The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes

AGT — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:21:27 +0000

Severn Cullis-Suzuki gave this speech at the UN Earth Summit of 1992, when she was only 12 years old. Most of us are familiar with her father, environmentalist David Suzuki. I could not believe this video was 18 years old and I had never come across it before. The message is more timely than ever. It’s interesting looking back and wondering if Severn’s message resonated with our world leaders. I definitely think more people are aware of the environmental issues at hand, but many people do not seem to care. This is just my take on Los Angeles. Standing back and watching my community and really seeing if people are doing the simple things, like bringing a reusable bag to the grocery store, can be discouraging. When I am interacting with friends and customers who visit my store, a different picture emerges. But sometimes we have to leave our bubble in order to make a real assessment, and the picture can be dismal at times. I am still optimistic and continue to do my part, as I know others in my community and around the world are doing as well. All our small steps WILL add up.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki personally wrote the entire speech. My hero!

Procrastination

AGT — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:08:46 +0000

I spend every Sunday morning watching what else…CBS Sunday Morning. My Boxer Otis howls to the opening song and always makes my hubby and I smile. It’s one of the only days I really have to myself but much of the time my brain is screaming out loud at all the tasks put off or not completed from the previous week.

Hmm, what have I let fall through the cracks. Perhaps a blog post?? So interestingly of one of the segments on CBS Sunday Morning was about procrastination. How perfect! A company by the name of stickK has created a website that helps you kick the habit of procrastination. A bit about the site in stickK’s own words:

stickK was formed by combining personal experience and scholarly research. Our story began at Yale University a few years ago when Dean Karlan (Economics Professor at Yale and Co-Founder of stickK) came up with the idea of opening an online ‘Commitment Store’.

He envisioned that people would come to the Commitment Store to sign contracts obliging them to achieve their personal goals such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Dean experimented this concept by making contracts himself. Meanwhile, he also conducted and published research on Commitment Contracts as a tool for helping people save money.

The Commitment Contract concept is based on two well known principles of behavioral economics:
1. People don’t always do what they claim they want to do, and
2. Incentives get people to do things

What I found so interesting is that procrastinators can tell the world what they intend to do, who will check in that they do it, and how much they’ll pay if they fail. What? Pay? Apparently money is a great motivator. During the Commitment creation process, you will have the opportunity to fully customize your Commitment. Choose a start and end date, add a Referee, put money on the line (Stakes), or add Supporters… it’s all up to you!

“If they have money on the line and a referee, we’ve seen success rates in the 70 to 75 percent range,” Goldberg said. “If they don’t, it drops considerably – down to 30-35%.” If users fail, stickk.com will send their money to a charity they hate. “A lot of people write in and say, ‘You know what really motivated me? The thought of giving money to the George Bush library, or the Bill Clinton library, depending on your political views,” Goldberg said.

stickK has many commitment categories including Green Initiatives. Pretty cool! So what are we waiting for?! Let’s tell the world what our commitment is. I think my first will be to make more regular blog posts:)

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The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes

Procrastination