A to Z of Luck : J is for Juggling

I've been posting an A to Z of Luck, and today J is for Juggling.

When I first started juggling training at the Circus Space in London with Jebb the Juggler I was told that there were three rules:

1 - Don't stop till you drop
2 - When you do drop in a passing routine never say sorry. Mistakes are part of the process, every mistake is getting you closer to success. Just pick things up and keep going.
3 - Don't wait till you've perfected a trick to move on - always try something a bit more complex. When you come back to the initial trick you'll find it you can do it with ease.

The benefits of juggling are many. The constant failure forces you to get comfortable with mistakes. It's great for overcoming the crippling perfectionism which stops us taking risks and trying new things. I found juggling helped me to be more relaxed, more resilient, and more creative. And, in one scientific study at the University of Regensburg in Germany, brain scans showed that those who had learned to juggle had increased their brain matter after practising juggling for 3 months.

It's a general principle: the more you try, the luckier you'll get. Juggling is a great way to help you keep trying new things, and to persist. Throwing balls or clubs around can help you toss ideas around too. I love juggling with other people - and it can be a great social pastime, whether or not you're doing it for sport or as a performance.

I decided to use J for juggling today , as we've been planning the timetable for a conference "Speaking Professionally" run by the NSA Christchurch Chapter. I have a 5 minute break-out energiser juggling exercise which I learned in a workshop from the wonderful Denis Paumier. I cannot do 1/100th of the things Denis can do, but this exercise, which involves 1 ball per person to start with, is a lot of fun, and good for the brain and mood.

Information about Rachel Speaking to Lions Clubs

Does your Lions Club need a speaker?

I'm happy to speak to Lions, Lioness and Leo clubs in and around the Christchurch region. I've been doing it for a while now (since I was 19!) and always enjoy it. I can even come in as an emergency speaker if your planned speaker can't make it. If I'm in the area, and free, I can be ready to speak in under an hour.

My past association with Lions includes:
• Speaking at the Ashburton Lions (twice), Ashburton County Lions, and Christchurch Host Lions Clubs tea meetings.
• Speaking at a District 202J convention
• Lions Youth Exchange to Italy in 1990/91
• Young Speechmaker of the Year national finalist
• Both my parents are active Lions club members, former club-presidents and Melvin Jones Fellows, so I know this audience well, and can make sure club members enjoy the experience.

Most recently, I was a judge in the District 202E finals of the Lions Young Speechmaker of the Year, and my report on last year’s national finals was published in the Lion Magazine in December 2007 edition.

I speak and coach on topics around communication, storytelling, and leadership and could speak about one of the following areas (or a similar topic) at your club’s tea meeting or similar event.

• The Prime of Your Life? Happiness and fulfilment at any age. Why girls can do maths, and the little known power of women over 50.

• Stories, Stereotypes and Stigmas – how the stories we tell about ourselves and others limit us, and how we can overcome negative stereotypes.

• Change your subtext: An interactive speech, demonstrating the AARO technique to make you comfortable in any situation and get the best out of yourselves and others.

• What’s your balance? How to find more energy and a better life-balance.How small steps you can take to get big energy gains.

• Top tips for presentations

• Leadership: How to stop it burning you out, how you can get to the end of the year and feel you’ve used your time well.

• Nurturing the Performing Arts in Christchurch – the new Red Theatre project.

I am also an active member of the National Speakers Association of New Zealand (Education Director for the Christchurch Chapter), and have won several speaking competitions through Toastmasters in Christchurch.

If your club needs a speaker - just e-mail me, or if it's short notice ring my mobile 021 0275 9023

Random bullets: three wise men

Random bullets from 3 wise men:

• David Slack is one of the most eloquent writers around. He's a speechwriter, and the brains behind speeches.com. His post on Public Address on how to write a maiden political speech is a classic. Check it out. He starts with the question "Why are you here?" and gets better after that.
  
• My favourite writer Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out in a few days. It's called Outliers and is about people who are exceptional. I can't wait.
  
• Ian Brodie has a post "don't tell 'em what you told 'em..," on his blog, reminding me why the simple formula that works in training won't work if you're doing a keynote speech. I like his point that the purpose of a keynote could be one of 3 things: to make a speech -which is to get one point across to an audience, to entertain, or to educate and train.
  

Beautiful graphs - a maths geek moment.

Sometimes a picture paints not only a thousand words, but a thousand numbers as well. The very best graphs can tell a story.

I remember in my stage two Econometrics class, our Professor David Giles showing us a picture of a truly elegant graph, produced in the pre-computing days, showing Napoleon's advance into Russia, and retreat. From memory it captured the distance travelled, the size of the army and other variables on one sheet.

I found a new cool graph today, at Name Voyager courtesy of a link from the Freakonomics blog.

It's of a baby names graph of the 1000 most popular names in the US from the 1880s onward. You can type in a name, letter by letter, and it instantly graphs the letter combinations over time.

For example, my Mother's name, Judith, peaked hugely in the 40s - I wonder why? Was there a film star? The name means Jewish Woman, and at around the time the name peaked there was a lot of newspaper coverage about the fate of the Jews in Europe. Was there sympathy? Or just that the very sound was heard so much that it triggered an awareness and prompted more naming?

My own name, Rachel, hit a peak in the 70s and 80s. I was surprised to see that there wasn't a mini-bubble following the TV show Friends, but it seems that the name had passed on through by then.

Our shared second name, Mary, was the number one name from 1880s through to the 1950s, and moved into number 2 spot in the 60s before falling sharply away. What's most interesting though, was that in the 1880s more than 30000 names per million were Mary - or more than 3 percent of the total. By the 50s, it was still the most popular name, but now had only 1%, pointing to either a more Multi-cultural America, or an increasing pool of names (and spellings) in use.

Warning: name voyager can be addictive!