within.
In this video, a broad overview of the work being done by Tal is given.
You get on your bike and cycle through as many communities in the USA and Canada as possible spreading the kind-word! Yes, he has done it again: Brock Tully a.k.a, the Brock-Star has embarked on another life-changing, road-grinding 18,000 km, 9 month solo journey to change the world!
Brock’s mission is titled, KINDNESS…Cycle it Forward, and he is working to raise awareness for a kinder world.
His mission is to:
To create a Culture of Kindness that inspires each of us to be kind and to
become the change we wish to see in the world.
Certainly Brock is doing this one pedal push and kind word at a time. Brock, is a veritable Ghandi – a man who has given his life in pursuit of spreading the simple but power message of kindness.
I may not be able to change the world I see around me but I can change the way I see the world, within me.
- Brock Tully
When ever I think of Brock, for some strange, tangential reason I remember the I want to be like Mike commercials. I can’t help but think what humans could do if they could just Be like Brock!
5 top ways to be like Brock
Grow an incredible mustache!
Live you message: get off the couch, away from the computer (yes me!) and out into the world to help!
Be well, make sure you make ample time for your health. Brock’s journey is a testimant to his commitment to his own physical wellness.
Get outside, run, cycle, hike or plain walk your walk your way to a kinder world. Each moment you spend outside and out of your car will be a moment not wasted!
Take risk: Brock is always ready to drop everything for a cause he believes in! How many of us can say the same?
If you want to see Brock in action watch this powerful video compilation.
Want to have Brock rock your next presentation? Visit his website: www.brocktully.com
Leading psychologists and experts often state the importance of having strong healthy relationships to experience a healthy and happy lifestyle. More then wealth, success or circumstance, happiness and health will be largely a result of the people we choose to spend time with.
The rankings of which people primed happiness: page 312, Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman.
(In order of importance)
Friends
Relatives
Spouse or partner
Children
Clients or customers
Coworkers
Boss
Being alone
A B-rad Exercise / Tool for being Happy:
Write Down The Top Ten People You Connect With. Briefly describe how they help you connect to Health and Happiness.
Your goal with this tool is to optimize your time spent with these people and focus on constantly nourishing these relationships. You should write, talk or see each of your top 5 at least once a week.
In my search to understand how better to use the internet as both and educational and proactive medium, I stumbled upon an another profound presentation series called tries to bring together people and inspire them to go do something!
The Do Lectures is an antidote to the collective apathy of our generation and another bold step to providing information to get people off the couch and out connecting with people and nature. Speakers at the gathering offered tools and insights into how they take action in their own life. Lifestyle design expert Timothy Ferris of the The Four Hour Work Week presented, along with ever-intriguing Yun Hider, a professional forager, who in his own words has spent the last thirteen years foraging.
In his talk he shares simple strategies to help people reconnect to the land and use local plant to provide sustenance. Yun is a connector par-excellence and he pulls at the sense of the audience, giving them a chance to taste his foraged foods. Audience members immediately are able to experience the culinary potential of their back woods!
Yun praises the art of pausing in nature. He explains how foraging takes time and this helps to forge a new relationship to the land. His simple tools include guide books, medicinal books, wild food books which he is constantly refers to on his sojourns.
Yun currently has a few projects including Mountain Food a business which distributes foraged food Mountain Food and another, titled Precious Planet. Precious planet is a: non profit-making organisation committed to preserving areas of vital biodiversity. In order to do this, Precious Planet carries out specific projects aimed at protecting and regenerating marine and terrestrial biodiversity.
Our Precious Planet project is based on a simple concept of connecting students and linking schools by having students map out their local environment to help them understand the natural environment and their impact on this space.
Mapping their local Area: people, plants and pollution.
Calculate their ecological footprint.
Plant a tree.
My big do inspired from the conference, include:
to connect my local school with the Precious Planet project
spend time looking over guidebooks before and during my time in nature
research what I can start to forage for food in my local environment
connect with the Do conference as a participant or speaker.
What you can do:
Stage your own Do it Lecture Series.
Take the ideas from their lectures and spread them through action or in the form of stories.
Do it: think of your own small ways to take action.
Everyone knows they should take action, the smaller and more manageable the better to begin with. Once you feel with the small stuff, you won’t sweat the big actions in your life.
