If you are looking to be inspired, look no further! TED.com
I was first introduced to Ted when a fellow business owner, Kevin Woodcock of Touching Clients forwarded me a great video for marketing and persuasion. The talk embedded below is called “How great leaders inspire action” by Simon Sinek, an 18 minute overview of his book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
If you’ve never heard of TED.com, you’ve been missing out! Here is the description from their website:
“TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference and TEDGlobal — TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.
Attendance at TED is by application, and the attendees — CEOs, scientists, designers, intellectuals — are as extraordinary as the speakers. Indeed, TED’s success is based on the extraordinary effect of bringing together 1,000 of the world’s most remarkable people across many fields. The result? Unexpected connections. Extraordinary insights. Powerful inspiration.”
So not only do I have to apply and be extraordinary, attendance starts at $3,750. I can apply to the fellows program, and attend for free, but I would have to be DOING SOMETHING monumental already.
I’ve chosen to set my sights high in this 30 Dream Days Challenge but these are not pipe dreams. They may be things I choose not to pursue in the future but I do not believe they are outside my reach. I would put this dream on the pursuit list after I start the PhD program. If I know in advance that I want to attend this conference and I know in advance that I want to apply to a PhD program and I consider the PhD acceptance a prerequisite to the other, now I just need to keep back-tracking to figure out what can I do TODAY to move myself closer to these dreams?
Enter…30 Dream Days Challenge. I know of only one other person who has decided to start their own 30 Dream Days Challenge. Others may be out there, but I haven’t heard from you…please tag me in your posts or use the #30dreamdays hashtag.
This is having a powerful impact on my life and I plan to keep at it for the 30 days but I am in for the long haul! I would love to get more and more people doing it and then answering some survey or interview questions I develop to find out what difference it made. This is otherwise known as research. Nothing says I can’t do research before I am part of a PhD program…no better way to get accepted than a history of independent research and results, right?
On the heels of yesterday’s post entitled “Enabling the Dreams of Others“, I humbly ask for your help. PLEASE CONSIDER:
- sharing this post on your Facebook, Twitter, Email or any other way.
- following the blog (see button on the right side of the screen)
- taking the challenge or encouraging someone else to
- offering suggestions on what more I can do to grow this community of dreamers
We ALL need to be in the business of enabling each other’s dreams.
By the way, it is worth noting that I am more likely to attend OR coordinate a Tedx Event, which are independently planned and coordinated events created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” The TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. – THAT’S GOT ME WRITTEN ALL OVER IT 🙂 Maybe even before the PhD program…who knows.
30 Dream Days 
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