by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 2, 2012 | Blog, Uncategorized
This morning, they start. Their 3 day journey, a marathon each day between now and Sunday. At Collin creek mall in Plano, to Fair Park in Dallas. They walk, run, jog, all toward the ends of eliminating breast cancer in our lifetime.
In 2010 my wife and and I decided to take on a new adventure, the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the cure. We’ve participated the last two years, but because of many conflicts we weren’t able to participate this year. We so wanted to be out there on the road with you, sharing your strength, your aches, your laughs, and your tears…
My wife, niece, and best dear friend are all breast cancer survivors; my mother in law and several friends, weren’t quite so fortunate.
This weekend, when you see this enormous river of pink walk through your neighborhood, stop for a minute. Step outside your house, get out of your car, get up from your Starbucks and cheer them on, if even only for a minute.
To the roughly 4000 ladies (and gentlemen) or so this weekend, Jill and I will be there to cheer you on, for more weddings, more graduations, more life and shouting along with you… WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP!
Walk On people, Walk On!
by Ross Sivertsen | Dec 2, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
http://ping.fm/VpAFz
I’m one of those fortunate people that really likes what they do. I may not always like the place I do it, but I like what I do and I’m very thankful for the ability to do it everyday.
The challenge for me personally is that I work in a highly competitive environment, with a number of, as a co-worker puts it, ‘intellectual alpha males.’ Added to that is that I am responsible for a global IT operation, and my work hours aren’t 9 to 5 most days, I’m on the phone or in meetings with people in 3 different countries at all hours of the day.
So When I read this article in Psychology today (after being referred to it by Lifehacker), it struck a chord in me. I always struggle with the work/life balance idea.
I often feel as though a simply don’t have any medicine for friends and family at the end of the day. So these suggestions are really valued gems that work for me.
1. Exercise – when I don’t get out and exercise I cam definitely tell a difference in my mood. I’m more lethargic, and while it might boost my energy per se, it does give me extra capacity to handle the stress.
2. Maintain social connections – I’m not a big phone talker, but I do try to find ways to interact with friends outside of work even for brief periods during the course of the day. I can get terribly focused on what I’m doing and this helps me remember that I have people who I care about and who care about me outside of work.
3. Stop to smell the roses – I need to do a better job of this, definitely. Many years ago, shortly after my father passed away, I would during the course of my week spend time working from the cemetery where my dad and grandparents are buried. This isn’t as morbid as it sounds, my dad became a real inspiration for me later in life and immediately prior to his death, and spending time ‘with’ him often gave me solace and guidance as I ‘heard his advice’ to me whispered in my ear.
Now, doing activities that get me outside with the people I love, like the Komen 3 day, or the Barnabas weekend retreat with my wife earlier this month help me with keeping my karma level and create a sense of peace inside.
So balance may not be about quitting your job, especially if you love what you do, but is about stopping to take a few minutes to take care of yourself, mind, body and spirit so you can be the best you can. Stephen Covey calls it sharpening the saw. And I couldn’t agree more.
Now, excuse me it’s time for my morning run.
by Ross Sivertsen | Dec 1, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
http://ping.fm/PMSlL
I read this post on on Lifehacker this morning and had a really odd feeling about it. Though I understand the article and at some level acknowledge the point of pruning your ‘friendship tree’ I have a difficult time with it in principle.
Maybe it’s just me and I have have a need to feel as though I have more friends than I do, but I really like following the goings on of the posts from my social feeds even if I don’t have regular face to face contact with everyone.
I’ve been reading Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom by Matthew Fraser and Sumitra Dutta, a study on the use of social media in the enterprise. One of the comments the authors make is the predisposition of the, as they call them Gen V, is the habit of collecting friends on social sites like they were bubble gum trading cards.
Dunbar’s number theorizes the number of social connections a person can maintain at somewhere between 100 and 230 people. From my personal experience I find that to be true. However is see people in my social networks with connections of upward of 400 to 500 people.
Throwing sheep points out, and I’m inclined to believe, that the the Gen V’s are gathering for quantity and not quality. Do you really know all of those people directly or are they friends of friends?
My original point to this post is that I would encourage you to consider this, if you really take the time and are careful about adding people to your social networks, you dramatically minimize the amount of pruning that’s necessary.
I generally keep my business contacts and personal contacts in separate networks (LinkedIn and Facebook respectively).
Adding Twitter in to the mix gives me the chance to add friends and and follow others more dynamically.
In the end, I would say, make sure you are careful, trust and add friends, relationships make the human experience wonderful. But make wonderful because you HAVE the relationships, not because you collect them.
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 27, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
http://ping.fm/DjQxS
OK, so I don't have to go on with the cry over the commercialism of Christmas, and remembering the meaning of the holiday. Enough people make plenty of commentary on that subject. The fact that Charlie Brown was making the same comments 40 years ago (In a Charlie Brown Christmas) is as much of a litmus result to the continuing consumer gluttony that is our culture as anything I could say.
That said my morning reading included a post from Mashable Social Good, and I wanted to pass this along.
One of my favorite quotes "Be the change you want to see in the world.“ Mahatma Ghandi sums up an approach to the holiday season. Here's your chance to be the change.
There are a thousand websites that allow you to make charitable contributions to a variety of charities; some of them are listed in the post. The unique point to this idea is that a couple of them allow you to send e-cards or real gift cards that allow the person to choose their charity.
This is a wonderful way to make an impact on someone, and what a wonderful tradition to set.
I personally have three Non-Profits that are very dear to our family, should you feel compelled to contribute:
The Barnabas Journey:
www.barnabasjourney.org
The Barnabas Journey is a non profit organization that sponsors workshops and life coaching seeking to create an environment of authenticity and honesty, recognizing brokenness and acknowledging pain in order to create community, growth and healing.
National Autism Association of North Texas
Nagla Moussa, President
nagla_alvin@tx.rr.com(972) 964-1669
The NAA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to respond to the most urgent needs of the autism community, providing real help and hope so that all affected can reach their full potential.
The Susan G. Komen Foundation
www.komen.org
Susan G. Komen for the Cure is fighting every minute of every day to finish what we started and achieve our vision of a world without breast cancer.
by Ross Sivertsen | Nov 23, 2010 | Blog, Uncategorized
http://www.good.is
My mamma taught me as a boy to avoid two subjects in social conversation, politics and money.
Generally, I try to avoid these two topics for a number of reasons; one, other people, and certainly the media, do a great job of covering these topics ad nausea; and two, I have plenty of other things to say without beating people over the head with my ideology.
I’m certainly not a radical activist, I care about animals (I love my dog Skipper, he’s the worlds best friend), but I’m not a card carrying member of PETA. I believe that ALL people have rights and a voice, black, white, gay, purple, yellow, Christian, muslim, Taoist, and others; but I’m not a member of the ACLU.
I also believe that social care is only in part the responsibility of the government, but rather it’s a collaboration between, government, people and business (large and small), it takes a village. I have two children with severe disabilities so I have some experience with this.
Ok, I said all of that to say this… I ran across a website and magazine I really like, it’s called GOOD (in caps) and can be found at www.GOOD.is, it seems a little random, kinda like the way BOING BOING started out. The tag line for the site is “For People Who Give a Damn.”
I stumbled across the site during my morning news foraging and rand across an article on posthumously donating intellectual property much like someone would sign an organ donor card on their drivers license. (not that anyone would want the pick up the banner of the half baked ideas rattling around in my head).
But as I started to read through the site it has a number of topics that apperception to be fairly well thought out topics on everything from the history of political opinion in the US to a crowdsourced cookbook (fall edition BTW).
It seems a lite quirky, fairly approachable, and has some interesting topics.
I added it to my morning reading list, take a look, maybe you will too. Give me some feedback and let me know what you think.
