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Monday, August 29, 2016

My experience with #TheGoal30

When I read about #TheGoal30 on No Thanks to Cake, I thought it sounded like a great way to step up my game on a few goals. I was really looking forward to making my own list, at least until I started the list.


The first few felt fun. Then I started to struggle to think of non-scale goals. Then I powered through the list, but when I looked at it, I just felt exhausted, not motivated. I'm going with my instinct to just forget it, at least for now.

I'm going through a rough patch, and maybe now is not the time for something like this. My heart wouldn't be in it. I'm starting to feel burned out on self-improvement projects.

I've decided to focus on one goal for September: Extreme Self-Care. I want to get better sleep, work my Weight Watchers plan, and get as much time in the outdoors as possible. Plus . Of course I'll do other things, like work and exercise and spend time with family and friends. 

This challenge was about self-care all along, so I guess I'm going with the spirit of it, even if it doesn't look as good on Instagram.
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Labels: #TheGoal30

Sunday, August 07, 2016

7 Tips for Your First TED Talk

In March, I gave my first (and so far only) TED talk at TEDx WayPublicLibrary. 

I think the talk went pretty well, but I finally got a chance to see the video of my talk, and I have a few tips, in hindsight, that I'd like to share so that your first TED talk is even better.

  1. Wear color. The TEDx background is black. If you wear a black dress like I did, you might look like a floating head and hands. 
  2. Wear something with large pockets. My dress had none, which meant I had to hold the microphone pack in my hand. 
  3. Convince the organizers to light and shoot video from above, rather than below. I don't think the angle in my video was the most flattering -- who looks best shot from under their chin? And the lighting made some weird shadows.
  4. S-l-o-w D-o-w-n. Both my movements and speech were a little too hurried, especially at first. I didn't realize how fast I was talking.
  5. Make the audience laugh early in the talk. I told a joke early on, and it helped me to feel at ease and more connected with the people listening.
  6. Outline your talk ahead of time, but don't script it word-for-word. I think this is one place where I succeeded. I had planned out the points that I wanted to hit and really studied those. I used the images on my slides as a way to remind me of those points. This allowed me to relax and tell my story without the fear that I would ramble on and miss something important.
  7. Be vulnerable. I told a story that was, and is, very painful to me. I had a lot of people tell me that they identified with it and had their own similar experiences. If I had kept things abstract instead of making them personal, I don't think I would have had the same response.

The video of my talk is embedded below. See the other speakers' videos in the .

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Labels: TED
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"Count your calories, work out when you can, and try to be good to yourself. All the rest is bulls**t." -- Jillian Michaels at BlogHer '07